Hey, duffers: missing any golf balls?
Here’s a place where you should look.
The diminishing water levels at the Silver Lake Park reservoir have exposed some unexpected, long-hidden sites.
Including an underwater golf ball graveyard.
Dwindling water levels at Silver Lake Park reservoir have revealed a number of errant golf balls from neighboring golf course.Tom Wrobleski/Staten Island Advance
A stroll in the reservoir basin bordering Silver Lake Park Road revealed a host of white golf balls in the waters of the reservoir.
The Silver Lake Golf Course is across Silver Lake Park Road from the area.
That means that some golfers in years past have taken some pretty mighty swings, launching errant golf balls that traveled over the golf course fence, across the park roadway, over the fence surrounding the park and into the drink.
Golf balls were also discovered in the cracks and crevices among large rocks and boulders newly exposed by the dwindling water levels in the reservoir.
And it appears that somebody who has visited the basin area collected some of the errant golf balls and placed them in a neat little pile.
Some of the golf balls that have been newly exposed by dwindling water levels in Silver Lake Park reservoir.Staten Island Advance | Tom Wrobleski
Old beer bottles and cans, bricks, rusted pipes and other debris have also been exposed as the water levels in the reservoir have dropped.
And there have been stranger discoveries as well.
Inside the package was a pistol and set of brass knuckles.
A reader and self-described “gun guy” later emailed the Advance/SILive.com to say that he believed that the gun was a starter pistol.
Pistol and brass knuckles found at Silver Lake Park reservoir.Reader submitted photo
The reader, a former Staten Islander who gave his name as Michael, said that the pistol appears to be an Italian-made RTS Model 1966 .22-caliber starter pistol.
A starter pistol fires blanks to signal the beginning of an athletic event, such as a foot race.
It is thought that the pistol and the brass knuckles could have been used in the commission of a crime and then dumped into the waters of Silver Lake, where they remained hidden until the evaporating water exposed them.
The city Department of Environmental Protection has said that the dwindling water levels in the reservoir are due to drought conditions that have been seen throughout New York state this year.
The DEP has also warned people not to venture into the now-dry reservoir basins as they are not designed for public use and may not be safe.