A man golfing at a Swedish course has told how he was shocked at finding a ball bearing the swastika symbol.
According to Christer Nyström, the symbol on ball that he found at the Arboga Golf Club at the weekend looked like it had been “professionally applied” to a Titleist brand ball.
Nyström, who made the discovery whilst looking for his own ball, told The Local, “We were on the third hole, looking for the ball and I was in the high grass. I found another ball instead and realised it had a swastika on it. I was naturally surprised at first, but then I became quite shocked.”
He added, “The ball is a Titleist – a really professional and expensive ball. The symbol looks as if it’s been professionally done; someone has put a lot of work into this.”
The swastika symbol on the ball appears to be representative of the Nazi variation of the sign. Although used by numerous cultures around the world for centuries, the swastika was first used by the German Nazi party as a symbol of Aryan race in the 1920s, prior to the WWII.
Meanwhile, Titleist spokesperson Calle Thelin said that the ball was indeed made by the company but that it does not produce any such logo prints: “We certainly didn’t print it. Everything that gets printed on a Titleist golf ball in Sweden comes through me – I’d be fired immediately if I allowed something like this through… it definitely has nothing to do with us,” The Local reports.