THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2021 B3
GOLF
Out of this world: Shepard put golf on the moon 50 years ago
Fifty years later, astronaut holds place in golf history as the only person to hit a shot on the moon
BY DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
F
ifty years later, it remains
the most impressive bun-
ker shot in the history of
golf, mainly because of the lo-
cation.
The moon.
Apollo 14 commander Alan
Shepard and his crew brought
back about 90 pounds of
moon rocks on Feb. 6, 1971.
Left behind were two golf balls
that Shepard, who later de-
scribed the moon’s surface as
“one big sand trap,” hit with a
makeshift 6-iron to become a
footnote in history.
Francis Ouimet put golf on
the front page of American
newspapers by winning the
1913 U.S. Open. Gene Sarazen
put the Masters on the map by
holing a 235-yard shot for an
albatross in the final round of
his 1935 victory.
Shepard outdid them all. He
put golf in outer space.
“He might have put golf on
the moon map,” Jack Nick-
laus said this week. “I thought
it was unique for the game of
golf that Shepard thought so
much about the game that he
would take a golf club to the
moon and hit a shot.”
Shepard became the first
American in space in 1961 as
one of NASA’s seven original
Mercury astronauts. After be-
ing sidelined for years by an
inner ear problem he became
the fifth astronaut to walk on
the moon as Apollo 14 com-
mander.
But he did more than just
walk the moon.
Shepard waited until the
end of the mission before he
surprised American viewers
and all but a few at NASA who
did not know what Shepard
had up his sleeve — or in this
case, up his socks. That’s how
he got the golf gear in space.
“Houston, you might recog-
nize what I have in my hand
as the contingency sample
FINAL NS!
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return; it just so happens to
ing how much the bulk of his
have a genuine 6-iron on the
spacesuit restricted Shepard’s
bottom of it,” Shepard said.
movement. He had even prac-
“In my left hand, I have a little ticed in his spacesuit in a bun-
white pellet that’s familiar to
ker in Houston when no one
millions of Americans.”
was around.
He hit more moon than ball
On occasion of the 50-year
on his first two attempts. The
anniversary, British-based im-
third he later referred to as a
aging specialist Andy Saun-
shank. And he caught the last
ders provided a more accu-
one flush, or as flush as an as-
rate account. Saunders, who
tronaut can hit a golf ball while is working on a book called,
swinging with one
“Apollo Remas-
hand in a pressur-
tered,” worked out
ized spacesuit that “Houston, you
through digital en-
weighs 180 pounds
hancing and stack-
might recognize
(on Earth).
ing techniques of
“We used to say
video footage that
what I have in
it was the longest
the first shot went
my hand as the
shot in the his-
24 yards. The sec-
tory of the world
ond ball went 40
contingency
because it hasn’t
yards.
sample return; it
come down yet,”
Former PGA
famed golf instruc-
champion Jimmy
tor Butch Harmon just so happens
Walker hits a
said with a laugh.
to have a genuine 6-iron about 200
Harmon is
yards on Earth.
6-iron on the
loosely connected
Walker, a space
with the shot
with a
bottom of it. In my enthusiast
through his rela-
skill and passion
left hand, I have a for astrophotogra-
tionship with Jack
Harden Sr., the
phy, worked with
former head pro at little white pellet
the USGA and
River Oaks Coun- that’s familiar
Saunders as the
try Club in Hous-
Apollo 14 anniver-
ton whom Shepard to millions of
sary neared to see
asked to build him Americans.”
how far he could
a 6-iron he could
hit a 6-iron in one-
take to the moon.
sixth gravity of the
— Apollo 14
Harden man-
moon.
commander Alan
aged to attach the
“He was known
Shepard, from the
head of a Wilson
for saying miles
moon
Staff Dyna-Power
and miles,” Walker
6-iron to a collaps-
said. “They took
ible tool used to collect lunar
my launch conditions and said
samples.
my ball would fly 4,600 yards
The shots did come down
and it would have just over a
on the moon. Still up for de-
minute of hang time.”
bate is how far they went.
That would be a little over
“Miles and miles and miles,” 2½ miles.
Shepard said in a light mo-
That also would be a con-
ment that was broadcast in
ventional 6-iron while wearing
color to a captive television au- golf shoes and a sweater vest.
dience watching from nearly
What stands out all these
240,000 miles away.
years later is Shepard even
Not quite. The shot for years thinking about taking a golf
has been estimated at 200
club to the moon and back.
yards, remarkable consider-
The inspiration came from
Up To
Bob Hope, who carried a golf
club just about everywhere
he went. That included a trip
to Manned Spacecraft Center
in Houston a year before the
Apollo 14 mission.
According to USGA his-
torian Michael Trostel, that’s
what made Shepard realize a
golf shot would be the ideal
illustration of the moon’s grav-
itational pull. To build a club,
he found the right person in
Harden at River Oaks.
“He was an incessant tin-
kerer with equipment,” said
Brandel Chamblee, a Golf
Channel analyst and long-
time friend of Harden’s son.
“I would tease Jack and his
father, any club they got had
been ‘Hardenized.’ No club
off the rack was ever good
enough for them. They always
changed the lie, the loft, the
bounce. They used lead tape.
It was apropos he made Shep-
ard’s 6-iron.”
Convincing his superiors
took some doing. In a 1998
interview with NASA, Shep-
ard said he ran his idea by the
director of the Manned Space-
flight Center who told him,
“Absolutely no way.”
Shepard told him a club and
two golf balls wouldn’t cost
the taxpayers anything. And
he would only do it if the en-
tire mission was a complete
success.
Shepard said he told direc-
tor Bob Gilruth, “I will not be
so frivolous. I want to wait un-
til the very end of the mission,
stand in front of the television
camera, whack these golf balls
with this makeshift club, fold it
up, stick it in my pocket, climb
up the ladder, and close the
door, and we’ve gone.”
The actual club is one of the
prize exhibits at the USGA
Museum in New Jersey, which
came with one awkward mo-
ment.
“He donates it at a ceremony
at the 1974 U.S. Open,” Trostel
NASA via AP, file
Apollo 14 astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. conducts an experiment near a
lunar crater using an instrument from a two-wheeled cart carrying var-
ious test tools on Feb. 6, 1971. Shepard and his crew brought back 42
kilograms of moon rocks. Left behind were two golf balls that Shepard,
who later described the moon’s surface as “one big sand trap,” hit with
a makeshift 6-iron to become a footnote in history.
said. “NASA called him later
and said it was looking at the
club for the Smithsonian. He
said he already had donated it
to the USGA Museum. They
said, ‘Mr. Shepard, that’s gov-
ernment property.’ We had
a replica commissioned and
gave it to the Smithsonian Na-
tional Air and Space Museum.”
For years, no one knew what
golf balls he used and Shepard
was determined to avoid any
commercialism. Chamblee
and Harmon unlocked the
mystery this week, and it came
with a twist.
They were range balls from
River Oaks.
50% off
“Within the Hardens, the
legacy is he gave him golf balls
from the range that had ‘Prop-
erty of Jack Harden’ on them,”
Chamblee said.
“Technically — if the balls
aren’t melted — Jack is the
only person who owns prop-
erty on the moon.”
All because of a one-handed
swing by Shepard, still the only
person to hit a golf ball on the
moon.
“It was designed to be a fun
thing,” Shepard said in the
1998 interview, five months
before his death at age 74.
“Fortunately, it is still a fun
thing.”
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