![]() ![]() “Miles and miles and miles,” the jubilant astronaut remarked as the ball sailed out of his view, swallowed by the infinite blackness of space. “That looked like a slice to me Al,” Haise jabbed, but the moon’s first golfer had one more ball left to play.īlowing up plumes of lunar dust, the second shot was struck with a sweeter connection, and Shepard liked what he saw. “In my left hand, I have a little white pellet that’s familiar to millions of Americans … Unfortunately, the suit is so stiff, I can’t do this with two hands, but I’m going to try a little sand-trap shot here.”Īfter two botched efforts, Shepard’s first shot shanked into a nearby crater, much to the joy of Capsule Communicator Fred Haise in Houston. It just so happens to have a genuine six iron on the bottom of it,” Shepard said, speaking directly into the camera. “Houston … you might recognize what I have in my hand as the handle for the contingency sample return. Attaching the modified club head to a tool designed for scooping lunar rock samples, the commander prepared to take on one of the universe’s biggest bunkers – one-handed. It is rumored that only mission director Bob Gilruth knew of the astronaut’s plan, with Shepard gaining Gilruth’s reluctant permission only on the promise that any golfing would be saved for the end of extravehicular activities (EVA), and only if there was time.Īfter nine hours walking the surface and several scientific experiments, Shepard was returning to the lunar module when he saw his chance. The Apollo program cost almost $25 billion – some $246 billion today according to a 2019 analysis by The Planetary Society – bringing a new meaning to the phrase “time is money.” With minutes worth millions, moonwalk schedules were meticulously strategized to ensure maximum efficiency. The resulting creation, a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power 6-iron head, was tucked away in Shepard’s space suit for launch, with a few balls hidden in a sock. Because some 230,000 miles away, Alan Shepard was playing golf on the moon.īeamed back to TV sets on Earth in grainy images, Shepard’s exploits on Apollo 14 – the eighth crewed Apollo mission and only the third to land on the lunar surface – left viewers stunned, including those at mission control in Houston.Īn avid golfer, Shepard had sought out Jack Harden, a club pro at River Oaks Country Club in Texas, to build him a modified club. Nothing out of this world you might say, incorrectly. Larry Costello’s Milwaukee Bucks swept past the San Francisco Warriors in the NBA, the Boston Bruins defeated the Buffalo Sabres to continue an eight-game unbeaten NHL streak, and Arnold Palmer shot 68 to tie for the lead at the Hawaiian Open. February 6, 1971, was a relatively uneventful day for US sports.
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