We’ve all seen the footage of Neil Armstrong taking a whack at a golfball on the moon, but my question is, how far did the ball actually travel? I’ve heard as far as a mile and a half, but that seems impossible. Could that be true?
By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
(July 22, 1998) Somewhere among the craters on the moon, two pieces of history are waiting to be found. Alan Shepard hit the only golf shots in outer space, but he never bothered to find them.
He actually hit two balls on the moon.
The first ball was not struck as purely as Ben Hogan’s 1-iron into the 18th green at Merion in the final round of the 1950 U.S. Open, golf’s most memorable snapshot.
In fact, Shepard’s first out-of-this-world shot resembled more of a duff.
Shepard said later that the first ball landed in a small crater, referring to it as a rather unique hole-in-one. He then played another one and called it a day.
The golf club is on display at the U.S. Golf Association headquarters in Far Hills, N.J.
[note: copyrighted article redacted by manhattan]
[Edited by manhattan on 09-28-2000 at 06:21 PM]
I just realized when I posted this that I think we’re not supposed to post complete articles due to copyright? If so, my bad. It won’t let me edit, oh well.
I always assumed it was Neil Armstrong and that it was on the first trip to the moon. Don’t ask me why. Color me stupid.
Several years back, there was a commercial about how great a certain trash bag was. The commercial had astronauts using the bags to collect space garbage as they orbited the earth.
At the end a golf ball, floated in from the depths of space with “Alan Shepard” printed on it.
Great sig, BF. I used that quote in my yearbook.
Thanks, got it from the Bill Murray flick “Where The Buffalo” roam about the good Doctor.
Neil Armstrong didn’t have much time to do anything as frivolous as hit a golf ball. Apollo 11 was only on the moon for a couple of hours, if I recall correctly.
The later Apollo missions stayed on the moon for several days.
Shepard’s golf club was really just the head from an iron, machined to match the shaft of one of their collection tools. He wouldn’t have been allowed the weight or space to haul an entire golf club to the moon.
[Hijack] BF, regarding your sig line: As a long-time fan of HST, I have to point out, the correct quotation is, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Maybe Bill Murray modified it the movie. But the original is as stated above. That is all. [/Hijack]