50th Anniversary Of The Golf Shot On The Moon

50th Anniversary Of The Golf Shot On The Moon

On February 6, 1971, Alan Shepherd took One Small Swing for golfers everywhere when he hit a Spalding ball with a Macgyvered 6 iron on the moon. The clubhead was a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power rigged to attach to a collapsible sample collection tool.

In his bulky suit, Shepherd took four one handed swings. The last, he hit squarely, sending the ball an estimated 40 yards. You can read the story of how that was determined using still photos on the BBC.

Shepherd hit pretty much the greatest bunker shot in history.

I watched the events unfold live and growing up knew several people who worked at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. We lived just outside Joint Base Andrews and many of my friends’ fathers were pilots. It was an exciting time.

The last moon landing was in 1972 with Apollo 17. It seems unlikely that the United States will return to the moon in my lifetime. My younger self would have found that incomprehensible.