“Houston, while you’re looking that up, you might recognize what I have in my hand is the handle for the contingency sample return; it just so happens to have a genuine 6-iron on the bottom of it. In my left hand, I have a little white pellet that’s familiar to millions of Americans….”
With those words, Apollo 14 commander Alan B. Shepard Jr. announced to the Johnson Space Center and the world listening 238,900 miles below that golf was about to be introduced to the surface of the moon.
On Feb. 6, 1971, after two days of exploring the Fra Mauro crater and collecting rock and soil samples, Shepard revealed that the instrument’s retractable shaft now included a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power 6-iron clubhead, covertly created by Jack Harden, head pro at River Oaks Country Club in Houston. This modified club and two golf balls starred in Shepard’s plan to demonstrate the gravitational and atmospheric differences between the earth and moon using a well-understood activity: a golf shot.
With one-sixth the earth’s gravity and no atmosphere on the moon, the balls Shepard hit would have no drag, would not hook or slice, and would travel farther than a terrestrial golf shot. However, he had a bulky pressurized suit, oxygen tanks, and other gear to contend with. Despite his frequent secret practice sessions in Houston, his initial swings at the first ball prompted lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell to comment, “You got more dirt than ball that time,” and capsule communicator Fred Haise to joke, “That looked like a slice to me, Al,” before he hit the ball as intended. Shepard’s second shot was hit low and clean, soaring for “miles and miles and miles,” as he famously exaggerated on camera. He later estimated the ball traveled about 200 yards.
Though replicas reside with other institutions, Shepard donated the original club to the USGA in 1974. It remains on permanent display in the USGA Golf Museum and is one of the most beloved items in its world-class collection.
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