Golf on the moon

Filed under: by: golf clubs showcase


The day after the Open winner lifts the claret jug at Turnberry, it will be exactly 40 years to the day that man first set foot on the moon.

But if you're a genuine golf nut, you might have more interest in the 1971 Apollo 14 moon landing than the one made famous by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins two years earlier.

That's because Apollo 14 was the mission where Alan Shepard smuggled a makeshift six-iron on board and lived out the fantasy of playing golf on the moon.

Jaws dropped back on earth when Shepard revealed: "Houston, you might recognize what I have in my hand as the handle for the contingency sample return; it just so happens to have a genuine six iron on the bottom of it. In my left hand, I have a little white pellet that's familiar to millions of Americans. I'll drop it down. 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."

The clip can be seen on YouTube but before you launch the Shepard footage, check out Golf365's special feature celebrating the links between golf and space.

0 comments: