Let’s face it, nothing quite strokes the old ego of a golfer more than a long drive. Even further, a long drive that draws ooh’s and aah’s from the people in your group and maybe the groups around you. I can’t tell you how many times I hear phrases such as “Back when I used to play more often, I could drive 320, 325 easy.” Yeah, sure you could. And I put the ball within a foot of the cup every time I hit out of a green side bunker.
No one ever says that they were a great putter. No one ever tells me about their amazing chipping ability. It’s always the long drive, like there’s no other part of a golf game. It’s this exact reason that the idea of Alan Shepard hitting a golf ball on the moon makes me laugh. Really, what would posses an astronaut, who is one of a very select group of people to ever have the opportunity to walk on the moon, to sneak the head of 6-iron in his space suit in order to modify another piece of equipment to create a golf club?! I’ll tell you what…his ego needed stroking.
Answer this question. Where on earth could you, or anyone for that matter, hit a 6-iron over 400 yards. The answer is nowhere. Alan Shepard knew that, and he also knew where it could be done. A place where very few would ever have the opportunity to hit a golf ball – the moon. So in need of an ego-stroking, Alan Shepard sneaks a modified six-iron and a couple of golf balls on his trip to the moon. And the results? See it here:
As if Mr. Shepard isn’t rubbing it in our faces enough that he gets to play golf while he’s working, he has to throw that little comment in at the end. Three little words…”Miles and miles.” How do we know for sure? He chunked his first shot, and we can only see about seven or eight feet in front of him. For all we know, that ball went about ten feet and duck-hooked into a mound of lunar dirt. Either that, or it hit the wall of the airplane hangar in which they were staging the landing to begin with. But that’s another story.
Not only that, but being that the ball is off camera and due to the previously mentioned three little words, we as viewers are left with the image of a ball traveling an infinite distance into the dark nothingness that is space. But in reality, the ball supposedly landed about 430 yards away. See, on the moon, a golf ball may only weigh about a quarter of an ounce, but it still weighs something. So it’s going to land eventually. The “miles and miles” comment? Just a little fluff for the camera.
So if you really need to give your golf ego a boost, you may want to see what you can do about getting yourself into space camp. Otherwise, unless you can easily hit a ball 500-plus with your driver, you’ll never even approach 400 with your six. And no, I won’t believe you if you told me you could when you played more often.
Swing ’til you’re happy!