[ed. History of the first golf shot on another planet. Not the longest drive ever recorded which has been estimated to be nearly a million miles, but who wouldn't like to have this honor? Interestingly, both shots were made with a six-iron.]
by Mike McAllister, PGATour
Somewhere in the Colorado home of Laura Shepard Churchley is a collapsible golf club consisting of five aluminum tubes held together with plastic o-rings. Running through the hollow middle is a thin string attached to a small handle. At the bottom is the club head of a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power 6-iron from the early 1970s.
It is a replica of the most famous golf club in American history -- the one Churchley's father, Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, used 40 years ago to hit two golf balls on the moon. (...)
Not to worry. Another replica of the club can be found at the World Golf Hall of Fame museum in St. Augustine, Fla. It sits under a spotlight inside a glass case near the front of the museum's special "Shanks for the Memory" exhibit that pays tribute to one of Admiral Shepard's friends, comedian Bob Hope -- who, as it turns out, was the inspiration for the idea of taking a few swings on the lunar surface.
Unlike Churchley's replica, which was built a decade ago at her request by the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, the Hall of Fame's club is one of three that Shepard himself commissioned in 1971. In a gesture of goodwill, the club was originally given to a space museum in Japan before the Hall of Fame acquired the piece for its permanent collection.
Mark Cubbedge, who has traveled around the world to acquire artifacts and memorabilia for the Hall of Fame, is the museum's collections manager. As such, he has touched -- delicately, to be sure -- every piece the museum owns.
Almost every piece.
"It may be the only thing in the museum I haven't handled," he says, a tone of reverence in his voice.
Other replicas are out there. One is in the Smithsonian. Churchley's two sisters each own one. But where is the real club, the one that Shepard used on Feb. 6, 1971 as he and astronaut Edgar Mitchell wrapped up their lunar stay at Fra Mauro base?
It resides in the Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History at the USGA Museum in Far Hills, N.J. Tucked safely under thick glass walls in a display simply labeled, "The Moon Club," it was donated by Shepard -- at the request of another comedian friend, Bing Crosby -- during a ceremony at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in June, 1974. (...)
"The moon club is the most popular artifact in the museum," museum director Rand Jerris says. "People come just to see the club. But what's fun for me is to see the people who don't know that it's here. When they see it, it's a moment of disbelief. They had no idea the club survived.
"Everybody just loves it. I get more questions asked about the club than any other artifact we have. They crave the information."
So, Jerris was asked, how would he describe the moon club?
"Well," he begins, "it's a funny-looking piece ..."
Read more:
by Mike McAllister, PGATour
Somewhere in the Colorado home of Laura Shepard Churchley is a collapsible golf club consisting of five aluminum tubes held together with plastic o-rings. Running through the hollow middle is a thin string attached to a small handle. At the bottom is the club head of a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power 6-iron from the early 1970s.
It is a replica of the most famous golf club in American history -- the one Churchley's father, Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, used 40 years ago to hit two golf balls on the moon. (...)Not to worry. Another replica of the club can be found at the World Golf Hall of Fame museum in St. Augustine, Fla. It sits under a spotlight inside a glass case near the front of the museum's special "Shanks for the Memory" exhibit that pays tribute to one of Admiral Shepard's friends, comedian Bob Hope -- who, as it turns out, was the inspiration for the idea of taking a few swings on the lunar surface.
Unlike Churchley's replica, which was built a decade ago at her request by the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, the Hall of Fame's club is one of three that Shepard himself commissioned in 1971. In a gesture of goodwill, the club was originally given to a space museum in Japan before the Hall of Fame acquired the piece for its permanent collection.
Mark Cubbedge, who has traveled around the world to acquire artifacts and memorabilia for the Hall of Fame, is the museum's collections manager. As such, he has touched -- delicately, to be sure -- every piece the museum owns.
Almost every piece."It may be the only thing in the museum I haven't handled," he says, a tone of reverence in his voice.
Other replicas are out there. One is in the Smithsonian. Churchley's two sisters each own one. But where is the real club, the one that Shepard used on Feb. 6, 1971 as he and astronaut Edgar Mitchell wrapped up their lunar stay at Fra Mauro base?
It resides in the Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History at the USGA Museum in Far Hills, N.J. Tucked safely under thick glass walls in a display simply labeled, "The Moon Club," it was donated by Shepard -- at the request of another comedian friend, Bing Crosby -- during a ceremony at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in June, 1974. (...)
"The moon club is the most popular artifact in the museum," museum director Rand Jerris says. "People come just to see the club. But what's fun for me is to see the people who don't know that it's here. When they see it, it's a moment of disbelief. They had no idea the club survived.
"Everybody just loves it. I get more questions asked about the club than any other artifact we have. They crave the information."
So, Jerris was asked, how would he describe the moon club?
"Well," he begins, "it's a funny-looking piece ..."
Read more:
