May 1973, Quail Valley Golf tournament
Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard seen during a golf tournament at the Quail Valley golf club. America’s first astronaut Shepard was a very keen golfer since his Mercury days and had the idea to carry an Iron-6 golfclub end to the Moon. This Iron-6 was attached to a long 5-sections geologic sampler stick so Shepard could make two lunar golf Moonshots in the Fra Mauro region.
The NASA golf story is an interesting story, which is slightly touched on in the 2019 movie “Fallen Astronaut” by Dutch filmmaker Frank Herrebout. A little part talks about a golf pro named Danny Lawler who was asked by Deke Slayton to provide some golf lessons to the crews and via Lawler, the astronauts ended up wearing the alligator-logo Lacoste polo.
Untill now it isn’t clear which golf balls were used on the Moon. The brand could be revealed as future Moon explorers will find both golf balls. The makeshift Apollo 14 golf club / geologic sampler went to the U.S.G.A. museum in New Jersey.
Shepard retired from both NASA and the US Navy on July 31, 1974.
Note Alan Shepard wore his favorite Rolex GMT-master 1675 Pepsi pilot watch.
(Photo: UPI)
My collection of dog frisbees & golf balls that I’ve collected from around the wasteland on my walks. I put them in this central location for anyone to pick up & use:
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