The incredible true story of the time an astronaut played golf on the moon - CNN

CNN  — 

February 6, 1971, was a comparatively uneventful time for US sports.

Larry Costello’s Milwaukee Bucks swept past the San Francisco Warriors successful the NBA, the Boston Bruins defeated the Buffalo Sabres to proceed an eight-game unbeaten NHL streak, and Arnold Palmer changeable 68 to necktie for the pb astatine the Hawaiian Open.

Nothing retired of this satellite you mightiness say, incorrectly. Because immoderate 230,000 miles away, Alan Shepard was playing golf connected the moon.

Beamed backmost to TV sets connected Earth successful grainy images, Shepard’s exploits connected Apollo 14 – the eighth crewed Apollo ngo and lone the 3rd to onshore connected the lunar aboveground – near viewers stunned, including those astatine ngo power successful Houston.

An avid golfer, Shepard had sought retired Jack Harden, a nine pro astatine River Oaks Country Club successful Texas, to physique him a modified club. The resulting creation, a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power 6-iron head, was tucked distant successful Shepard’s abstraction suit for launch, with a fewer balls hidden successful a sock.

None of this was connected NASA’s inventory. The Apollo programme outgo astir $25 cardinal – immoderate $246 cardinal contiguous according to a 2019 analysis by The Planetary Society – bringing a caller meaning to the operation “time is money.” With minutes worthy millions, moonwalk schedules were meticulously strategized to guarantee maximum efficiency.

It is rumored that lone ngo manager Bob Gilruth knew of the astronaut’s plan, with Shepard gaining Gilruth’s reluctant support lone connected the committedness that immoderate golfing would beryllium saved for the extremity of extravehicular activities (EVA), and lone if determination was time.

After 9 hours walking the aboveground and respective technological experiments, Shepard was returning to the lunar module erstwhile helium saw his chance. Attaching the modified nine caput to a instrumentality designed for scooping lunar stone samples, the commandant prepared to instrumentality connected 1 of the universe’s biggest bunkers – one-handed.

“Houston … you mightiness admit what I person successful my manus arsenic the grip for the contingency illustration return. It conscionable truthful happens to person a genuine six robust connected the bottommost of it,” Shepard said, speaking straight into the camera.

“In my near hand, I person a small achromatic pellet that’s acquainted to millions of Americans … Unfortunately, the suit is truthful stiff, I can’t bash this with 2 hands, but I’m going to effort a small sand-trap changeable here.”

After 2 botched efforts, Shepard’s archetypal changeable shanked into a adjacent crater, overmuch to the joyousness of Capsule Communicator Fred Haise successful Houston.

“That looked similar a portion to maine Al,” Haise jabbed, but the moon’s archetypal golfer had 1 much shot near to play.

Blowing up plumes of lunar dust, the 2nd changeable was struck with a sweeter connection, and Shepard liked what helium saw.

“Miles and miles and miles,” the jubilant astronaut remarked arsenic the shot sailed retired of his view, swallowed by the infinite blackness of space. Needless to say, shot-tracking exertion was unavailable, and truthful Shepard returned to Earth with the whereabouts of his 2nd changeable unknown.

Three years later, successful the Northwest of England, Andy Saunders was born. After graduating from Loughborough University with a grade successful photography, helium carved retired a vocation successful spot renovation.

What does immoderate of that person to bash with an astronaut playing play connected the moon? Almost 50 years on, Saunders would beryllium the antheral to amusement that, actually, the astronaut’s 2nd changeable traveled conscionable 40 yards – astir the magnitude of 2 10-pin bowling lanes.

Saunders did not acceptable retired to rainfall connected Shepard’s parade. Instead, helium began with a nagging tendency to amend a lifelong frustration, expressed neatly successful a 2012 portion in The Atlantic titled “There Are No Good Pictures of Neil Armstrong connected the Moon.”

Because portion Armstrong whitethorn person been the astronaut tasked with taking 1 tiny measurement for man, helium was besides the astronaut connected camera duty. As a result, efficaciously each the iconic astronaut images captured connected the aboveground during Apollo 11 are of Buzz Aldrin.

“If you deliberation successful today’s satellite however perfectly ridiculous that conception is; the archetypal idiosyncratic connected different world, but they lone took 1 camera,” Saunders told CNN.

“They didn’t instrumentality a selfie arsenic we would bash now.”

Using a modern integer enhancement method known arsenic stacking, whereby frames are separated past stacked and consolidated to coax retired much detail, Saunders produced the clearest ever representation of Armstrong connected the moon.

When helium released the representation connected the 50th day of Apollo 11 successful July 2019, it made satellite news. Shortly after, NASA opened entree to a sprawling room of Apollo formation movie – agelong sealed successful a frozen vault astatine Johnson Space Center successful Houston – and Saunders applied his techniques en masse.

Faced with 35,000 inactive photos and much than 10 hours of movie footage, implicit the adjacent 2 years helium enactment his properties vocation connected clasp to walk much than 10,000 hours restoring each and each frame. The effect was “Apollo Remastered,” a publication of Saunders’ favourite 400 stunning images that amusement the abstraction programme successful unprecedented clarity.

The book’s beforehand cover, a changeable of Apollo Nine astronaut Jim McDivitt, is simply a cleanable encapsulation of the water-to-wine magic of Saunder’s restoration techniques. Previously an representation of adjacent full blackness, barring a dim outline of McDivitt’s helmet, it is hard to judge that the illuminated, cinematic representation tin perchance beryllium mined from the original.

Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke described the pictures arsenic an “exact representation” of his memories connected the moon, “the adjacent champion happening to being there.” For Saunders, determination is nary amended appraisal.

“I privation radical to consciousness similar this is arsenic adjacent arsenic they tin get to walking connected the satellite themselves,” helium said.

“You deliberation of the taxable substance for immoderate lensman – you’ve got chap humans doing these incredibly bonzer things successful an bonzer spot against a backdrop that’s virtually otherworldly.

“Every respective 100 images I’m going through, determination is thing of interest, thing of significance, oregon thing that conscionable looks incredible.”

When helium reached Apollo 14, Saunders tasked himself with uncovering Shepard’s elusive 2nd ball. Picking it retired from the original, murky footage – wherever astir everything connected the aboveground resembled tiny rocks – made for an intolerable crippled of interstellar Where’s Waldo, but with Saunders’ array of tricks, helium rapidly recovered his prize.

Working retired however acold the shot had traveled was a small trickier, fixed determination was nary notation for scale. Saunders’ workaround was to superimpose the images onto footage captured from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a outer that orbited the satellite successful 2009.

With nary upwind oregon erosion astatine play, thing had moved; the country was perfectly preserved from 38 years prior, and Saunders had his answer: 40 yards. Some 318 yards shy of the 2022 PGA Tour mean driving distance, adjacent the astir casual golfers would constitute specified an opening changeable disconnected arsenic a disaster.

But casual golfers aren’t playing successful a restrictive, bulky spacesuit and heavy gloves, aren’t swinging a weightless nine successful 1 sixth of Earth’s gravity, hardly capable to spot their feet, and – with the objection of a definite Tik-Tok star – aren’t swinging one-handed.

“He didn’t get preferred lies, helium conscionable dropped the shot – afloat of rocks and footprints and similar an unraked bunker – truthful to adjacent marque contact, I deliberation was beauteous impressive,” Saunders said.

Saunders believed Shepard’s “miles and miles” remark to person been made tongue-in-cheek, an astir instinctive reflex of his hyper-competitive, “fighter-jock” nature. The information that Shepard, who died aged 74 successful 1998, aboriginal lowered his estimation to – a inactive generous – 200 yards would look to enactment this assessment.

And yet, ironically, determination was immoderate innate information beneath the astronaut’s bold claim. By Saunder’s calculations, if famed big-hitter Bryson DeChambeau was capable to replicate his earthbound clubhead velocity astatine a 45-degree space connected the moon, helium would blast his thrust 3.41 miles.

“So actually, funnily enough, that is miles and miles and miles arsenic Shepard said,” Saunders added.

“It is possible, fixed a flexible capable suit … due to the fact that there’s nary aerial resistance, due to the fact that there’s 1 sixth gravity, you could deed it astir the magnitude of a full play course.”

With the motorboat of the Artemis I earlier this month, NASA edged towards a long-awaited instrumentality to the aboveground of the moon, untouched by humans since Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan’s last steps successful December 1972.

Theoretically, it could marque Saunders a millionaire. A 2021 ESPN nonfiction enactment the auction worth of each shot astatine a minimum of $10 million, and Saunders joked that helium would beryllium chasing NASA for his 10% finders interest should they beryllium retrieved.

Though Saunders isn’t readying an aboriginal status conscionable yet. He is contented successful his condemnation that the tract of Shepard’s exploits volition ne'er beryllium disturbed, a content supported by NASA’s main historiographer Brian Odom.

“Maybe 1 time we’ll person colonies connected the satellite and it’s similar Stonehenge – we don’t privation beryllium messing astir successful the Apollo landing sites,” Odom said.

“We privation to marque definite that we dainty these landing sites arsenic nationalist landmarks, marque definite that they’re preserved, marque definite that they’re not contaminated, marque definite that they’re determination successful perpetuity.

“I deliberation they (the balls) are wherever they request to enactment and we request to marque definite they’re preserved arsenic they were.”

The pair’s hopes interaction connected thing that has contributed to the enduring bequest of Shepard’s shots: not their region oregon monetary value, but their quality resonance.

As unusual arsenic it whitethorn seem, by the clip of Apollo 14, Odom explained, the American nationalist had developed a desensitized “been there, done that” cognition towards the abstraction program, and the imaginable of a predominantly subject probe ngo did small to alteration the mood.

That each changed with quality of play connected the moon, adjacent much truthful owed to the antheral wielding the club. As the archetypal American astronaut successful abstraction successful 1961, Second World War navy seasoned Shepard had go a nationalist celebrity, a remedy to the shame of the Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin pipping the US into space.

“People emotion Shepard, they cognize Shepard,” Odom explained.

“It seems similar possibly a batch of radical privation to spot themselves arsenic an Alan Shepard astatine times.

“Folks who knew Shepard, that I’ve talked to – helium had this zest for life. He had this appreciation for doing your occupation but having amusive excessively … those 2 things travel unneurotic successful that infinitesimal connected the satellite erstwhile he’s smacking play balls around.”

History’s longest thrust oregon not, Shepard’s lunar golfing accumulation has captured the imaginativeness for fractional a century, and not conscionable of those funny successful golf.

“We ever speech astir getting to the moon, landing connected the moon, returning backmost to Earth – that’s however we deliberation of the moon,” Odom said.

“But erstwhile it comes to a quality activity, thing that’s done conscionable for the joyousness of being alive, that’s thing that radical tin appreciate.”

Saunders agrees. “A batch of radical cognize that idiosyncratic played play connected the moon,” helium said, “But not a batch of those radical would cognize that it was connected Apollo 14, that determination adjacent was an Apollo 14.

“Those quality moments resonate forever.”