Einstein once said that God doesn’t play dice with the Universe, but Einstein had little to say about anyone playing golf on the Moon. However, Aristotle insisted that the highest human goal is “happiness,” which many associate with golf, maybe even in space. And this brings us to legendary Apollo astronaut Alan B. Shepard. (See New York Times, October 13, 2008.)

Alan Shepard on the Moon in 1971; Click .

Admiral Shepard’s unparalleled national hero credentials were secure in 1961 when he became the first American in space. He’d been chosen from the world’s best test pilots as one of NASA’s original 7 astronauts. But after being kept out of the space flight action through much of the 1960s because of an inner ear ailment (solved by surgery), he wanted to walk on the Moon.

Shepard luckily missed Apollo 13 — the mission that Tom Hanks made even more famous — because he needed more training. His crew wound up on the Apollo 14 trip to Fra Mauro, a spectacular valley about 360 km south of Copernicus crater that’s littered with ancient secrets.

Just before leaving the Moon, Shepard casually produced a 6 iron and a few golf balls and proceeded to become the first human to play golf on the Moon. He liked the idea because in 1/6 g (and no air), the balls will travel more than 6 times farther than on Earth. You can relive the historic moment…

To see Al Shepard play the first golf shot on the Moon, click HERE.

Shepard enjoyed golf, on any world. Towards the end of his life he spent most of his time at his home in Pebble Beach, CA, a golfer’s paradise. He also played pro-ams such as the Bob Hope Classic in Palm Springs, where I accidentally ran into him in the late 1980s. He lamented that “the wheels had come off” his game, but of course it didn’t matter.

Astronaut Shepard was ahead of his time. True space colonization will require us to live, work, and play during our lengthy times in space, and Shepard — in an ebullient lunar moment — wanted to teach us that. Although some considered his golf shots to be unprofessional during a Moon mission, they were actually among the most profoundly human moments of the 20th Century.

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