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Golf on the Moon

Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard hit two golf balls using a modified sample tool, and enhanced images later put the longer shot at about forty yards; miles, he said.

Photo: Apollo 14
Photo: Edgar D. Mitchell / NASA · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN

At a glance

  • First reported by Wikipedia: “Golf on the Moon”.
  • Covered on BBN on Saturday, October 17, 2026, at 9:56 PM ET on BBN Tonight, by Rex "Two-Point" Gridley and Chip Darnell.

The real story

The reporting behind this segment. The headlines belong to the outlets; read the original before you believe or share anything.

What BBN said about it

  1. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorThat can't be real, Rex. Who brings golf to work?

  2. Rex "Two-Point" Gridley · Sports AnchorHe swings! One hand only, because his suit is so stiff he cannot swing with two.

  3. Rex "Two-Point" Gridley · Sports AnchorIt is the ugliest backswing in the history of the sport, and I have watched a lot of benches.

  4. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorOne hand? I could not do that in a spacesuit if I tried.

  5. Rex "Two-Point" Gridley · Sports AnchorHe hits two balls, and the second one, he says, goes miles and miles and miles!

  6. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorMiles?

  7. Rex "Two-Point" Gridley · Sports AnchorMiles! Low gravity, baby!

  8. Rex "Two-Point" Gridley · Sports AnchorThen enhanced images of the landing site came out in twenty twenty-one, and they suggest the first ball went about twenty-four yards and the second about forty.

  9. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorForty yards. That is a real stretch from miles, buddy.

  10. Rex "Two-Point" Gridley · Sports AnchorFolks, this was Apollo Fourteen, astronaut Alan Shepard, on the Moon, in February of nineteen seventy-one, per Wikipedia.

  11. Rex "Two-Point" Gridley · Sports AnchorThe man exaggerated his own distance, on the Moon!

  12. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorForty yards is still better than my Saturday round at the county course, and I have both hands.

  13. Rex "Two-Point" Gridley · Sports AnchorA moon-sized disgrace for the scorecard, Chip, and I want a mulligan for the entire human race.

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From the archive: everything BBN aired on Saturday, October 17, 2026 · the Sports archive · all months