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Quick Round # 4 The Story and The Rules
Your 4-minute golf digest
🚀 Throwback Thursday: Lunar Golf! 🌕
Miles and Miles
For this week’s Throwback Thursday, we’re taking a giant leap into golf history—one that actually happened on the Moon.
It was February 6, 1971, during NASA’s Apollo 14 mission, when astronaut Alan Shepard, commander of the mission and an avid golfer, smuggled a little piece of Earth into space: a modified six-iron clubhead. He attached it to a sample collection tool, and with two golf balls tucked into his kit, he prepared to do something no human had ever done—tee off on the lunar surface.
Picture this: Shepard standing on the Moon in a stiff, pressurized spacesuit, limited to swinging with just one hand. He dropped the first ball and gave it a whack. The result? A shank. Space golfers—they're just like us.
But his second attempt was better. Much better. The ball soared through the Moon’s low-gravity atmosphere. Without air resistance and with just one-sixth of Earth’s gravity, the ball floated far and slow—reportedly about 40 yards, though Shepard joked it went “miles and miles and miles.”
This moment wasn’t just a playful gesture—it was a symbol of human imagination, blending sport, science, and a little swagger in the final frontier. In fact, that iconic swing has inspired golfers and dreamers alike for generations.
Fun fact: The clubhead and one of the balls are still up there on the Moon. The other ball? It’s back on Earth and housed at the USGA Museum in New Jersey, forever preserving a surreal chapter of golf lore.
Beyond The Scorecard:
Walter Hagen claimed that British golfers played too "safe," and became the first American-born golfer to win the British Open. During the 1920s, Hagen made more money annually than Babe Ruth, who at the time was making more than the president.
When Bobby Locke traveled to the United States for the first time, he slept with his putter, which he called his magic wand. Locke once went 20 years without losing a 72-hole match in South Africa.
Byron Nelson used an unorthodox putting style where he gripped the club with his right hand below his left hand. He won 18 tournaments in the 1945 calendar year, a record that still stands today.
📏 Rules Quickie: What’s a Provisional Ball?
Lost your ball off the tee and not sure if it's out of bounds? You don’t need to trudge all the way forward and back again. Enter: the provisional ball. It’s your time-saver.
Here’s how it works:
Declare you're hitting a provisional before you do.
Hit from the same spot as your original shot.
If you find your original ball in play, use it. If not, the provisional becomes the ball in play—with a one-stroke penalty.
This rule keeps the pace up and your frustration down.
And that wraps up your Fore Minutes Quick Round for today.
We hope you enjoyed our journey from the Moon's fairway to mastering the provisional rule on Earth's courses.
Thanks for reading!
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We’re off golfing Friday through Sunday — back on the tee Monday with Quick Round #5!
Happy golfing,
The Fore Minutes Team
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