After returning to Earth, Alan Shepard was asked about his famous Moon golf shot numerous times. During one interview, Shepard estimated that his second golf ball had flown fairly far, stating, "Here it would have gone 30 yards, but because there's no atmosphere there, it went about 200 yards" (via The New York Times). This estimate came from the knowledge that the Moon, in addition to being airless, has only one-sixth the gravity of Earth, which should have caused the ball to fly further than it normally would (via NASA).
Unfortunately for Shepard, his second ball didn't fly quite as far as he had assumed. According to the United States Golf Association, Shepard's two golf balls travelled 24 and 40 yards respectively. While the Moon's decreased gravity may have given Shepard an advantage, the bulkiness of the spacesuit made golfing on the Moon much more difficult than on Earth. During a press conference at the 1974 U.S. Open, Shepard discussed practicing swinging the club in his suit before the mission. "I tried to take a practice swing while I was in quarantine before the mission," he said, "but you can't grip the club with two hands when you're wearing that suit" (via Smithsonian Magazine).
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunCEmG9vcW9frLWmvsRmm6KcXZa5orqMrJ%2BeqJGnsbR5xqijn2WSlrmtv4ylmKecXZaztbHRZp%2BirKSeu6h506GcpmWfo3q1tMRmpKinnmQ%3D