When naming Alan Shepard Junior is natural to think of his landing in space as part of the "Mercury" program (1961) after which he became the first American to achieve this result . In spacecraft, named Freedom 7 from him, there was only space for one person. The flight lasted about 15 minutes. The astronaut, however, also boasts another record: he is, at the moment, the only man to have played golf on the moon though with little success, in fact, the ball ended its run in a hole. 

After the mission of 1961, Shepard took part in the program "Apollo 14" (1971) along with Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell. They landed on the moon on February 14th. Among the objects that Shepard brought with him, there was a 6 iron (that was the right iron for lunar soil) and some balls: in fact he contacted a local club pro in Houston, who connected the head of a six-iron to the shaft of a piece of rock collecting equipment. Shepard then covered the club with a sock so it wouldn't be discovered before launch. Only a handful of people in NASA knew of Shepard's plan when, after an extended excursion on the lunar surface, he pulled out the club, dropped two balls on the moon and proceeded to play golf, becoming the first golfer interplanetary. Still he holds the record of the longest shot with a 6 iron, for which he obtained the compliments of the R&A, the competent authority for golf in the world, except the United States and Mexico. Shepard eventually donated the club to the USGA Museum in 1974. A replica is in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

The record for the largest number of shoots striked in a hole during a major is of William Steel who, in the first edition of The Open Championship (Prestwick 1860), scored an 21. The absolute record, however, is of an American golfer. In 1912, during the qualifying rounds for the Shawnee Invitational, the lady has succeded to strike 166 shots to complete the 16th hole, a par 3 of 120 meters. Her tee-shot ended up in a river that carried away the ball. Undeterred, with a boat, caught it about 2 kilometers and half away, and from there she played up to put it in the hole ... an hour after striking off the tee.