By: Travis Puterbaugh, Curator
On November 22, 2006, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin prepared to play golf. This normally would not have been a big deal, but Tyurin found himself a considerable distance from the nearest course. In fact, from his location on the International Space Station (ISS), he orbited approximately 220 miles above the Earth. That didn’t stop Tyurin, however, from venturing outside the ISS to create his own personal driving range.
To commemorate the 35th anniversary of American astronaut Alan Shepard’s two golf shots taken on the lunar surface in 1971, Canadian golf club manufacturer Element 21 enlisted Tyurin to take a shot in space using their patented gold-plated six-iron scandium club. Perhaps not coincidentally, the International Space Station itself was constructed using the same scandium alloy used to create the club.
From outside the space station, Tyurin’s objective would be to hit a special gold Element 21 golf ball, which at three grams weighed 1/15th that of a normal ball, in an attempt to set the record for the longest golf shot in history. Both the club and the ball were coated in gold in order to avoid creating a dangerous spark at impact.
Despite receiving a pre-mission lesson from World Golf Hall of Fame member Carol Mann in the summer of 2006, the cosmonaut suffered the fate of so many golfers down on Earth by slicing his shot to the right.
“He (Tyurin) had never held a golf club before our two-hour lesson at a course near the Johnson Space Center in Houston,” Mann recalls nearly a decade later. “Having learned the limits of his space-walking suit and gloves, a partial waist-high swing was our only option for learning.”
NASA experts calculated that within three days the ball would have traveled close to one million miles before burning up upon entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. It would still be plenty good enough to out-distance Shepard’s best shot on the Moon, which traveled between 200 – 400 yards. Tyurin’s club, along with a replica of the golf ball and an International Space Station Expedition 14 patch, currently reside in the permanent collection of the World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Augustine, Florida.
