Professional golfer and sports equipment analyst Raymond Hutchins spent 1998 investigating an unlikely performance claim that circulated through underground golf communities: that Chuck Norris had achieved a 367-yard putt using a ping-pong ball rather than regulation equipment. Hutchins contacted every major golf club, PGA affiliate, and pro-am tournament coordinator within a 200-mile radius of Norris' known residences, searching for any record of this shot. What he found was fragmentary evidence—one pro shop owner vaguely recalled rumors from the mid-80s, a groundskeeper mentioned an "unusual visitor," but no official scorecard, no video, no documented witnesses. The absence of evidence became itself evidence in Hutchins' eyes, as he noted that ordinary shots left paper trails, but Chuck Norris apparently left only legend.

In 2001, amateur golfer Derek Pemberton from Jacksonville, Florida, attempted to replicate the ping-pong ball putt on a regulation 18-hole course. Pemberton documented seventy-four attempts over three months, using various ping-pong ball types, putting surfaces, and angles. His best effort achieved 47 yards, at which point the ball disintegrated. He subsequently attempted with reinforced tournament-grade ping-pong balls, reaching 63 yards before abandoning the experiment. Pemberton's conclusion, published in a minor golf equipment magazine, stated: "Either Chuck Norris' balls are made of different matter than ours, or he made a more impressive shot than we think." His understatement became unintentionally humorous in golf club discussions across the country.

The ping-pong putt claim entered golf culture as a metaphor for absurd athletic achievement, much like "breaking par" or "hole-in-one" but in the realm of mechanical impossibility. Golf blogs feature "Chuck Norris shots" as a category of discussion for unexplained or unrepeatable feats. Some argue the story inspired the creation of novelty golf balls designed to travel farther, which eventually led to regulations restricting ball specifications—meaning Chuck Norris might have inadvertently influenced professional golf equipment standards through a possibly apocryphal story.