- Michael Jordan's new
golf course The Grove XXIII is tough on the pros. - Pros have to choose between short drives or risk being in the rough on every hole.
- Rickie Fowler said it's one of the toughest courses he's played.
Michael Jordan's exclusive golf club, The Grove XXIII, has a clever design layout that creates a unique dilemma for visitors, especially professionals, according to Rickie Fowler.
Fowler told Golf.com that Jordan set up the fairways such that long hitters hit their drives into narrower fairways and shorter hitters, like himself, drive into much wider sections. This takes the advantage away from Jordan's professional visitors, as they're faced with the dilemma of either having to hit the ball short or risk being in the rough on every hole.
Fowler spoke during a Golf.com podcast about why pros call the course "Slaughterhouse XXIII" and why MJ has such an advantage.
"The shorter you hit it, the wider it is," Fowler told Golf.com. "He can basically hit driver on all the par 4, par 5s. And if I want to hit driver, I have to kind of put it into a bit of a tighter spot. I can obviously play back if I want, but that becomes a little bit of a disadvantage, especially if it's a hole where he's getting a stroke on."
"The tees and pins are done every day, so the golf course can play as long as you want, but they set the back tees at roughly 7,000 or 7,100 yards, and MJ just plays the back tees."
Jordan opened the club in Hobe Sound, Florida, in fall 2019, and Fowler is just one of the fewer than 100 members to play there. Jordan has reportedly kept the club's membership small on purpose to ensure that it's one of the most exclusive clubs around.
Fellow pro golfer Phil Mickelson accompanies Fowler as the club's two biggest-name members, and Jordan ensured that the courses give him the advantages to compete with the professionals. Fowler even said he has to give Jordan 10 shots just to play from the same spot.
"If I'm giving him a shot, I can't then play from the same spot he is when he's laying zero," Fowler said. "I'm not sure the last time it broke 70, but he can shoot anywhere from 71 to 74.
"If he's shooting 77 and he's got a double in there, I got to shoot 65 to get to 18!"
The fairways are just one of the many intentional challenges designed into the course. Jordan contracted renowned golf course designer Bobby Weed to build the course, which also includes the use of South Florida trade winds to create more random shot complexity.