Professional athletes are known to have big egos – mostly rather fragile egos, but big egos nonetheless.
No matter what game they’re playing, and no matter how talented they are at it, they will always do whatever it takes to win.
Which is exactly why this legendary athlete has built a golf course that gives him a clear advantage over professional golfers.
Out all of the greatest athletes of all-time, few had as fierce of a competitive drive as Michael Jordan.
Much the same, few humans on planet earth love to gamble as much as Jordan.
The stories of both his competitiveness and gambling exploits are the stuff of legend.
With his basketball days long behind him, Jordan now mainly turns to golf to satisfy his urge for competition and gambling.
And as any billionaire who loves golf has a tendency to do, Michael Jordan has built his own golf course.
Only his course isn’t a normal golf course – it’s apparently built for the soul purpose of allowing Jordan to have the upper hand when he plays a round with professional golfers.
According to pro golfer Rickie Fowler, Jordan purposely designed the course to ensure that people who can hit the ball further, like professionals, have to manage tighter fairways and weigh whether to hit it shorter, or end up in the rough.
Conversely, for shorter hitters like Jordan, the fairways are much wider, giving them an opportunity to almost always have a good lie.
“The shorter you hit it, the wider it is,” Fowler told Golf.com. “[Jordan] can basically hit driver on all the par fours, par fives. 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,” Fowler continued. “If I’m giving him a shot, I can’t then play from the same spot he is when he’s laying zero.”
“I’m not sure the last time he broke 70, but he can shoot anywhere from 71 to 74,” Fowler concluded. “If he’s shooting 77 and he’s got a double in there, I got to shoot 65 to get to 18!”
Jordan’s new The Grove XXIII is so brutal on professional golfers, and forgiving to players of Jordan’s caliber, that the pros have actually nicknamed the course “Slaughterhouse XXIII.”
Quite frankly, it is a rather genius move for Michael Jordan to design a golf course that essentially ensures he always has the upper hand.
He is Michael Jordan after all, so he can’t possibly be seen losing on his own golf course.
Essentially with Jordan’s The Grove XXIII, he has built a casino where he can bring all his friends to place some friendly wagers on their match, and of course, the house always wins.
You have to tip your cap to that kind of shrewd strategy on the part of Michael Jordan.
Sure, God gifted him with exceptional athletic ability, but it’s this exact type of next level thinking that made him one of the greatest athletes of all-time.
Sports with Balls will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
