The Grove XXIII

The golf world couldn’t wait to find out more when word got out in 2020 that NBA legend Michael Jordan had opened his own golf course in Florida, less than ten miles from his former club, The Medalist. Called The Grove XXIII (for the number Jordan wore through most of his career), the course seemed exotic and intriguing: a private retreat for Jordan and his buddies (including athletes from other realms), built on a bare bones parcel of agricultural land by Bobby Weed with one of the most technologically advanced practice facilities in the U.S. The design was equally inventive with holes that cross over so they can be played in shorter loops and routing configurations, full of half-par 4s and 5s to stimulate action in the high stake matches constantly being waged. Five years later The Grove XXIII design remains fresh, but the concept of a new course in these parts less so. The neighborhood has exploded with McArthur’s Back Yard by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw just to the east, Apogee Club’s three 18-hole courses down the road, Tom Doak’s Sandglass just beyond that, the new 36-hole development called The Ranch across Highway 76 from Apogee now getting underway and Discovery Land Company’s Atlantic Fields literally outside the doorstep. Hobe Sound is has become ground zero for premium golf development in Florida, but as has been so often the case in his life, Jordan set the standard and did it in a way no one else can replicate.