Former NBA teammates Dorell Wright and Dwyane Wade launch a golf business
Dwyane Wade and Dorell Wright were introduced to golf through NBA teammates, but neither had any interest in playing the game at first. Wade thought it was a “waste of time” and didn’t understand teammates who were spending so much time on the course instead of “working on their craft” on the court. Wright went so far as to actively mock those who were playing.
“I used to go out on the course with them and sit in the cart and laugh at them playing golf,” Wright says. “I used to roll around and think that it was just so lame.”
Now the two former Miami Heat teammates look back and laugh about how wrong their first impressions of golf were. Wade would eventually start playing sporadically, finally getting serious about golf during his final NBA season in 2019. Wright followed as one of the many who picked up the sport during the pandemic when there wasn’t much else to do. These days there’s not much else these two buddies would rather do.
“I’ve had a couple of moments this summer where things have happened physically, and all I thought about was, ‘Uh, can I golf?’” Wade says.
Few have had better basketball careers than Wade, a three-time NBA champ and first-ballot hall-of-famer, and there also aren’t too many golfers with a better hole-in-one story. In 2022, a perfect shot by the former shooting guard on Pebble Beach’s signature seventh hole was caught on camera and had him celebrating like he’d won another NBA title. “I might as well get golf tattooed on my body,” Wade wrote on an Instagram post showing his shot. “I’m locked in for life!”
Wade has certainly followed through on that with memberships at Sherwood Country Club in L.A. and North Fork Country Club on Long Island. With a career-low score of 82 this summer, he’s working toward his next goal of breaking 80. In the meantime, the self-taught Wright has played his way to a 5.7 Handicap Index, which means the pecking order has changed between the two from when Wade led the Miami Heat to the 2006 NBA title with a young Wright watching from the bench.
“He is my golf nemesis,” Wade says of the self-taught Wright. “It’s cool, though, because there is a reverse relationship. I used to whoop his ass on the basketball court, and now he’s whipping me out here.”
Both players still exhibit plenty of competitive fire on the course, so they also like teaming up as they used to on the court in Miami.
“When your man is mad, you just gotta give him his space,” Wright says of their on-course partnership. “You know, give him a little tip, ‘Hey, you know, you almost had it,’ or, ‘You just keep your head down,’ you know what I mean? I think a lot of the stuff that we did in our career carries over to golf, so it’s easy to understand guys.”
That importance of working together has long been instilled in both having played together under legendary head coach Pat Riley, who once wrote, “Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers.” Now that teamwork—and love of golf—has extended into the business world, where the two launched ACE Members Only in 2024. After originally starting as an apparel company built on the acronym standing for Ambition, Commitment and Excellence, Wade and Wright have pivoted the joint venture more into the events space, currently anchored around annual golf outings in Miami and Pebble Beach that feature a curated network of executives, athletes, entrepreneurs and entertainers. Brand partners sponsor and integrate into these experiences.
“It’s cool that we got to have that relationship early in our lives, and then now I’m in my mid-40s, he just touched 40, and we’re in this space which is probably the most important space because you really choose your friends and your teammates,” Wade says of working with Wright. “So we’re choosing each other now, and that makes it even better.”
Wright also hosts a weekly L.A.-area outing called the ACE Club, which is a grassroots community initiative with local chapters being built across the U.S. The company has collaborated with lifestyle brand Malbon and has developed relationships with First Tee and Pathway to Progression, the PGA Tour’s player development program. For the latter, Wright mentored a collection of college golfers competing in the Underclass Elite Showcase at TPC Deere Run. A portion of all ACE Members Only proceeds go to the founders’ respective foundations, the Wright Legacy Foundation and the Wade Family Foundation, both of which are helping to fund golf in underrepresented communities.
“We want to make sure we’re connecting with the inner-city kids in our neighborhoods that we grew up in and introduce them to the game,” Wright says. “Just imagine if when we were 7 and 8, and we picked up that basketball that we also picked up a club. That became the vision, and that became what we focused more on.”
‘I used to whip his ass on the basketball court, and now he’s whipping me out here.’ ~Dwyane Wade
While Wade was known as “Flash” for his ability to slash to the basket, he hasn’t been as quick to improve his golf as Wright. Wade blames that in part on his “115 jobs” from being a part-time owner of the Utah Jazz to getting into the wine business to hosting the TV show “The Cube” for three years. All those experiences have grown his circle that he hopes to leverage with ACE Members Only.
“I’m lucky enough to have access to people because they want to get out there with you, whether it’s a business opportunity or whether they think you’re cool, or whether they heard you can golf,” Wade says. “Whatever it is, I get a lot of calls, but I don’t take everybody up on their offers. I’m not that person. I don’t like golfing with everyone.”
Wade and Wright aren’t surprised by the recent boom in celebrity golf—in particular, among NBA players. That includes Wade’s most famous former teammate, LeBron James, who launched his own golf-focused YouTube channel in August. It may have taken these ballers some time to get into the game, but now it’s a vital part of their lives.
“You don’t really have a lot of spaces with other men as you get older, where you can have conversations, you can be present with each other and share things,” Wade says. “Golf became like that place where we would go away and have this time together. I fell in love with the things around golf before I even fell in love with actual golf.”
Wade has been impressed by what another NBA legend, Stephen Curry, has done with his Underrated Golf Tour that gives playing opportunities to young golfers, and he’s confident James will also do more good things in the golf space when he retires. Meanwhile, Wade is focused on building ACE Members Only, but he also dreams of competing with those guys again—in their second sport, of course.
“I would love to be walking up the 18th hole with two shots to win against D. Wright, against Steph, against Bron, like, against the guys that I wanna be good against,” Wade says. “I still want pressure. I wanna be in a pressure situation to win.”
