Boardroom’s Ian Stonebrook swung by Michael Jordan’s private golf course to find out what’s making the Jumpman empire grow and what makes the GOAT tick. Hint: MJ’s just as competitive as ever.
Few places are more marveled at than Grove XXIII: Michael Jordan’s $20 million golf dreamland. Soundtracked by trash talk and scented by cigar smoke, the private golf course features custom carts bending corners at 45 miles per hour, revving up the action among athletes, entertainers, and the executive elite.
“Not everybody here is a celebrity or a billionaire,” Ken Weyand, General Manager of Grove XXIII, says beneath a Space Jam-inspired skylight in the course’s lobby. “Although I think those two things help.”
During its five years of existence, Rory McIlroy, Ken Griffey Jr., and Mark Wahlberg have brought clubs and forgone phones in this gated oasis where spectators and social media were barred from entry. On April 14, media members entered Grove XXIII for the first time, getting exclusive access to MJ’s notoriously private course.
At the same time cameras arrived, so did cranes. Grove XXIII is undergoing a six-month construction project, evolving each fairway for faster play and better footing, informed by PGA pros and approved by Jordan himself. Metaphorically, this expansive makeover is exactly what Jordan Brand aims to achieve in golf’s $9 billion apparel market.
Zagging back to boxy silos while looking ahead to innovation, Jordan’s namesake line is completely reinvesting in golf. The $7 billion brand’s reimagined take on the country club sport is entirely unexpected in approach, placing a high-stakes bet only MJ could pull off.
So, why golf and why now? Boardroom flew to Florida to sit with Jumpman execs and MJ’s Grove XXIII inner circle to find out.
Tee Time
Golf looks entirely different from when MJ launched Jordan Brand and sank “The Last Shot” in 1998. However, MJ’s mindset has not changed at all.
“It’s hard to explain how competitive he is,” Darren May, Head Pro at Grove XXIII, told Boardroom. “He’s very hungry to beat anybody. But a lot of the time? It’s in himself.”
Since meeting Michael in 2012, May has worked with the uber-accomplished competitor on every aspect of his golf game — mental and physical alike — almost as if trainer Tim Grover and psychologist George Mumford were warped in one.
May has spent thousands of hours with Jordan, often in silence, as basketball’s best-to-ever-do-it simulates shots on a driving range that he’ll later hit on his home course, competing against world leaders, PGA pros, longtime friends, or mostly himself.
At Grove XXIII, the likes of May, Weyand, and roughly 100 employees have created a state-of-the-art reservoir aimed at imagining how Jordan would train had he chosen golf as his profession in his 20s. The result is a high-stakes homage to Hoops Chicago — the gym Jay-Z and Beyoncé traveled to watch MJ play prime pick-up basketball at — only retooled for fairway action and built with a billionaire’s budget.
While the lush landscaping, lavish locker rooms, and premium pro shop all mirror what one would expect at the Tiger Woods estate or in a scene from Succession, the GOAT’s lens on golf is rooted in competition but expanded by expression.
“A lot of friends, a lot of music, a lot of cigars, and a little bit of tequila,” Weyland says of the fast play, noting that Mike made the course in part so he could play in groups as large as eight. Whether sonically or stylistically, Jordan has made a point of playing with a reverence for golf’s great history and sophisticated nature while still imagining the Scottish sport through a more vibrant lens.
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Jordan’s futurist approach to play began decades before he had a course to call his own. In 1982, MJ caught the golf bug in Chapel Hill by rounding out a foursome that included Roy Williams, Buzz Peterson, and Davis Love III. At that time, golf was only three years removed from having an African-American participant in the Ryder Cup. In 2024, the National Golf Foundation reported that 25% of the 28 million Americans who golfed were people of color.
By being both non-native to the sport as a child and a Black billionaire as an adult, MJ is a unicorn in golf, arguably more marketable now than the majority of touring pros. For Jordan Brand, this proves a unique opportunity as the game experiences a massive groundswell and cultural shift.
“Golf is experiencing a renaissance,” Sarah Mensah, Jordan Brand President, said at Grove XXIII. “New and different communities are falling in love with this incredibly beautiful game. We believe that Jordan Brand has a unique role to play.”
Over the last 10 years, that role has been an aesthetic advocate for change, transforming revered retro basketball shoes into sought-after spikes. It’s created cultural clout and community in golf, especially for those who have felt historically unwelcome.
Rather than staying the course, Jordan Brand is doubling down on the game’s growth.
The Hole in the Market
Iconic design and signature branding have made retro Jordans more visible across courses than offerings tied to Tiger or Rory. A StockX source told Boardroom that Jordan Brand “dominates” the golf category on their platform, noting “every single one of the top 33 best-selling golf shoes on StockX is a Jordan Brand shoe.”
So why would JB relaunch its entire golf business when business is booming? Simply put, MJ thought he and the gear could both be better.
“There’s an elegance and a quality to it that I don’t think golf has come across lately,” Weyand added. “We need it.”
This means powder blue performance polos led by a tuxedo shirt collar and backed by no-show sweat technology. It’s knit button-downs in dialogue with Dior collaborations yet composed with Dri-FIT fabrication.
According to Mackenzie Sam, Jordan Brand Director of Sport Apparel Product Design, the team envisioned what a luxury fashion house would do in golf if given the North Carolina Tar Heels‘ origin story as its brief. The result is a Tobacco Road tribute on the introductory season of Jordan Golf’s signature line, pushing premium tailoring in Dean Smith shades and cigar hues.
On the ground, Boardroom previewed and got insight into the larger looming apparel rebrand. While MJ has “tons of colors” of his beloved mocks and incognito cargo pants, Season 2 of the signature line dives even deeper into couture textures, luxury palettes, and subtle nods to the brand’s DNA.
Although Mike reaps the benefits today, his alma mater might be the biggest winner. Alex Rice, Lead Product Line Manager of Jordan Sport Mens Apparel, alludes to the North Carolina golf team potentially being on par with Oregon Football when it comes to exclusive apparel and brand partnerships. While Chapel Hill may be at the heart of Jordan Golf’s future and past, Grove XXIII acts as ground zero for testing new products and reimagining the game through MJ’s insight.
“It’s been back and forth going to Florida to work with MJ and his team on ideas,” Sam told Boardroom. “We’re known for footwear, but the future is the standalone look of golf through Jordan.”
Oh yes, the footwear led by the Jordan Air Rev: a $250 strapped spike that’s been eight years in the making.
Already adopted by All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams and inspiring Joe Haden‘s first hole-in-one (which took place on the trip on his birthday, no less), the top-tier golf shoe marks an entirely new direction for the brand, engineered to make a statement on how seriously MJ takes the game.
“Almost in the same likeness as the Air Jordan was made to be the crowned jewel of the brand? We now have a lab here to take this to another level,” Former Jordan Brand Footwear VP and current consultant Gentry Humphrey said. “The Air Rev is the first shoe to allow the world to respect and appreciate how we make each golfer better.”
Tested at Grove XXIII and built at Nike’s Innovation Kitchen, the Jordan Air Rev is as far removed from retro as it gets. Modular Air units tethered to the forefoot and set in a strap offer swing-specific stability, aiming to create the same performance innovation the company was known for when Jordan was winning championships.
All that said, this future-facing approach to redesign appears the same for business. By 2032, golf’s global apparel market is forecast to reach $13 billion. Playing with house money, Jordan Brand’s 2024 revenue of $7 billion tops Callaway, TravisMathew, Titleist, and FootJoy combined.
As a behemoth in a sport without an ubiquitous face, Jordan Brand’s billion-dollar bank account and equity across athletes and the community give them a real chance to take a serious share in golf.
A 15-hour day at Grove XXIII proved that course reconstruction was more than a metaphor. The driving range reserved for John Elway and Rickie Fowler was now occupied by Compton Country Club’s Chris Staples and Beyond the Fairway’s Will Lowery, taking aim at flags while discussing ways to financially support high school golf in inner-city communities. Later that evening, MLB All-Star turned model Dexter Fowler and Hall of Fame pitcher C.C. Sabathia closed the day in MJ fashion by finishing endless rounds of night golf at Atlantic Fields after midnight.
The silent pursuit of perfection while loudly challenging norms is exactly how Michael Jordan has lived his life, and how he’s viewed golf for quite some time. By veering ahead stylistically — and playing with a lead culturally — Jordan Brand has a chance to reshape the look of the modern golfer in more ways than one.
“Taking the game of golf into an entirely new direction is our mandate,” Mensah said.
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