Legendary basketballer Michael Jordan has his own shoe line, his own NBA team and now he owns his own golf course.
Grove XX111 is the spanking new Michael Jordan owned club north of West Palm Beach and just inland from Hobe Sound.
In fact, the area’s newest course is 17 miles from the Bear’s Club in taking the I-95 or 19 miles if you elect to take a more scenic drive up Florida highway 1, and in reaching centre of Hobe Sound turn left at Bridge Road.
Grove XX111 was opened late last year and is a stunning-looking layout built on former grapefruit grove and with Jordan honouring the former land in calling it Grove while XX111, of course, is the Roman numerals for 23 and Jordan’s number during his 15-years with the Chicago Bulls.
Michael Jordan – Owner of NBAs Charlotte Hornets and also Florida’s newest golf course -‘Grove XX111’
‘MJ’ commissioned Bobby Weed to design the course.
Weed, 65 is a former greenkeeper at Amelia Island Plantation and where in the 1970s he first met Pete Dye and his wife, Alice. Dye took him to Hilton Head where they worked on Harbor Town before in 1994 branching out on his own to form the Bobby Weed Golf Design.
The company designed other courses such as Spanish Oaks in Texas, Olde Farm (Orchard Course) at Bristol, Virginia along with Stone Ridge in Minnesota, TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas and the Golf Course at Glen Mills in the town of the same name in Pennsylvania.
Weed’s company has also redesigned the nearby Medallist and the Ocean Course further north at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Country Club. Ponte Vedra is famed as it was due to host the 7th Ryder Cup in November, 1939 but was cancelled due to WW2.
The stunning-looking Grove XX111 course near Hobe Sound in Florida. (Photo – sportsyahoo.com)
The 5th hole at Grove XX111 and showing one of the ‘boundary’ waterways on the course. (Photo – yahoosports.com)
A strong feature of $US 15-20m Grove XX111 is that it boasts seven huge manmade lakes and this all thanks to two deep irrigation channels running down the northern and western boundaries of the golf course. The channels remain in place for watering needs of adjoining citrus groves still in operation.
“It’s been a good project and a lot of fun working with ‘MJ’ as he’s a great guy and got really involved,” said Weed in an interview on his company’s website.
“Everyone knows he’s big into golf and, in fact, he was very attentive in listening to us and really engaged. He’s a real student of the game and loves the game as much as anybody.
“It was a great day for him and a great day for me last October when we played 36-holes and we were done by 3pm.
“It’s a flat piece of property of about 260 acres that was formerly a citrus grove growing grapefruits.
Bobby Weed of Bobby Weed Golf Design
“We transformed it a kind of open, linksy style golf course. You can stand in the clubhouse and pretty much see every golf hole. It just doesn’t feel like it’s in Florida whatsoever.
“There is water on the property but it’s not all in play and with a great variety of holes. It was built as a private club with members only and guest by invitation.
“The thing is that when you build a golf course you need to know and understand who you have built it for and who will be playing the golf course.
“The course has a lot of variety and by all reports, it’s already been pretty well received.
“We also built a pretty impressive driving range and with the clubhouse opened-up a few months ago. The clubhouse if very contemporary and not overly large and knowing also it is a golf club only.”
And in designing Grove XX111, Weed revealed he and his partner travelled north to famed Shinnecock Hills and brought with them to MJ’s course design aspects from their visit to the Long Island gem.
“My partner, Chris Monti and I played Shinnecock and really made a lot of mental notes and fashioned the Grove XX111 from those notes,” said Weed.
At the tips, Grove XX111 will measure well over 7,500-yards.
An artists impression of the Grove XX11 clubhouse that was opened a few months ago ahead of the Coronavirus shutdown.
