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On Monday, 2K Sports announced the release of its newest PGA Tour video game, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2K23. For the first time in the new game, players will be able to compete as (and against) real-life PGA Tour pros and celebrities, including arguably the only athlete more famous than the game’s namesake: Michael Jordan.

According to the release, those who preorder the new game will receive a “Michael Jordan bonus pack” including access to the six-time NBA Champ’s digital golf persona. Those who preorder will also include access to the full game upon its release and a “Golden Club Pack,” among other perks.

The announcement marks the first release of a golf video game in more than two years, and the second iteration of the game under the agreement between the PGA Tour and 2K Sports. Woods remained absent from the first edition of the game, 2K21 (which featured Justin Thomas on the cover), but announced his commitment to the series earlier in 2022.

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The addition of “playable pros” is a significant one for golf fans, many of whom were frustrated by the first iteration’s gameplay features that restricted players from competing as pros, and only allowed user-generated players to compete against PGA Tour players. In the new game, a crew of 14 pro golfers — including Will Zalatoris, Collin Morikawa and Lexi Thompson — will be available for player usage. The number of pro golfers included in the new game is expected to expand upon release, and all players will be featured in 2K’s “MyCareer” mode, which simulates the life of a PGA Tour pro.

The new game also features a significant expansion of golf courses, including The Renaissance Club and last year’s Open Championship host, St. George’s, in addition to 2K’s uber-popular Course Designer mode, which allows fans to design their own courses on the game’s interface and upload them to the cloud, where they can be shared and downloaded by other players.

The new game will be officially available for download on Oct. 14, 2022, though fans can preorder the game here.

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The golfer, Joel Hirsch, has played in 38 USGA events, but that doesn’t mean he got much TV time. The course we played, at the Palm Beach Country Club, is a behind-the-hedge Donald Ross classic, a compact one on 80 gently heaving acres beside the Atlantic Ocean. Its sweeping third green, at the top of a modest hill, is so gorgeous you can get a little emotional, walking across it. (Would it be so hard to build a green like that today?) You don’t see PBCC on top-100 lists, and the members don’t seem to care. Or Joel doesn’t. The Palm Beach Country Club — the course and the driving range — is his winter home, almost literally. The rest of the year, he lives and plays in Chicago.

“We’ll play one step ahead of the back of each tee box,” Joel said on the first tee. That gets the course, a par 70, to 6,001 yards. Something like that. Not that it matters.

Hirsch — a retired insurance man with a head for numbers — did the first-tee math and gave me five a side. We played for $5. He’s played for more. He’s played for less. He’s played better golfers. He’s likely played worse. I had one thing going for me: no pace-of-play issues. We didn’t have to use the phrase “ready golf.” 

Travel

Hirsch is 80, trim and flexible, and he walks with purpose. Walking 18 is nothing for him. He works out daily. So does his wife, Cynthia. They have had a condo in Palm Beach for decades.

When I met Joel Hirsch, he was 56. That was in 1998 and Hirsch was on top of his game, in every way. The late Tim Rosaforte, once my Sports Illustrated colleague, got us together, at the Palm Beach Country Club. Last month, at a memorial service for Tim at a mega church in South Florida, Joel was there, sitting in the back row. Hirsch knew, or knew of, some of the other golfers there, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Andy North and Mike Donald among them, but Hirsch didn’t go around saying hello. That’s just not him. He was there for Tim’s family.

In general, Hirsch is not somebody who needs a lot of people around. That makes him like a lot of good golfers. Arnold Palmer liked to have a crowd around him, but Ben Hogan didn’t. Nicklaus, Mickey Wright, Lee Trevino, Curtis Strange, Annika Sorenstam, Tiger Woods, the same. Hirsch has played thousands of rounds by himself. Of course, he’s played many more rounds in twosomes and threesomes and foursomes. Plus, the occasional fivesome.

Once, at a U.S. Senior Open, Hirsch played a practice round with Nicklaus and Palmer. The amateur golfer O. Gordon Brewer, a former Pine Valley Golf Club president whose son is the president of Callaway, was also in the group. As amateur golfers, Brewer is to Philadelphia what Hirsch is to Chicago. That is, at the peak of their powers there were few in their cities who could beat them.

That’s a whole thing. Golf has leagues on top of leagues on top of leagues. The club champ at your club has a certain level of golfing status, of course. Hirsch was not one to play in club championships. He didn’t think it was fair, as he played so much national competitive golf and spent so much time working on his game. He wasn’t, of course, a pro. But he wasn’t just another good weekend club golfer, either. He had plenty of events to play in. Give other people a chance.

“Pros against the ams,” Palmer said on the first tee, on that practice round at the 1998 U.S. Senior Open at Riviera, Nicklaus and Brewer and Hirsch within earshot. At the end of the round, Hirsch was never happier to part with $100. He’s played for more money. He has not played a more accomplished better-ball team. You may know that Nicklaus and Palmer won the 1967 World Cup by 13 shots. No shame, for Hirsch and Brewer, to lose to those two.

“Palmer was a great guy and a friend,” Hirsch said. “Maybe not a friend. But more than an acquaintance.” He likes precision. “You could play $100 seven-ways with Arnold, automatic two-downs and all the rest, and he could keep it all in his head. If, at the end of the day, he said, ‘You owe me six,’ you owed him six.” Six hundred. If you know something about Arnold, you know he didn’t play for crazy sums. He worked too hard for his money and liked it too much.

If you know something about golf in Chicago, you know about Hirsch. (Luke Donald, a former Northwestern golfer, and Michael Jordan, former Chicago Bulls basketball player, can both tell you all about Hirsch’s game.) He has lived in and around Chicago since he was 11. He played as a freshman under Dave Williams at the University of Houston, realized after one year he was not going to make a living as a professional golfer and took his golf talent, and his math gene, to the University of Illinois. A writer at the The Trib once wrote of him, “He majored in finance and minored in golf.” The Chicago Tribune knew how to cover golf, and it needed to. Along with Philadelphia and New York, Chicago is one of the three great golfing meccas in the United States.

Features

Discuss amongst yourselves. My sources are Ben Crenshaw, the original Robert Trent Jones and the inimitable Herbert Warren Wind. 

Hirsch was the Chicago District Golf Association’s Golfer of the Year in 1993 and ’94. In other words, in his 50s, he was very, very good. He won one British Senior Amateur in 1996 and another in 2000. In 1999 — at age 58! — he qualified for the Western Open in a Monday four-spotter. Yep, the real deal.

“Hey, Joel,” Tiger Woods said to Hirsch at that ’99 Western Open, then held at Cog Hill. They were passing each other in the press tent. Previously, they had played practice rounds together at U.S. Ams. During that week, the week of the ’99 Western Open, Hirsch and Woods and Jordan played Medinah, where the PGA Championship would be held in six weeks. Woods won that ’99 Western at Cog Hill. Six weeks later, he won the ‘99 PGA at Medinah, too. Now Woods is trying to fix-up two public courses in Chicago, Jackson Park and South Shore.

Until the other day, it had been 24 years since I had seen Mr. Hirsch. Fifty-six to 80, of course, changes a man. I arrived on the practice tee at the Palm Beach Country Club (not be confused with the super-fun and public Palm Beach Par-3 course or the excellent Jack Nicklaus public course in North Palm Beach) and there he was, on the far end of the range, which doubles as the 10th fairway. He looked leaner and tougher than he did the last time I had seen him. Hungrier. Now he resembles the actor Christopher Walken. It’s Hirsch’s hair, lean face, knowing eyes. Kind of his manner, too. In conversation, Hirsch gets things down to their essence.

He was wearing white shoes, khaki tech-fabric shorts with no belt, a long-sleeved white shirt, a white bucket hat. He seldom takes a practice swing. I exaggerate nothing when I say Joel hit his tee shot off the first, with a driver, 260 yards. Yes, it was downwind on a firm fairway, but the shot was also up in the air, caught on the face, and it had about three yards of draw. His swing is long, limber and rhythmic. His left arm does not straighten, a function of a mild case of childhood polio.

Hirsch has a wide stance. (He is mostly self-taught, but one of his teachers, Ed Oldfield Sr., preached wide stances. See: King, Betsy.) Hirsch seems to always know how he wants to play the shot, pausing briefly now and again to consider the wind or the lie. His golf was a clinic and his longtime PBCC caddie, Zak Haas, showed not even a hint of surprise at the quality of his shots. Zak has seen Hirsch hit a million of ‘em.

I’m not saying that Hirsch is at the Trevino level. I mean, that would be crazy talk. But his golf is excellent.

He putts with a normal-length putter and uses a self-taught claw grip. He shot 34 going out. He wanted to know how I found my way to golf. (We talked, except when we didn’t.) Hirsch came to golf by way of the caddie yard. Chicago and caddies. It’s a real thing. (See: the Murray brothers.) I made a 4-for-3 on the short par-4 home hole, to Joel’s par, and we headed into the locker room, our most excellent round done, all square. Five a side. He knew. 

Joel hasn’t played competitive golf in years, but he’s thinking about getting back into it. He’s already played in a couple Florida State Golf Association events this year, at Donald Ross public courses in north Florida, in the 75-and-older division, courses so sound, Joel said, “you could play them every day for the rest of your life and never get tired of them.” (One in Ocala, another in Palatka. He is not, at all, a golf snob.) Hirsch said his golf was OK, but not where he wants it to be, and he didn’t contend in either event. It was all sort of last-minute.

When the Hampton Inn in Palatka had no rooms, he and Cynthia found an old-timey bed-and-breakfast in a converted mansion. The proprietor, also 80, helped Joel bring his bags, not light, up the steps and to their room. There was no grunting.

Joel took inspiration from the gent.

We know how that goes.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

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But the moment came late that round. I squared up a 5-wood, it started low, shot slowly up, up and up and then parachuted slowly down, down, down. It tingled, and while those who aren’t in the know may laugh, those who are will smile. And, man, I wanted to come back and see if I could do that again. 

And I have. Like I did this summer, when late during a round, after talk of football, baseball and basketball with a playing partner, I responded with something like I wrote above when he asked me the following:   

What was your falling-for-golf moment? 

Good one, right? And while I had my answer, I wondered about others’, thinking that, like the golf swing, no two responses would be exactly the same, and that, also like the golf swing, answers would be both simple and intricate. So I asked around. Coincidentally, it was even raised at press conferences this year. 

Below is what I gathered, from Rory, MJ, the person who originally asked me the question — and even my 13-year-old nephew. Maybe it will get you thinking of yours. (And if you’re willing, I’d love to hear it — you can email me at nick.piastowski@golf.com, or give me a shout on Twitter at @nickpia.) Maybe it will get you wanting to come back for more. With that, enjoy!  

What was your falling-for-golf moment, Josh Sens (senior writer, GOLF.com)?  

I grew up about a mile from Francis Ouimet’s childhood home, but I didn’t play golf as a kid. I thought it was a dumb game, to the extent that I thought about it at all. The pivotal moment came when a friend and I were riding bikes around town and wound up passing The Country Club, where Ouimet famously won the U.S. Open. It was not exactly known as an inclusive place. My friend started going on about exactly that, about how exclusive it was, how there was no way we could ever play there, even if we wanted to. Naturally, like any kid told that he’s not allowed to do something, I suddenly decided that golf was what I wanted to do. Or at least try once.

My friend was right. The Country Club was not an option. But right next door to it, separated by a chain-link fence, was a municipal course called Putterham Meadows (nowadays, it goes by a different name). As students at the local public high school, we could play it for $2, it turned out. And so off we went, sharing clubs out of a bag my friend had found gathering dust in his family’s garage.

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The round is pretty much a blur to me now. But I remember two things. One was that on the first tee, as my friend and I took turns whiffing and shanking, a twosome of gray-haired guys came up behind us and said, ‘You guys mind if two actual golfers play through?’ The other was that I barely got a ball airborne until we got to the 12th hole, a short par-3 where, by some fluke of physics, I caught one flush. You can probably see where this is headed. Like countless beginners before and after me, I watched that first good shot arc through the air, bound onto the green and roll up close to the cup. Every golfer knows that magic feeling. I was hooked.

What was your falling-for-golf moment, Jessica Marksbury (GOLF multimedia editor)?

I can’t remember exactly when I fell for golf, per se, because I don’t have a memory of a time in my life when I didn’t play golf. But I distinctly remember a transformative moment in my junior career when I discovered the magic of birdies, and when shooting a good score became suddenly possible — even after a bad start.

I was playing a SCGA tournament at my local course, and things were not going well from the get-go. I remember it was rainy, and early on, I stepped into a huge puddle, leaving my entire shoe soggy for the duration of the round. Also, while lining up a putt, I actually tumbled backward into a greenside bunker. Yeah. Not my day. To top it off, I had started with a couple of inauspicious bogeys and doubles. I was less than a third of the way into the round, and mentally, I was pretty much done. But with nothing to do but play on, I somehow relaxed, stopped thinking about my score and just started playing golf. 

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I strung together a series of pars, and I even sprinkled a couple of birdies in there. By the end of the round, I realized I’d played a stretch of 12 holes in one-under par. While I don’t remember exactly what I shot that day, I know my final score was a respectable one — something I didn’t think was possible a few holes in.

That round represented something of an epiphany for me. It was the first time I had ever dug myself out of a bad start — the first time I had ever proven to myself that it was possible, and it gave me a whole new frame of mind for the game from that day onward.

What was your falling-for-golf moment, Michael Chupka (director of communications, Bandon Dunes — and the person who asked me the question)?

Tough to pinpoint one moment. I feel like I’ve had many of them, most often in moments when the game has introduced me to a new experience or feeling. Moments like feeling a flush strike for the first time, shooting a strived-for score, feeling a part of a team during high school and college competition, and being introduced to links golf for the first time after traveling to Bandon. 

What was your falling-for-golf moment, Michael Jordan? (His answer came during a Golf Channel interview with Steph Curry during this year’s Ryder Cup.)

I kind of got into golf mainly because, from a competitive standpoint, to me, it is the hardest game to play. I can always respond to an opponent, a defensive guy, an offensive guy, whatever, but in golf, it’s like playing in a mirror. And you’re battling yourself consistently to try to get perfection. Every swing, every putt. For a competitive person like me, this is what keeps me sane, you know, because when I walk away from the game of basketball, you know, that was enough to keep my competitive juices working. Now when I don’t have that game, this game, and it even drives me crazy then. Now I go fishing in between my golf because I got to show patience in fishing that’s going to be relative to golf. 

What was your falling-for-golf moment, Patrick Cantlay? (He was asked during this year’s BMW Championship.)

Cantlay: I don’t remember a time when I didn’t play golf. My parents got me into it very young. I’d say once I could really start to drive, like once I got to high school, a year or two into high school, I fell in love with it, just being able to go to the golf course after school. I remember being able to drive was a big deal because I wasn’t dependent on somebody else to get me to go practice.

Reporter: I’m thinking drive off the tee …

Features

Cantlay: Yeah, actually get to the golf course. I’d say definitely in high school. We had a great high school golf team, and it was really fun. That’s when I really started to take it more seriously.

Reporter: What kept you going in the years before high school when you maybe weren’t as in love with the game?

Cantlay: I just remember I liked other sports better. I liked the team aspect, and I liked — I remember golf feeling boring because you’d go to the golf course and you’d be at the golf course for three, four, five, six hours and you’d be by yourself. I remember once getting to high school and having lots of guys around that I was playing with — that made it more fun. It made it easier to hang out at the golf course longer.

What was your falling-for-golf moment, Rory McIlroy? (He was also asked during this year’s BMW Championship.)

It was probably too long ago. I was sort of hooked from a very young age. I always remember like growing up in Northern Ireland that the PGA Tour golf was on at nighttime, so I remember always going to bed after watching on a Saturday and Sunday like so inspired, watching my idols, watching the people I looked up to, going to bed on that Sunday night so inspired to go out the next day and practice or try to get better.

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But that was from a real early age.

Yeah, I mean, I would say — from what I can remember, 7, 8, 9 years old. I remember Tiger winning the U.S. Amateur. I remember watching that. Even before he turned pro, I was loving watching that and playing and practicing and trying to get better.

What was your falling-for-golf moment, Mason Kufahl? (Mason is my 13-year-old nephew and the future of the game, in my humble opinion. And below are his thoughts in his own writing.)

Golf is an interesting sport — you hit a ball into a cup with sticks that are bent on the end. Sounds weird, right? Well, not for me. I play baseball, so I like to hit things with ‘sticks,’ and golf, when you think about it, is a calmer baseball — and I really like that. 

Instruction

I remember playing at Hansen Park [in Milwaukee], throwing fits when I couldn’t chip on the green perfectly (I still do that) and playing with my little, short blue clubs I had. But this is my first year taking golf “seriously,” and I’ve really really enjoyed it. Sure, I might not always play at the best courses, but I played at a few nice ones. I might’ve not played the best, either, but it still was an amazing experience, and I’m glad I did it. 

I can’t pinpoint my falling-for-golf moment exactly, but I have to say it’s the time when I was able to hit the ball in the fairway consistently and not have to drop the ball near the green or on the fairway every single hit. It was just so boring. But now that I’m actually OK at golf, it’s super fun.

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Let’s start with your interest in golf. When did you start taking the game seriously?

I started when I was 33, when I left the Bulls in 1998. I’d just had a second back surgery and I was wondering if I’d ever get to play. I had a five-year contract at that time and I was living in Houston on a golf course, so that made me want to play every day. And I just fell in love with it.

What in particular did you fall in love with?

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I just love the competitive side of it. It’s a tough game. You’re playing against the course. It was just the kind of challenge I needed going into the next stage of my life.

There’s a story that in your rookie season with the Bulls, Jordan bought you a set of golf clubs with the ulterior motive of getting you out on the course so he could take your money.

That is all true. And he’s lucky that I had a bad back my rookie year. I would have beat him at golf, too. But we’ve never played a round of golf together.

You vs. Jordan on the golf course today, who wins?

Oh, I don’t know. My game is not all that right now.

Do you keep track of your handicap?

Yeah, I play to about a 10.

I was expecting a higher number when you said your game was not all that.

I can get it higher if you want. [Laughs]

Ever make a hole in one?

Yeah, I actually have two on my résumé. The first one didn’t even hit the green. I hit the side of a bunker and it bounced off and started rolling and dropped right in the cup.

I have to imagine it feels like sinking a buzzer beater in basketball?

That’s exactly what it’s like. Hitting the winning shot.

Shifting gears to your memoir, which has been making headlines for your speaking out about your strained relationship with Jordan. Why did you decide to come out and talk about it now?

Why not now? I’ve never told my side of the story.

People always thought of you and Michael as inseparable — on the court and off. But apparently that wasn’t the case.

I think my relationship with him was great on the basketball court. And we’ve been off the court now together for 23 years. And it was good up until the documentary came out. And I think he decided to do a documentary, and he did it on his own, and I think that showed that our relationship wasn’t as strong as people portrayed it.

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It sounds like watching it caught you off-guard.

I don’t want to say it surprised me, but I think that it was something that he let out of the bag. Not me. It feels like I’m the one who’s getting the questions from it and not him.

A lot of athletes talk about how emotionally difficult it is to adjust to retirement. Was it hard for you?

It wasn’t that bad for me. I had other things I wanted to do. I wanted to get away from the game. I’d been in it for 17 years. I really wanted to focus on golf and enjoy things outside, like fishing and hunting and things I never had the chance to try.

When you’re 6-foot-8, you must have to get fit for clubs, right? I can’t imagine you can just go into Dick’s and buy them off the rack.

Yeah, I do get fitted for my clubs. But I’m not going to do that anymore because I played the other day in Nashville with some standard clubs and I had the best round.

What are the challenges of being a taller-than-average golfer?

None, really. The game is all about repetition no matter how tall you are. For me, when I don’t play for a while, I lose it. I’m not a natural. I’m much better around the green than I am off the tee, but I think because I was a professional athlete I may have some muscle memory other people don’t have.

You live mostly in Los Angeles these days. Where do you play?

I’m a member of the Calabasas Country Club. I play Lakeside a lot, and Sherwood Country Club. I get invited to all the best places.

I bet. If you had to pick a three other people to make up your dream foursome, who would be in there?

Tiger, so I could get some golf tips. I’ve played with Steph Curry, he’s very good. I’d add him to the list, for sure. And Denzel Washington.

Speaking of actors, if your new memoir gets optioned by Hollywood, who’d play you in the movie?

Wow. At what age? At my Bulls age?

Yeah. Maybe Michael B. Jordan?

Nah, he’s too little for that. I would probably have to pick one of the rookies from today’s game. That’s a tough one. I would want someone like Giannis Antetokounmpo. I like watching him.

When you were playing in the NBA, who was the guy who gave you the hardest time, one-on-one?

Probably Dominique Wilkins or Adrian Dantley. 

People may not know it, but you’ve done a little acting on the side. You were on ER, Chicago Fire and in Lethal Weapon. How would rate your acting chops on a 1 to 10 scale. 10 being Oscar-worthy, 1 being Shaq in Kazaam.

10.5

Irons

10.5! Maybe you should play you in the Scottie Pippen biopic. This could be total BS, but according to Wikipedia, you have a reputation for being a bad tipper. They call you “No Tippin’ Pippen.” True?

That sounds good, doesn’t it?

It actually is pretty catchy. But seriously, when you’re out playing 18 on a Saturday, how much do you tip your caddie?

What is a caddie? I don’t use a caddie. I’m on a cart, man.

You won six rings in Chicago. When was the last time you had to pay for a drink there?

It’s been a while. People take care of me there. They don’t even allow me to take my wallet out.

What’s the biggest misconception about you?

That I’m No Tippin’ Pippen.

The post ‘I would have beat him at golf, too’: Scottie Pippen on MJ rivalry, new memoir, golf passion appeared first on Golf.

The post What Patrick Reed has in common with Michael Jordan, according to Reed’s former coach appeared first on Golf.

The post What Patrick Reed has in common with Michael Jordan, according to Reed’s former coach appeared first on Golf.

Unfair or not, it’s these controversies that have come to define Reed during his professional career. The numerous imbroglios have also not earned the 31-year-old many allies on Tour. In an era in which bromances are common in pro golf, Reed is a lone wolf.

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In that respect, Reed’s former college coach Josh Gregory compares him to Michael Jordan.

“He’s like Michael Jordan,” Gregory said on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar. “He’s not out there to make friends.”

Gregory continued by saying Reed embraces the villain mentality. When controversy pops up, he elevates his game to prove the doubters wrong.

Reed’s most recent controversy came at the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year. A mix-up with a volunteer turned into an improper drop for Reed, and the criticism was swift to follow.

When Gregory saw the incident unfolding, he texted Subpar co-host Colt Knost with a bold prediction that Reed would win by 10 shots the following day. Reed went on to run away from the field and win by five strokes in the final round.

“Obviously he’s not at the talent level of Michael Jordan, but he has a similar mentality,” Gregory said. “I don’t care what others think about me. I don’t care if you think I’m the bad guy. I’m going to step on your throat and I’m going to beat you.”

Check out the entire video below as Gregory discusses coaching Reed, recruiting Bryson DeChambeau to SMU and more.  

The post What Patrick Reed has in common with Michael Jordan, according to Reed’s former coach appeared first on Golf.

The post Who are the top 4 highest-paid athletes ever? Hint: 3 of them are golfers. appeared first on Golf.

The post Who are the top 4 highest-paid athletes ever? Hint: 3 of them are golfers. appeared first on Golf.

And all four made over $1.3 billion. (Yes, that’s a B.)  

In other words, you might want to bookmark GOLF.com instruction stories. 

In a story published by sports business website Sportico on Thursday, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus ranked behind only Michael Jordan on a list of the biggest money earners in sports history. The inflation-adjusted ranking, Sportico said, included salaries, prize money, purses, bonuses, endorsements, licensing, royalties, memorabilia, book deals, appearances and golf course design, and the cut-off for earnings was June 1 of this year.

At No. 1 on the list was NBA legend Jordan, with $2.6 billion in career earnings. Woods was the only other athlete to crack two billion dollars, with 2.1. Palmer was at $1.5 billion, and Nicklaus at $1.38 billion.

According to an analyst interviewed by Sportico, a secret to golfers’ success lies in their longevity. Consider Nicklaus and Jordan. The Golden Bear turned pro in 1961 and was still cashing on the PGA Tour in 2005; MJ was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 1984 and retired in 2003. 

“With competitive careers that can span 30 years or more, golfers have the longest shelf life of any pro athletes,” Bob Dorfman, a sports marketing expert at Pinnacle Advertising, told Sportico. “Combine that with their global appeal across a broad and high-end fan demographic, and it’s no wonder so many rank high among the all-time earners in sports.”

Two other golfers made Sportico’s top 25 list. At No. 11 was Phil Mickelson, with $1.08 billion in inflation-adjusted earnings, while Greg Norman was at No. 15, with $815 million. 

Athletico’s complete story can be found here.  

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The post Who are the top 4 highest-paid athletes ever? Hint: 3 of them are golfers. appeared first on Golf.

The post PHOTOS: Ryder Cup’s biggest fan over the years? It might be Michael Jordan appeared first on Golf.

The post PHOTOS: Ryder Cup’s biggest fan over the years? It might be Michael Jordan appeared first on Golf.

“I don’t care if I’m up or down, I’m definitely saying hi to Michael Jordan,” analyst Jim “Bones” Mackay said Casey told him during Golf Channel’s broadcast. 

The funny thing was, MJ was likely just as big of fan. Over the years, the basketball legend,  the jumpman behind the Jumpman brand, has become as much a part of the Ryder Cup as the U.S. and European teams. 

Jordan was there at Valderrama in 1997, weeks before the start of what would be the last of his six championships with the Chicago Bulls — the last dance. He was there in 2012 at Medinah, a few tee shots away from where he won all those titles. And he’s there this week at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. On 13, Jordan, who now also owns The Grove golf course in Florida, and longtime friend Ahmad Rashad pumped their fists after a Dustin Johnson birdie — which did not go unnoticed. 

On Friday night, a couple hours after DJ went 2-0 on the day, his Twitter account saluted … MJ. 

“All those rounds together at The Grove are paying off,” the tweet read, under a video of the putt. 

Above, enjoy a photo slideshow of Michael Jordan at the Ryder Cup over the years. 

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The post The story behind Michael Jordan’s mind-blowing custom “Jumpman” irons appeared first on Golf.

The post The story behind Michael Jordan’s mind-blowing custom “Jumpman” irons appeared first on Golf.

If you’re into Jordan memorabilia like I am, then you’d probably faint on the spot. If you’re three-time NBA Champion Scott Williams, though, then that story actually happened to you.

During the height of Jordan’s basketball career in the NBA, he won six championships with the Chicago Bulls (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998). Williams, who spent 15 years in the NBA with seven different teams, was a member of that three-peat-winning Bulls team from 1990-1994.

Although Williams is an avid golfer now ­– with memberships at  multiple high-end courses (Old Head Golf Links, Silverleaf Country Club, Whisper Rock Country Club, Gozzer Ranch and Commonwealth National) – he didn’t play much golf while on the Bulls team.

Jordan, on the other hand, was one of the most high-profile golf addicts on earth. As such, golf manufacturers clamored for his attention and would send him countless golf products to try out. One day after basketball practice, Jordan invited some of the Bulls team members to come over to his house and rummage through his golf collection.

“It was like walking into a golf warehouse,” Williams told GOLF’s Fully Equipped podcast. “There was stuff everywhere. Bags, shoes, balls, head covers, it was unbelievable. He just started handing guys bags and irons and drivers, fairway woods, and all this stuff. And he gave me this bag with his name on it, and I went, ‘Ooh, I like that.’”

In addition to the leather Wilson golf bag, there was also a set of Ping Eye2 BeCU (Beryllium Copper) golf clubs, custom made for Michael Jordan.

Even without the custom Jordan-specific additions on them, the iron heads themselves are quite unique. Most golfers know about the original Ping Eye2 irons, which were first released in 1982 and cast from stainless steel. The Ping Eye2 BeCU versions, though, were made from a more expensive copper alloy that’s stronger and softer (and later banned because it was found to be toxic).

Of course, Jordan had the higher-end versions in his equipment stash.

Williams, however, said the grips on Jordan’s clubs were too big for him to actually play golf with.

“The reason why I never really played with them – I think I played once with him with them – is because the grips,” said Williams, who stands 6-feet 10-inches tall. “The grips are like a jumbo grip with 8 wraps on them, and I have big hands, even when I played a little high school golf…I know you have to get that club face closed. Well, the grips were too darn big for me to spin ‘em around and get the club face closed in time, so I sliced everything with them.”

Since the clubs weren’t necessarily effective to use, Williams decided he needed to get custom fit for his own set, and he put Jordan’s clubs into storage in a “wardrobe box.”

Decades later, while going through his storage unit in Phoenix, Williams uncovered the Wilson golf bag and Ping clubs.

 “I knew there were some old sweaters in the box, but I had forgotten there were some old golf clubs in there, too. So they had been sitting in there forever,” Williams explained. “When I saw the bag, I said, ‘Oh no!’ because these storage facilities I have…they’re not climate controlled. I’ve lived in Phoenix for 20 years, I’m like “Oh my god, the bag is going to be ruined, the grips are going to be dry rot,’ but they’re still in really good shape.”

Interestingly, the 3-iron appears to be quite worn out compared to the other clubs. Since Williams says he only played one round with them personally, it’s likely that Jordan used the 3-iron quite a bit, possibly as a driving iron off the tee. 

While Williams may not have known just how valuable the bag and clubs were back in the early 90s, he knows exactly how cool they are now. Williams “caught the golf bug” in 1995 while playing on the Philadelphia 76ers, and he’s been a passionate golfer ever since.

Lucky for all of us, Williams kept the Wilson bag and custom Ping Eye2 BeCU irons in safe keeping under a pile of sweaters for all these years, and he recently came onto GOLF’s Fully Equipped podcast to show them off.

On the podcast, Williams also discussed what it was like playing on the Chicago Bulls with Jordan, what it was like playing golf with Jordan, and he told some other awesome stories from both his NBA and golfing career. Don’t miss out on the rest of the interview with Williams below.

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The post The story behind Michael Jordan’s mind-blowing custom “Jumpman” irons appeared first on Golf.