Michael Jordan’s ‘slaughterhouse’ is a graveyard for professional golfers

Michael Jordan is still a straight up savage. A golf star has revealed the NBA GOAT has set-up an overt ambush on his own course.

Michael Jordan and Rickie Fowler.

Michael Jordan remains a very, very bad man — just ask 2015 Players Championship winner Rickie Fowler.

The NBA GOAT is famously one of the toughest, pettiest competitors the sporting world has ever known and it has continued with the private golf course owned and designed by the 57-year-old.

Fowler has revealed this week Jordan has been cutting up rivals on his new course, The Grove XXIII, in Florida.

It is a cunning detail in the course that is allowing Jordan to compete with the best golfers on the planet — and they’re helpless to watch themselves stumble into His Royal Airness’ ambush.

Fowler told the Subpar Podcast this week it is damn hard to beat Jordan on his own turf — a private, exclusive course that reportedly has less than 100 members.

It is invite only.

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Fowler and Jordan have been regular friendly rivals on the course in recent years, but that relationship hasn’t stopped Jordan from doing everything in his power to get an edge on the 31-year-old.

Fowler says Jordan’s course, completed in 2019, has been nicknamed Slaughterhouse 23 for a reason.

Fowler says he tries to avoid going head to head with Jordan on his own course to allow him to keep his winning record against the six-time NBA champion.

Bad Man.

He says the course is essentially designed to suit Jordan’s game. And to cut out the advantage of professional players who can hit the long ball.

“The nickname for it is Slaughterhouse 23,” Fowler said.

“The shorter you hit it, the wider it is. So the tees and pins are done every day, so the golf course can play as long as you want, but they set the back tees at roughly 7,000 or 7,100 yards, and MJ just plays the back tees.

“It’s a golf course where he can basically hit driver on all of the par-4s and par-5s, and if I wanna hit driver, I have to kind of put it into a little bit tighter of a spot,” Fowler continued. “I can obviously play back if I want, but that obviously becomes a little bit of a disadvantage, especially if it’s a hole where he’s getting a stroke on. He’s great with wedges in his hands, around the greens, he’ll putt anyone straight up. If I’m giving him a shot, I can’t then play him from the same spot he is when he’s laying zero.”

Fowler says he gives Jordan a 10-shot head start in their games because of Jordan’s handicap.

Jordan’s overt ambush is far from the only time Jordan has been exposed as a straight up savage on the golf course.

Fowler said earlier this year his games with Jordan are the perfect warm-up for major events because Jordan always gets the competitive juices flowing.

The betting stakes they make against each other means there is always a lot on the line.

“I feel like a lot of those matches whether you’re with the boys back home playing for big money or playing with MJ and getting those juices going, those are some of the best preps for going out and being ready to play tournament golf,” Fowler said, according to Action Network.

“He’ll play you for whatever you want. Whatever makes you scared.

“It’s just good, fun games. [There is] some competition, so you’re not out there just hitting the ball around.”

Jordan’s famous gambling prophecy out on a golf course in 1992 has also become the stuff of legend.

NHL player Jeremy Roenick said recently Jordan swindled him out of a few thousand dollars after the NBA legend was bested in a friendly game on the same day he was supposed to be getting ready for an NBA Playoffs game against Cleveland.

After losing one round, Jordan insisted on another. He lost both. After 36 holes, Jordan still found a way to win the cash.

“We played a round, I beat him for a couple thousand and got ready to leave,” Roenick said.

“Now, the Bulls are playing that night. They played Cleveland that night. I’m thinking he’s leaving, it’s 10 o’clock. He goes, ‘No, let’s go play again.’

Rickie Fowler walked into an ambush.

“So we go and fill up a bag full of ice and Coors Light and walk again. We roll around another 18 and I take him for another couple (thousand dollars). Now we’ve been drinking all afternoon and he’s going from Sunset Ridge to the stadium, to play a game. I’m messing around. I’m like, ‘I’m gonna call my bookie. All the money you just lost to me, I’m putting on Cleveland.’

“He goes, ‘I’ll tell you what. I’ll bet you that we’ll win by 20 points and I have more than 40 (points).’ I’m like, ‘Done.’ Son of a gun goes out and scores 52 and they win by 26 points or something.

“After 36 holes of golf and having maybe like 10 Bud Lights. The man Michael Jordan to me is probably the best athlete I’ve ever seen and that I’ve ever been around.”

A bit of research shows Roenick wasn’t correct with how he stated the outcome of the game played out. Jordan never scored 50+ points in a game where the Bulls won by 20+ points against the Cavaliers.

But on March 28, 1992, Jordan and the Bulls did take on the Cavaliers in Chicago and won the game 126-102 with arguably the game’s greatest player scoring 44 points.

Originally published as Michael Jordan’s ‘slaughterhouse’ is a graveyard for professional golfers