michel jordan

he Forecaddie: Michael Jordan course set to take flight in 2019   First he mastered basketball, then he tried his hand at baseball. Nex...

he Forecaddie: Michael Jordan course set to take flight in 2019

 

First he mastered basketball, then he tried his hand at baseball. Next up for Michael Jordan is converting his longtime obsession with golf into reality in the form of a golf course. Or so hears The Forecaddie, whose job it is to track such celebrity developments.

Which is exactly what Grove XXIII will be when the Bobby Weed-designed golf course in Hobe Sound, Fla, emerges from its current state of dirt and dust to flower into full form for opening day in 2019. The course derives from a 226-acre treeless citrus grove that is being worked into championship golf ground. As for the number XXIII, that's the Latin version of the Arabic numerals that MJ carried on his back (along with the rest of the Chicago Bulls) to six NBA championships.

The par-72 layout includes plans for tees ranging from 5,445 yards up to 7,470. Weed is excited about finding a way to challenge players, with bunkers planned deep into the fairway landing areas, some 330-340 yards off the back tees. Plus he's got some special angles worked up.

"I'm going to be in their head," he told the Man Out Front.

Weed, who has never been shy to move ground to create playable space, says the near flat site is getting a lot of earthwork. He's also impressed with the way Jordan has thrown himself into the project, including weekly onsite visits. Not all owner/developers are able to figure out what's going on with bare ground. But his Airness is proving the exception, says Weed. "He can see it in the dirt." Gwk

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Michael Jordan golf course construction runoff into St. Lucie River threatens rare fish, dolphins

Runoff from an 18-hole golf course being developed by NBA hall of famer Michael Jordan reportedly was cited for polluting the St. Lucie River on Feb. 2, 2018. The course is being built on a 226-acre site in Hobe Sound, east of Interstate 95 and north of Bridge Road. HANNAH SCHWAB/TCPALM Wochit

Construction at the golf course, partially owned by Michael Jordan, being built on 226 acres east of Interstate 95 and north of Bridge Road, is putting unacceptable levels of dirt in the uppermost reaches of the St. Lucie River.(Photo: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY KINO VELEZ)

Runoff from a golf course owned by basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan threatens several species of rare fish and possibly dolphin in the St. Lucie River, according to a marine biologist. 

The company developing the golf course northwest of Hobe Sound, The Club in Vero Beach, was cited Friday by the South Florida Water Management District for violating state water quality standards.

More:Read the notice of violation and see the evidence

Photos taken by district staffers show silt-laden water flowing off the construction site, through a canal and into the headwaters of the South Fork.

The plume of chocolate milk-colored water extended 3 to 4 miles to near the Kanner Highway Bridge, the photos show.

"It's a shame that this happened to one of the most pristine parts of the St. Lucie River system," said Zack Jud, education director at the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart. Before the pollution, that South Fork section is what the entire river used to look like "if you went back 200 years."

More: Jordan-owned golf course developer may have to clean up South Fork of St. Lucie River

Rare fish

There are 14 endangered and threatened species of fish in the South Fork, said Grant Gilmore, a Vero Beach marine biologist who's studied fish in the Indian River Lagoon and St. Lucie River since the early 1970s.

"They're all going to be negatively impacted, and some could die, because of all that sediment in the water," Gilmore said.

The sediment, Gilmore said, will cover up their food sources on the river bottom.

"They find food with their sense of smell," he added, "and the sediment probably will mess with the smell of the water."

The species include the possum pipe fish, mountain mullet, burrowing grunts and several types of gobies: violet (known locally as the dog-faced eel), slash-cheeked, black-eared and the bigmouth sleeper.

"These species are found nowhere else in the United States but the St. Lucie River, the Loxahatchee River and the Sebastian River," Gilmore said. "They used to be down around Miami and Fort Lauderdale, but they were pushed out by development."

A bigmouth sleeper, a type of goby, caught in the North Fork of the St. Lucie River (Photo: Grant Gilmore)

Chemical pollution

Gilmore is also concerned fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides from the farmland that's being turned into a golf course might be coming into the water with the sediment.

"We know that those chemicals get into the food small fish eat," he said, "and increases as bigger fish eat the smaller fish through a process we call bio-accumulation."

More: Michael Jordan's new golf course sounds great, except for the dirty water | Trending

At the top of the food chain are dolphins from the Indian River Lagoon that frequently venture into the lower South Fork.

"Because the St. Lucie River has so many problems already — the Lake Okeechobee discharges and pollution from all kinds of sources — a lot of species are just hanging on," Gilmore said. "They sure don't need another problem like this."

Judd called the silt from the golf course "adding insult to injury to the St. Lucie River."

Michael Jordan

TCPalm in October 2016 reported Jordan would be principal owner of the private club to be named Grove XXIII in honor of the No. 23 he wore when he won six NBA championships as a Chicago Bull.

The club will include an 18-hole golf course, driving range, 9,800-square-foot clubhouse and maintenance facilities, according to the developer’s application filed with Martin County.

More: Michael Jordan-owned golf course pollutes St. Lucie River in violation of Florida rules

The developer may have to clean up the mess, according to the violation notice issued by the water district.

"Once sediment is in the water, there's really no way to get it out," Judd said. "The best you can do is keep it from happening again."

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Tom Brady says he isn't in same category as Michael Jordan

SportsPulse: The all-time great tight end breaks down why Brady will never be the GOAT and also has a surprise hot take. USA TODAY Sports

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) prior to Super Bowl LII against the Philadelphia Eagles at U.S. Bank Stadium.(Photo: Charles LeClaire, USA TODAY Sports)

In separate interviews that aired before the Super Bowl on Sunday, New England Patritos quarterback Tom Brady said he will never see himself in the same light as Michael Jordan, even if he were to match Jordan's six championships with a win against the Philadelphia Eagles.

"He's at a different level to me," Brady told Westwood One. "When you're a kid, and you're watching Michael Jordan — the most incredible athlete I've ever seen — I could never see myself that way."

Brady was asked a similar question in a sitdown with NBC, with anchor Dan Patrick asking the 40-year-old if he would belong in the same conversation as Jordan with a sixth title, or if that's a personal goal for him.

"It's not stuff I think about very often," Brady said. "I mean, when I was a kid, Michael Jordan was everything. I had his posters on my wall. I had Joe Montana and Steve Young, and I loved baseball. Don Mattingly and Wade Boggs — those guys, there's a special place for them. I don't think I could ever be compared to them, just because of the way I see them in my eyes."

Despite Brady's comments, his resume does compare favorably to that of Jordan, who starred with the Chicago Bulls for nearly two decades. Entering Sunday night, Brady had won five Super Bowls, four Super Bowl MVP awards and three MVP awards. Jordan was a six-time champion and six-time Finals MVP, who won five MVP awards. Brady has been named to 13 Pro Bowls, one shy of Jordan's career appearances in the NBA All-Star game.

Even so, Brady told Westwood One that he still believes he has room to improve. And he told NBC that he still considers some of his recent film "painful to watch."

"I still, in so many ways, see myself as someone who is athletically-deficient, can't do what the other guys do," Brady told NBC, "which I guess has been a real blessing for me in my life, too."

Follow Schad on Twitter @Tom_Schad

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