Michael Jordan’s obsession with golf began back during his days at the University of North Carolina. Over the course of the following 4 decades, his love for the game has never wavered. In a 1999 interview with Jay Leno, Jordan admitted that he once played an unfathomable 81 holes of golf.
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Jordan would consistently appear on the ‘Tonight Show With Jay Leno’ throughout the mid to late 90s and he closed off the millennium with another appearance in ’99. Here, Leno would ask ‘His Airness’ what he was up to now that he was retired.
“I just got back from Ireland and Scotland; I was there for about 10 days. At least 54 [holes] a day. One day I played 81 holes in a day. I don’t have a job, what else can I do,” said MJ on the Tonight Show.
This is quite the ludicrous amount of golfing in a single sitting considering the fact that a single round of standard golf is 18 holes. MJ retired for the second time in his career after winning his 6th championship in 8 years in 1998 and like he said in the interview above, he didn’t have a whole lot to do so 81 holes seemed apt.
Michael has been very vocal about his love for golf over the decades, even calling it an addiction at times. He’s participated in professional tournaments in his free time and has built himself his own golf course in Florida called ‘Grove 23’.
Charles Barkley confirmed that he would respectfully bow out of any golfing bets with Jordan because of the fact that he would bet well into the 6 figures. ‘Slim’ Bouler, a notorious hustler, would even receive a check from MJ worth $57,000 that MJ would have to testify for in court in 1992, ‘7 years’ before 1999.
Michael Jordan was offended by Jay Leno’s question
Michael Jordan had been retired for 7 years when he decided to grace the audience at the Tonight Show in 2010. When doing so, he was asked by Jay Leno if he can still dunk while being 47 years old and not having played professionally since 2003.
Jordan immediately asked Leno if he’s stupid and told him that he could still dunk the basketball. This was clearly a touchy subject for the 6x champion but was also a fairly uneducated question from Leno.
