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BUCKETS // BASKETBALL, GOLF, AND THE JORDAN IV G
LOG ENTRY BY: KENDRA LITTLE
There is no shortage of legendary basketball players who love getting buckets on the links (MJ, Bird, Steph Curry to name a few). Maybe it’s a connection we formulate deep in our subconscious about having to get a ball to fall through a circular object at distance. For me, basketball and golf are synonymous with my childhood and broader life spectrum. Basketball was the first sport I took a liking to, with golf following shortly thereafter.
My dad played basketball collegiately and professionally, so naturally it found its way into my life. Golf was a happenstance: my “uncle” Coat (my dad’s best friend + fraternity brother from college) was an avid golfer who caddied professionally and for one summer even looped at Augusta National. I thought he was (and still do) the coolest guy alive. So, I wanted to do anything he did. My earliest childhood memories are at the house we lived in across from Langdon Farms Golf Club in Aurora, Oregon. At age 6, my Uncle Coat would take me over there to play the real grass putt-putt course (which is now an event pavilion, RIP.). Eventually rolling the rock progressed to full swing shots on the driving range, then on the golf course, so on and so forth.
I’ll save you the extensive details of how basketball and golf intertwined in my life from those early childhood days up until I was about 18… just know, they were both my life, and if I had to give the nod to one of them over the other; it was basketball. I loved basketball, in a way that I couldn’t explain. In a way that didn’t and couldn’t apply to golf. Do you have something in your life that you love? Something that you love so much it feels as though it’s imprinted in your DNA? It was heartbreaking to have to hang up the sneakers for good when I chose to pursue golf after high school.
Over the course of my college golf career and into my brief professional stint, I worked closely with another good friend and fraternity brother of my dad’s, David Glenz. David was based in New Jersey and I would frequently visit to work with him. I attribute a lot of my success to his teaching, and he was even on the bag with me when I played in the U.S. Women’s Open. Part of what made David’s method of teaching so translatable for me was his ability to relate golf and the golf swing to other things that were second nature to me, mainly basketball. Glenz himself grew up playing an array of sports in Coos Bay, Oregon (20 miles North of Bandon) and for most of his career, both as player and teacher, found success in relating golf back to other sports.
From a young age I always found the slowness and the deliberateness of golf a challenge. I’m sure that’s a pretty common thing for a lot of golfers, but for me it was a legitimate road block. Glenz, knowing my history with basketball, found a way to make the game more reactive by focusing more on shot shaping and visualizing through the lens of shooting hoops. It helped alleviate the stress in moments where I had a lot of time to sit and think during a round of golf.
“Do you ever have to think about your form when you’re shooting a jumper?”
“Well… no. I just shoot.”
“So why should this be any different?”
I began envisioning myself shooting hoops out on the golf course, and it helped. A lot.
We took it one step further and incorporated my free throw routine into my pre-shot and putting routine as well.
One bounce, two bounce, twirl — SHOOT became one tap, two tap, forward press — SWING
Golf became basketball and I felt a sense of freedom— a freedom of expression. I shot some of my best rounds when I truly felt like I was tricking my mind into shooting hoops on the golf course.
I remember I was nearing the end of my short journey as a professional golfer, and saw the first iterations of Air Jordan golf shoes from Nike Golf. I thought it was the dopest thing to ever happen to golf. Unluckily for me, I was on my way out of the game and would soon see my golf clubs stolen out of my car in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco — I’ll save that story for another time — Suffice to say: Golf and I would go our separate ways for a while. Inevitably, I got back into playing (city league) basketball upon moving back to Portland.
Several years later I got the incredible chance to work at the Swoosh, where I first caught glimpse of the plans to drop the Jordan IV G in Spring 2021. It was hard to contain my excitement. The Jordan IV has always been my favorite basketball shoe from an aesthetic standpoint. There’s something about the shoe that is so perfect and so balanced. It was somehow aptly fitting for its time and also ahead of its time all at once, which of course speaks to the genius of Tinker Hatfield and all of his design work.
Fast forward to present day, golf has rapidly made its way back into my life (as it always does), and I have the Jordan IV G in hand. Like a kid on Christmas morning, my excitement boils every time I peek into the box to admire them (yeah, they’re staying in the box until summer).
All of this to say: I’m filled with gratitude that, in a time where you’re seeing so much specialization in youth sport, I was raised to play and enjoy the sports I was interested in. I was encouraged to play basketball, my first love, through the end of my high school career when a lot of people might have aired on the side of caution to prevent a scholarship ruining injury. I’m grateful that my dad was a hooper who also had two fraternity brothers that would end up helping get into golf and developing my game to compete at the highest level — all while being able incorporate the first sport that captured my heart. Next time you hit the links, lace up some J’s, step up to a shot like you would a mid-range jumper, and pull it.
Keep spreading the feeling that golf is home! // #golfishome
