There are golf fanatics, and then there’s LeBron James, who since taking up the game just a couple of years ago has fallen head over high-tops for it. If he’s not playing or practicing basketball, there’s a good chance he’s playing or practicing golf, or tweeting about golf, or watching golf YouTubers do their thing, or helping golf YouTubers do their thing. “The bug is real,” James said in 2025. “I didn’t know nothing about it. People said if you ever get into the game and the bug grabs you, it’s over with. I definitely have it, man.”
James also has developed a keen interest in the women’s game, and has been particularly supportive of world No. 1 Nelly Korda.
As Korda was on the verge of winning her third career major title at the Chevron Championship earlier this year, James said to his 50 million X followers, “Bring it on home, Nelly!” In the lead-up to this week’s U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera, James showed his support for Korda by way of a gift to the golfer: a custom pair of Nike Victory Pro 4 golf shoes inspired by James’ signature line. Korda posted a photo of the shoes on Instagram with a caption that read in part, “Will be wearing these tomorrow.”
True to her word, Korda laced up the shoes on Thursday for her first round at Riviera — but she didn’t end her round in them. Soon after starting her day on the 10th hole, Korda said she sensed the shoes didn’t fit quite right. “A little too much room,” she said after her round. “I’ve kind of run into this issue. I had that with [Air] Jordans, too. Sometimes when I wear a different color, they just are made a little different. It’s the exact same shoe [as my own].”
Well, not exactly the same. Different enough that Korda — who bogeyed both the 12th and 13th holes — sent her trainer, Kim Baughman, back to the clubhouse to fetch Korda’s regular gamer Nikes. Baughman made the delivery on the 16th tee, where Korda made her mid-round wardrobe change.
Pros don’t take their gear lightly, and that incudes their shoes. Earlier this year, Korda revealed on the “Pat McAfee Show” that this season she’d swapped into shoes with higher soles to help get her chest closer to the ground. “With that, I actually get a little bit steeper in my swing and hinge it a little faster,” she said. “It’s literally like the smallest of things. Golfers are crazy. I’m crazy, just to let you know.”
Korda isn’t the first Nike-wearing superstar this year to encounter shoe troubles. Early in the week at the PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy battled a toe blister that he’d developed the prior week at the Truist Championship. To alleviate pressure on the injury, McIlroy stepped out of his Nike Victory Tour 4 shoes – a model he’d worn for years — and into a pair of Victory Pro 4s, which are worn by the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Chris Gotterup.
After her opening two-over 73, Korda was asked whether the shoe switch helped her game.
“Apparently not,” she said with a laugh. “I just felt more comfortable in these.”
As of this writing, Korda was seven back of Minji Kang’s five-under lead. Korda will begin her second round at 1:14 p.m. local time.
