Nick Nurse, Chamber celebrates new chapter for Carroll National

The Carroll National Golf Club hosted a Chamber Coffee ribbon cutting event on Friday, July 12, which featured a special guest. Nick Nurse, head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers and a 1985 graduate of Kuemper High School, took over ownership of the Carroll National Golf Club in February. The Carroll Country Club became the National Golf Club this spring, following Nurse’s acquisition. 

Nurse, along with his parents, the late Maury and Marcella Nurse, and eight siblings, was born and raised in Carroll. His family were members of the Carroll Country Club for over 35 years. 

“You guys know, I’m really, really proud of being from here. Really proud of this place,” Nurse said at Friday’s ceremony. “If you don’t know, I used to come back here and barely pull in the driveway before we were turning around to come out here, me and my dad, to play.” 

Every summer Nurse was working Minor League jobs or assistant coaching, he said he would come home the second the season ended. He recalled time spent around the Fourth of July and Labor Day weekend golfing with his father at what is now the Carroll National Golf Club. 

“We’d be out there every day and he’d have his old golf cart, we’d listen to the Cubs on KCIM, I played golf and the whole thing,” he said. 

Nurse said he believes in giving others the same opportunity to spend time outside and with loved ones, and he saw the chance to fill a need within the community by taking over the former Country Club. 

“An opportunity here was presented to help keep this place going, to revive it or make it special, make it a place you can be proud of, so we took it, and we’re really proud of what we’re doing,” he said. 

Nurse appointed Michael Prenger as Carroll National Golf Club general manager, his former Kuemper Catholic School ’85 classmate and state championship teammate. He also named Brian Billmeier, Kuemper Class of ’84 and the school’s head golf coach, as Carroll National’s head golf pro and golf director. 

He described Billmeier as “a really great teacher of the game, really cares about teaching kids.” 

“I think one of the big things that I really want to do in combination with the course and combination with my foundation is, we got to get kids playing,” Nurse continued. “There’s no reason why we can’t let them use our course, and have a great teacher and put in some programs, give them some clubs, take some of the expense out, whatever the reasons, and make it fun for them. And Brian’s gonna give them that.”  

Nurse said the course has already come a long way in increasing involvement, with 50 junior golfers participating this year and starting off the Western Iowa Junior Open tour. 

“It’s 50 up from zero a year ago,” Nurse joked. 

Carroll National also has a Wednesday night ladies league that went from zero members to 18 this year, and a few other golf leagues that have started up this spring. 

“A couple of weeks getting going the men’s league rollin’, we ran a scramble tournament the other day with the top prize of $4,000,” Nurse said. “Everyone told me we were crazy, nobody’s gonna sign up. We had 32 teams sign up, and it was awesome. We’re getting it going.”

In another development, the Carroll National clubhouse will soon have its own restaurant, Mac and Rita’s, led by head chef Trevor Schueneman. The restaurant is named after Nurses’ mother, who was nicknamed “Mac,” and Prenger’s mother Rita. 

Carroll National’s grand opening will be held Aug. 15 and 16, with the first day being a members’ only appreciation day and the second a golf invitational, the Nick Nurse Foundation Charity Golf Classic. The event will be hosted by Nurse, who will be joined by his entire coaching staff and a number of professional players. 

“It’ll be cool,” Nurse said. “Let those guys see our awesome little course in our awesome little part of the world that we’re in.” 

There will also be live music at the event from bands The New Power Generation and The Icons, as well as DJ Ghost, the 76ers’ full-time DJ. Music is important to Nurse, who sponsors programs and scholarships in Toronto to get kids involved in music. 

“It’s things like golf and music, it’s something we can do our whole lives and get so much joy out of it,” he said. “So the money we raised here will probably go to music and arts departments here in the town. As everybody knows, those seem like the programs that keep getting cut more than anything, need the most support right now.” 

The project has come a long way since it started in April, Nurse said, with making improvements to the course and indoor facilities. The Carroll National course and clubhouse have already gone through some renovations, and Nurse said there are plans for more in the future. The clubhouse patio has been renovated, with new floors and carpet inside, and trees have been cut down on the greens to clear space for the fairway. 

Nurse said it’s a lot better than it was in the last couple of years he visited. 

“That’s what we’re trying to do, make it a place we can be proud of,” he said. “I really think it can be a hub, you can see the five big screens we put up, come out and watch games, socialize, get together, hang at the pool, play some golf if you want to. Hopefully it’s a good place we can all hang out and be proud of.” 

From coach to course, Nurse said he doesn’t get tired, as the things he loves give him energy. 

“I say this a lot, this is a lot like a basketball team, we’ve come a long way but we got a long way to go,” he said.