Nick Nurse saved his hometown golf course. Now, the Sixers coach is using it to help give back.
Proceeds from the Sixers coach's charity golf tournament in his native Carroll, Iowa, will go toward supporting sports and music education locally.
CARROLL, Iowa — Nick Nurse always credits his childhood environment for any success that he’s had.
He was the youngest of the late Maury and Marcella Nurse’s nine children, with five older brothers, in Carroll, a small town of 10,117 in west central Iowa.
“The competition that was going on on a daily basis helped me with my job, right?” the 76ers coach said Friday at Carroll National Golf Club. “But it’s a sports town. Great coaches, great mentors. And you come back to this place [the club], this place probably means more to me more to me probably the later time when I left than it did when I grew up.”
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His love for the course led to him purchasing it in February to save it from being shut down. Nurse changed the name from Carroll County Club, and, after major renovations, he hosted the Golf & Music grand reopening event on Thursday and Friday.
Nurse had a member appreciation day on Thursday. It featured a five-man shotgun start tournament for course members, Nurse’s family, Sixers assistant coaches, and former teammates while DJ Ghost, the Sixers’ DJ, played on the patio.
Afterward, the golfers were treated to live performances by The Icons and Rob Schulz, a singer/songwriter and Iowa native.
On Friday, Nurse hosted the Nick Nurse Charity Invitational. DJ Ghost and The Icons again were on hand, and New Power Generation performed, featuring the music of Prince.
Nurse also hosted a VIP reception for the likes of Arkansas men’s basketball coach John Calipari, Iowa coach and Philly native Fran McCaffery, Creighton coach Greg McDermott, new Iowa women’s basketball coach Jan Jensen, and James Poyser, a record producer and member of The Roots, among others. Sixers players Ricky Council IV, Jared McCain, Adem Bona, Justin Edwards, David Jones, and Jeff Dowtin also were on hand.
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Proceeds from the event will go toward supporting sports and music education locally.
The two-day event came after Nurse held his annual Nick Nurse Basketball Shooting Camp on Wednesday at Kuemper Catholic School, a preschool through 12th grade school system of 1,285 students.
All proceeds from the camp benefit the Kuemper Booster Club, which supports Kuemper Catholic’s athletics and fine arts programs.
“We’re making this a big combination of basketball, golf, family reunion, class reunion, college [reunion],” Nurse, an 1985 Kuemper graduate, said of the three days. “I got people from every time along the way in town this weekend. So it’s … fun.”
But the fun had on Thursday and Friday would not have happened if not for his saving the golf club.
That journey began last summer, when he received an email from a resident asking for help to keep the course alive.
Helping out was a no-brainer.
Nurse’s family had been members of the club for over 35 years, and it was the place where his love for golf started. Growing up, he played in junior tournaments, father-son tournaments, and club championships at the course.
His parents would drop him off at the course on summer days. He would putt, swim, play rounds of golf, look for golf balls in the corn fields, and swim again before his parents would pick him up when it was dark.
As an adult coaching overseas, Nurse would arrive home on vacation in the offseason, and, within minutes, he and his father would head to the course.
“I always played golf because it’s outside and I’m with my friends and family and those three good things,” he said.
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Nurse oversaw renovations to the clubhouse patio. There are new floors and carpet inside the clubhouse. And trees have been cut down on the greens, clearing space for the fairway.
“When I heard that he was going to buy it, it meant a lot to the town,” said James Heller, a Carroll resident who played Friday. “Farmers were thinking about buying the land. They were either going to farm it or they were going to build condos on here and make it housing, which would affect this town a lot.
“We have another golf course in town. It’s a nice course. But … he stepped up and took care of something that means a lot to the town.”
Nurse named Michael Prenger, his Kuemper classmate and 1985 state basketball championship teammate, the club’s general manager. He also appointed Brian Billmeier as the head golf pro and golf director. Billmeier is a 1984 Kuemper graduate and the school’s head golf coach.
And the clubhouse also has its own restaurant, Mac and Rita’s, named after Nurse’s mother, Marcella, who was nicknamed “Mac” and Prenger’s mom, Rita.
NBC Sports Philadelphia Sixers analyst Alaa Abdelnaby was on hand at the reopening.
“When I first found out about this, my first response to him was, ‘This is one of the many reasons you are so special,’” Abdelnaby said. “He hasn’t changed. … The Nick I’ve known for 10 years has stayed the same.”