Success has a way of altering one's goals.
What once seemed like a lofty and out-of-reach dream later can become dwarfed by reality. Such is the case for Nate McKinnis, who since last April has been head superintendent at Carolina Golf Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
A decade ago, when he was a student in the turfgrass program at Ohio State, McKinniss looked forward to the day when he could buy Hillcrest Golf Club, a daily fee layout in his hometown of Findlay, Ohio.
After six years working alongside Chad Mark, CGCS, at Jack Nicklaus's Muifield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, the last year of which he spent as golf course superintendent, McKinniss, 30, took the reins last year from Matthew Wharton, who traded one Donald Ross design for another when he left Carolina Golf Club for Idle Hour Country Club in Lexington, Kentucky.
"They've definitely changed," McKinniss said of his career goals. "It's the realization of what this industry is and how big it is. When you're in college, you don't understand all the possibilities that are out there. Back then, I had no idea I'd be here. Never in a million years."
I had a lot of questions when I started at Muirfield, but Chad kept saying 'Do you trust me? I'm not going to let you fail.' He always had the answers. Now, a lot of those things he was telling me all those years make sense. . . . I want these interns and young assistants to know that I am here to help them.
Although McKinniss could not foresee the future, the writing was on the wall that his prospects were bright. He was a two-time OTF scholarship winner at Ohio State. Through cooperation with Mike O'Keeffe and The Ohio Program at OSU, McKinniss interned in Ireland at County Louth Golf Club in 2016 as part of TurfNet's Next Generation of Greenkeeping, and his experience at Muirfield earned him a spot in TurfNet's Rising Stars of Turf series sponsored by Earthworks and DryJect.
Now, chief on the list of career goals for McKinniss is being the same kind of mentor to his assistants and interns that Mark was for him at Muirfield.
"I had a lot of questions when I started at Muirfield, but Chad kept saying 'Do you trust me? I'm not going to let you fail.' He always had the answers," McKinniss said. "Now, a lot of those things he was telling me all those years make sense.
"I want these interns and young assistants to know that I am here to help them."
Working for Nicklaus at the home of The Memorial Tournament under a mentor like Mark might make one wonder why McKinniss, or anyone for that matter, would want to leave Muirfield.
"Chad had given me full ownership of managing the golf course," McKinniss said.
"I'm learning about managing a golf course in a different area. I'm working on Bermudagrass, which we learned about in class at Ohio State, but we didn't actually work on it. I want to learn as much as possible for any other opportunities that might come up in the future."
Advancing his career did not come easily for McKinniss, who, in his own words "performed horribly" during the interview process for another position at another golf course. He was in the process of setting up an interview training session with Tim Moraghan of Aspire Golf when everything changed.
At about the same time, Moraghan had been retained by Carolina to find Wharton's replacement and, after consulting with Mark, submitted McKinniss's resumé for consideration.
"The superintendents and assistants I work with, I'm picky about them. They have to have one foot over the finish line and the other off the ground," Moraghan said. "That's Nate. Chad trains his guys well.
"Nate had construction experience and bentgrass experience."
When you're in college, you don't understand all the possibilities that are out there. Back then, I had no idea I'd be here. Never in a million years.
McKinniss said there was indeed a silver lining to that negative interview experience. As he and fiancé Alexa Spartis discussed their future, the subject of where they would like to live surfaced. North Carolina was tops on her list.
"I needed something to motivate me," he said.
"I went in fired up. It felt like every moment of this opportunity felt right. This wasn't just for me. This was about where we would start our own story together."
The outcome this time for McKinniss was a 180-degree turnaround from his earlier experience.
"He blew them out of the water," said Moraghan, who was on the interview committee. "He arrived early, he reviewed the golf course, he talked with the assistant, he talked with Matt (Wharton), he had experience dealing with boards. Nothing came up that he hadn't already dealt with at Muirfield."
He started his job in Charlotte in April, about a month before the 2023 Memorial at Muirfield. The committee asked why, a month before a high-profile PGA Tour event, he would seek another job.
"He told them he wanted to better himself," Moraghan said. "He said he had already been part of several tournaments at Muirfield and that when one man goes down, it's the next man up and we don't miss a beat. They were impressed by that."
Today, McKinniss says it is his responsibility to do for his assistants and interns at Carolina what Mark did for him at Muirfield.
"I see more of what Chad was teaching me now that I'm gone than I did when I was there," he said. "It's time for me to pay it forward. I have to put my boots on and get my hands dirty with these guys. I can start to see them getting it."
