PEOPLE OF INTEREST
The GOLF TEACHER
BY ALISHA McDARRI S
Every golfer has a unique stance,
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a unique swing and a unique
approach to playing the game.
It’s Nancy Quarcelino’s mission
to find that uniqueness and help her students
become the best golfers they can be.
But Quacelino hasn’t always been
a teacher. There was a time when she
played the game professionally. Perhaps
that is why golfers from all over the
world seek her out to learn to play
better themselves.
Quarcelino started out on the green
when she was 8 years old, playing with
her mother and father, both avid golfers.
Her father, a 2 handicap, taught her
everything he knew. She never remembers
having a baby sitter, so heading
outdoors to take part in her parents’
passions was simply natural.
“It’s all I knew,” Quarcelino said.
Of course, she’d do anything to get out
of cleaning the house with her mother
when she was young, including golf, fishing
and hunting with her father.
But Quarcelino decided she liked the
game and continued playing through
high school and college. She started a golf
team at Western Kentucky University
before the federal Title IX legislation existed,
and enjoyed the competition. When
she went on to pursue her master’s degree
at Florida State University she was
offered a job as assistant golf coach. She
took it willingly and could have moved
up to head coach but chose to go back
home to Tennessee to be with her aging
mother. “Family is the most important
thing,” Quarcelino said.
She started coaching at Western Kentucky
University, then became a golf professional
at Indian Hills Country Club in
Bowling Green, Ky., and Hermitage Golf
Course in Old Hickory, Tenn. She simultaneously
began her professional career,
playing mini tours and on LPGA tours,
including the Sara Lee, Electrolux and
Franklin Ann Morgan championships in
Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia
and Indiana, even claiming a number
four finish in North Carolina. “I had a
blast,” Quarcelino said.
But she discovered that traveling nonstop,
especially with her mother suffering
from Parkinson’s disease, wasn’t going to
Nancy Quarcelino
spends half the
year teaching golf
near Nashville,
Tenn., at the school
she started in 1992
and the other half
at PGA Village in
Port St. Lucie.
>> ALISHA McDARRIS