A new golf course is coming to the Corridor. It’s still several years away from reality, but former Iowa and NFL star Nate Kaeding announced on his monthly Corridor Business Journal podcast that things are moving along for a new club north of Iowa City.
“I’ve been fortunate enough over the course of really the last year to be working on a fun project with some buddies here in the Corridor, my new golf project,” he said on the latest episode of Real Success with Nate Kaeding, which will be available May 25 on all podscast platforms. “We’ve been chatting about it a little bit, and there’s starting to be a little bit of buzz around town, so we figured no better way to start telling the story a little bit about what we’re working on than here on the podcast.”
The 18-hole course, which he hopes will open by 2029, will be laid out over 300 acres near the unincorporated town of Morse in Johnson County, about “halfway between Solon and Iowa City.”
Mr. Kaeding and a group of investors envision a hybrid “national” club with members, but also an opportunity for the public to enjoy a “natural” layout.
“We wanted something that was rural, obviously … in terms of very natural, this perfect kind of setting,” he said. “… We want to find the best piece of land, the most beautiful piece of property we can find.
“And we want to put a golf course there because that’s — if you go back to Ireland and Scotland and the birthplace of golf — that’s what they did.”
The idea was hatched more than a year ago, but Mr. Kaeding said a “club” in Johnson County has been talked about for many years. This will not be a traditional “country club” setting, however. There will be no housing, no pool and no tennis courts. The group is planning a clubhouse and restaurant — and a challenging 18-hole course.
“You kind of see the roots of a potential business opportunity that can be sustainable and can also be something that’s an amazing addition to the quality of life here in the Iowa City, Cedar Rapids area,” he said.
There are more than 400 golf courses in Iowa, including 19 in the Corridor. Golf has boomed in recent years, with 549 million rounds played in 2025 in the United States, according to the National Golf Foundation and Golf Datatech. Constructing a new course can cost anywhere from $5 million to $30 million.
The last new course in Eastern Iowa was Blue Top Ridge in Riverside, which opened in 2007 and then reopened in 2011 after flooding damaged the course in 2008.
Mr. Kaeding will share more details about the project on the May 25 episode of Real Success with Nate Kaeding, available on all podcast platforms.
