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Freking’s passion for his work reaps benefits for duffers at Devou Golf and Event Center


By Benjamin Shipp
NKyTribune reporter

It is sometimes hard to judge the impact of service to the community, but for Ron Freking, grounds superintendent at Devou Golf and Event Center, the fruits of his labor are seen every day.

Grounds Superintendent Ron Freking on the green at Devou Golf & Event Center, The picturesque course features the Cincinnati Skyline in the background (photos by Benjamin Shipp).

As a native of Ludlow, Freking is no stranger to the course at Devou Park. He says the 30 years he has spent tending the vibrant green fairways at Devou have been some of the most fulfilling years for him and, he hopes, the course and its golfers.

“When we were kids we came up here to golf all the time,” Freking said. I’ve been around the course my whole life.”

Despite this, Freking admits that this is not the career that he had in mind as young man. After graduating from Ludlow High School in 1980, Freking enlisted in the United States Air Force and worked as a mechanic for four years.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do” said Freking, “I thought the Air Force would help me figure it out.”

After serving, Freking came back home to Northern Kentucky in 1988 and found a job working at Devou under former pro-golfer Ralph Landrum. As a grounds mechanic his prior work in the Air Force was put to good use.

Freking’s ability to adapt and willingness to learn got him out of the garages, working his way up the rungs and finding himself directly under Landrum tending to the grounds year-round.

While the beauty of Devou is undeniable, the golf course that Freking came home to in 1988 was not the same course that it is now.

The course opened in 1922 as a nine-hole course with bluegrass turf dawning its fairways. Upon Freking’s arrival from the Air force in 1988, the course had, for a lack of better words, seen better days.

The tedious process of upgrading the greens and fairways at Devou Park Golf Course to zoysia grass took more than 10 years to complete.

It appeared at the time an insurmountable task.

Challenges included the extremely humid summers and frigid winters of Northern Kentucky, a stringently low budget, poor soil conditions, and the steep inclines that Devou is known for.

His work was cut out for him, but Freking and the team at Devou Golf and Event Center had a plan.

The first major renovation that Freking, Landrum, and the staff at Devou Golf and Event Center would undertake came in 1995 when they expanded the course to 18-holes. Without altering the original front-nine holes, Freking, alongside renowned golf course architect Gene Bates, brought the new back-nine to life.

“The addition of the back nine was necessary,” Freking said. “It made us look more like a golf course that not only the leisure golfer wanted to play, but the serious ones as well.”

The new nine holes would be but the first of many renovations to come to Devou.

The next change to Devou Golf and Event Center would come in 2004, with a complete turf renovation, from fairways to putting greens. The plan was to convert the fairways from bluegrass turf to zoysia turf.

Zoysia is an all-climate genus of grass that does well in very humid summers and cold winters, making it perfect for the sporadic climate of Northern Kentucky. This renovation was at the forefront of Freking and Landrum’s concerns even before the addition of the back nine in 1995.

The reasoning behind the nine-year gap between renovations was, as Freking would go on to explain, because the timing of the back-nine’s completion.

“It (the back nine holes) was completed in the early fall, so we needed to protect the soil and turf it over with a cool weather turf,” said Freking, “So we didn’t go with zoysia at first.”

Devou Golf and Event Center Operations Manager David Peru, right, and Freking in front of the new Devou Golf and Event Center Clubhouse. Peru credits Freking’s dedication with driving the upgrades to the popular course, which is owned by the City of Covington.

The process of replacing the turf was tedious, delicate, and very long. The City of Covington owns the course, and its budget did not contain the hefty sum of money for a full a turf renovation, so Freking made the decision that he would do it all in house.

Starting with a small patch of zoysia measuring just a few yards wide, Freking nursed the ground until the zoysia encompassed a full acre where he could now delicately transplant the old with the new.

Freking, alongside a team of a few college students home for summer-break and David Peru, who is now Operations Manager at Devou Golf and Event Center, began the strenuous process of transplanting the zoysia into the fairways.

“We’d take small patches of zoysia sod and piece them in like a checkerboard and allow those, over time, to grow together… It was Ron’s vision and Ron’s idea, we just did all the hard work,” Freking said.

Repeating this process, Freking, Peru, and the team at Devou Golf and Event Center laid the groundwork for the turf that fills the fairways at Devou today.

Freking’s efforts were recognized nationally in May, when Turfnet.com featured his work upgrading the Devou Course in a series focused on labor issues affecting the golf industry.

The turf renovation would ultimately take 10 years and has proven to be a great success for everyone involved, including the city of Covington. So much that just last year, it opened the doors to Devou Golf and Event Center’s newest renovation: the clubhouse.

The state-of-the-art Clubhouse at Devou offers its guests a place to get out of the sun, have a drink, and simply relax.

“We would have never gotten this clubhouse if it weren’t for the work that Ron has done out there,” said Peru. “We are in the business of golf and without Ron, none of this would be possible.”

Throughout his 30 years tending to the grounds at Devou Golf and Event Center, Ron Freking has devoted his time and a good portion of his life to the ground beneath his feet—but he is not done yet.

“We’re just never finished. That’s what keeps it entertaining,” said Freking laughing. “Maybe that’s why I’ve been here for this long. There is always something to do and something to improve the product.”

Peru said that is why Freking is so important and such a valuable asset to the team at Devou Golf and Event Center. His work is a true service and is measured by the sincerity and the impact that subsequently present themselves later on.

“The golfers knew we had a good product out there before and we were that close to getting what we now have,” Peru said. “Creating good turf conditions is something you cannot do in short order, It takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of effort and for Ron to stick with it through the highs and lows, the service he has done speaks for itself. When people come here, they’ll spend five minutes in the clubhouse but four hours out on the fairways seeing his work firsthand.”

Benjamin Shipp is an intern at NKyTribune and a student at the University of Cincinnati. Contact the Northern Kentucky Tribune at news@nkytrib.com


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