Melissa Yeazell

The Tri County Golf Ranch offers something for every golfer, regardless of age, ability or experience level. Located in Cincinnati, it offers nine par-3 holes ranging in distance from 132 yards up to 175. There is also an expansive 10-hole putting green with its speed set to match the greens on the course, as well as a chipping green and sand bunker. The range features 20 covered hitting stalls with Trackman technology and an indoor simulator is also available.

The facility opened its doors in 2000. PGA professional Melissa Yeazell is right in the middle of it all. Yeazell has been affiliated with the Tri County Golf Ranch since 2015; today she is a co-owner along with fellow PGA professional Larry King, who had a disagreement with a previous business partner.

“They tried it for nine months and it wasn’t working out between the two of them,” Yeazell recalls. “Larry was trying to do it on his own and I clearly saw it was not a one-person job.”

Yeazell started her tenure at the ranch focusing on computer work. But she told Rick Woelfel on the Wonderful Women of Golf podcast that her perspective changed over time.

“I really fell in love with the land and with cutting grass, sitting on a mower and everything that goes into it,” she says. “Every day is different. I never would have thought that this is what I wanted to do, but I absolutely love it.”

The top priority for Yeazell and King was upgrading course conditions.

“The golf course was in horrible shape when my partner first bought it,” she says. “The greens didn’t have a lot of grass on them. The tee boxes had no grass on them. It was a mess. So, our first priority was to get grass on the greens, get grass on the tee boxes and then we spread out to the collars.”

Although there is a superintendent on staff, Yeazell and King do a considerable amount of maintenance themselves.

“One of my favorite parts of owning it is being able to go out there and cut greens or change cups, get my hands in the dirt and really have a close connection to what’s going on [here on] the golf course,” Yeazell says. “I teach a lot, I coach” — Yeazell is the associate women’s golf coach at Northern Kentucky University — “and I’m traveling quite a bit so the mornings I get to cut grass are really special.”

Today, the Tri County Golf Ranch is a busy place that serves a broad clientele. An assortment of high school and middle school teams practice and compete there.

“We provide short tees for beginners to start,” Yeazell says. “We provide longer tees where people can practice hitting into regulation par-3 holes and then we’ve got the driving range. We feel like we’re really relevant.”

Yeazell’s team at Northern Kentucky occasionally practices at the ranch. Yeazell, who played college golf at Xavier University, is in her third season as the associate head coach of the Norse, who compete in the Division I Horizon League. She is committed to helping her players mature as women as well as athletes.

“My college experience wasn’t a great one,” she says. “The education was, the golf wasn’t. I had three different coaches in four years. I didn’t have anyone to help me grow as a person. And I feel like that period of time in your life is so volatile.

“I have eight young women who are 18 to 22 and they’re trying to figure out who they are, who they want to be, what they want to do with life. It’s just such a great time of life and I get to be the one that’s with them and help them make those decisions — but also teach them how to be better golfers and better people.”