Before tackling the par-3 12th, Rohanna had other business to take care of.
LANCASTER, Pa. – The par-3 12th hole proved so difficult in the opening round of the 79th U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club that wait times on the tee lasted 45 to 50 minutes.
So long, in fact, that Rachel Rohanna had time to change a diaper.
With four groups waiting on the tee, Rohanna walked over to visit with her family.
“I was talking to my husband and looked down and happened to see that my youngest was just – went to the bathroom all over the place,” said Rohanna of her 8-month-old daughter, Greenlee.
“I was like, ‘Ethan!’ So I brought them inside the ropes and we went into a roped-off area and changed her. It was a two-man effort to get that taken care of.”
The only player in the field from Pennsylvania, Rohanna hit the opening tee shot to kick off the second Women’s Open at Lancaster. The mother of two, who has LPGA status but primarily plays on the Epson Tour, shot 76 in the opening round.
Before tackling the par-3 12th, Rachel Rohanna had other business to take care of.
LANCASTER, Pa. – The par-3 12th hole proved so difficult in the opening round of the 79th U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club that wait times on the tee lasted 45 to 50 minutes.
So long, in fact, that Rachel Rohanna had time to change a diaper.
With four groups waiting on the tee, Rohanna walked over to visit with her family.
“I was talking to my husband and looked down and happened to see that my youngest was just – went to the bathroom all over the place,” said Rohanna of her 8-month-old daughter, Greenlee.
“I was like, ‘Ethan!’ So I brought them inside the ropes and we went into a roped-off area and changed her. It was a two-man effort to get that taken care of.”
The only player in the field from Pennsylvania, Rohanna hit the opening tee shot to kick off the second Women’s Open at Lancaster. The mother of two, who has LPGA status but primarily plays on the Epson Tour, shot 76 in the opening round.
After winning her first Epson Tour title in 2015, Rohanna bought a heifer to celebrate.
Rachel Rohanna is in the midst of a 10-day road trip on the Epson Tour, one of the longest stints she’s endured away from her husband and two kids. It helped that the day before she left, Rohanna qualified for her fourth U.S. Women’s Open with husband Ethan Virgili on the bag.
With this year’s championship at Lancaster Country Club May 30-June 2, it will be an especially meaningful Women’s Open for the Pennsylvania native. She rented a four-bedroom house for the week, but given the number of family members who plan to make the trip, might need to secure more space.
“This will definitely be a once-in-a-lifetime thing for us,” said Rohanna of playing so close to their Waynesburg home.
Rohanna, 33, medaled at the Shannopin Country Club qualifying site in Pittsburgh with rounds of 69-71, and then boarded an early-morning flight to Phoenix the next day for the Epson Tour stop in Scottsdale. It will be a FaceTime Mother’s Day for Rohanna as she connects with 5-year-old Gemelia and seven-month-old Greenlee from across the country. She’d hoped the family would travel with her out west, but Gemelia couldn’t miss the run-up to her kindergarten graduation.
Rachel Rohanna and family celebrate her medal-winning performance at U.S. Women’s Open qualifying. (courtesy photo)
Rohanna will take the redeye out of Utah after the Copper Rock Championship to make it back for doctors’ appointments, graduation and prep work for Gemelia’s sixth birthday party, featuring a Barbie theme with plenty of pink.
“Every time I turn around, she’s inviting more friends,” said Rohanna, with a laugh. The big event will kick off Sunday of U.S. Women’s Open week.
Juggling tour life, mom life and ranch life is an all-hands-on-deck experience. Rohanna and husband Ethan Virgili own ERV Cattle Co., and they recently had a big sale in Hershey. After winning her first Epson Tour title in 2015, Rohanna bought a heifer to celebrate.
Rohanna was 11 weeks pregnant when she stayed with two-time major winner Brittany Lincicome at a tournament last year and asked what it was like traveling the tour with two young children. The message: You don’t know until you just jump in and do it.
“If you travel with two,” said LPGA veteran and broadcaster Karen Stupples, “it’s not just double the work, it’s exponentially increased.”
Stupples has one son, 17-year-old Logan, whom she raised on tour, but she also had a front-row seat to Catriona Matthew’s time traveling with her two girls.
“People were tricking me when they said, ‘Oh going from one to two is not that hard,’ ” said Rohanna, laughing.
The first time Rohanna took both girls on the road with her was for offseason practice in Florida just after Thanksgiving when Greenlee was two months old. The next time came in March for the Epson Tour opener in Winter Haven, Florida. Rohanna was up three times a night with Greenlee.
“I was like there’s no way I can do this,” she recalled. “I’m up with her three times a night during the tournament and not getting any sleep. The chaos of the week – it showed with my scores.”
They’ve gotten into a better rhythm of late, and family support remains crucial.
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Rohanna won the 2017 Symetra Tour Championship when she was six weeks pregnant with Gemelia and is believed to be the first mom to earn LPGA status through the developmental tour when she graduated in 2021. While Rohanna does have LPGA status from maternity leave, she has yet to make a start on that tour this season.
Traveling with kids in tow is always an adventure, especially on the Espon Tour where there is no daycare. Five years ago, during the final round of the Copper Rock Championship, Rohanna reached into her bag to pull out a club and discovered that Gemelia’s 23-inch kid’s club had slipped to the bottom.
She called over a rules official and received a four-stroke penalty for having a U.S. Kids 7-iron as her 15th club.
The penalty cost her $900 in earnings, critical on a tour that awards LPGA cards based on the money list. The first time Rohanna graduated from the Epson Tour in 2015, she squeaked in the final card by $284.
Rohanna didn’t qualify for Women’s Open the last time it was held at Lancaster, but she was an alternate for the 2010 championship at Oakmont. She was amazed by the support she felt from the community back then even when she wasn’t even in the field.
No doubt it will be strong this time around in a state where Rohanna’s maternal grandmother, Roseann Schwartz, was a golf course owner and head coach at Youngstown State, and her grandfather, Dick Schwartz, played on the PGA Tour and senior circuit.
In the meantime, Mother’s Day will be special for Rohanna, even if she’s a long way from their Pennsylvania home and reliant on technology to bring them together.
Greenlee, who was born with severe hearing loss in her left ear, was fitted for life-changing hearing aids in January. She’s in the process of learning signs now, and lights up when Rohanna brings her hand to her face to sign “mom.”
Gemelia, who likes to write books for mom while she’s gone, will no doubt have a special one ready when Rohanna returns from this long trip.
Epson has a new five-year agreement to be the title sponsor of the LPGA’s official qualifying tour.
Three years ago, Epson partnered with Shaquille O’Neal to help save the world from the hassle of constantly changing printer ink cartridges. O’Neal became the face of the game-changing EcoTank, cartridge-free printers with supersized ink tanks.
That’s how a supersized O’Neal eventually found himself in Atlanta taping a video with the petite Rachel Rohanna to help announce Epson’s new five-year agreement as title sponsor of the LPGA’s official qualifying tour.
“I was a good 2 feet shorter,” said Rohanna. “I’m kind of used to looking up to people, but he held my golf club and it looked like a toothpick in his hand.”
The online commercial will be released on Wednesday across Shaq’s social channels. The former NBA superstar and TV regular has 24 million followers on Instagram, 15.6 million on twitter and 9.2 million on Facebook as well as his own reality show called “Shaq Life.”
Rachel Rohanna hangs out with husband Ethan Virgili and daughter Gemelia at an Epson Tour event. (Courtesy photo)
So far everything about the Epson Tour’s relationship with the LPGA has been next-level – from the little things like lowering the cost of entry fees by 10 percent ($50), to bigger things like guaranteed purses of at least $200,000 and $10,000 sponsorship opportunities for tour graduates. And, of course, Shaq.
Celebrities aren’t often associated with qualifying tours.
“I’ve been thinking about how we could get involved in golf for a long time,” said Keith Kratzberg, CEO, Epson America, Inc.
“There’s a lot involved with the various aspects of sponsorship. The charity aspect is a really important aspect of professional golf. … As a qualifying tour, we asked ourselves the question: What’s really important here?”
Players certainly appreciate the extra mile.
“I thought it was incredible that a global brand like Epson was kind of putting the money into the tour,” said Epson graduate Fatima Fernandez Cano, “and not only just saying, here’s some money, now you’re on the tour, go on with your life.
Rachel Rohanna and NBA star Shaquille O’Neal (courtesy of Epson)
Rohanna, the first mother to graduate from the Epson Tour, said it was intimidating to test out her acting skills for the first time in front of Shaq, but that he made their hour together “chill.”
“It always blows my mind that people have never heard of the Epson Tour,” said Rohanna, “formally the Symetra Tour. To have someone like Shaq … he’s a great guy in general, to have this many followers, and announce it and actually be enthusiastic about it, I think it’s great for everyone.
“It’s going to be huge.”
Rohanna invited Shaq to a pro-am and to visit the family farm in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
“The way I’m thinking about it,” said Kevin Garton, Epson’s Head of Brand Strategy and Marketing, “is it’s just the beginning.”
The first time Rachel Rohanna graduated from the Symetra Tour in 2015, she squeaked in the final card by $284. It was a valuable every-shot-counts lesson.
Earlier this year during the final round of the Copper Rock Championship, Rohanna reached into her bag to pull out a club and discovered that daughter Gemelia’s 23-inch club had slipped to the bottom. She called over a rules official and received a four-stroke penalty for having a U.S. Kids 7-iron as her 15th club.
Rohanna, 30, couldn’t help but look at the money list to see how much the oversight had cost her. Could that $900 be what keep her from earning back her LPGA card?
“That was haunting me the entire time,” said Rohanna, who ultimately finished 10th on the Symetra Tour money list to once again earn the last card. This time, however, $4,429 separated her from No. 11 Beth Wu.
Rachel Rohanna celebrates graduating from the Symetra Tour with daughter Gemelia. (courtesy photo)
Rohanna, who won the 2017 Symetra Tour Championship when she was six weeks pregnant, is believed to be the first mom to earn LPGA status through the developmental tour. With no daycare available on the Symetra Tour, Rohanna spent about half the season on the road with 3-year-old Gemelia – with help from family – and half the time traveling on her own. She and husband Ethan Virgili own ERV Cattle Co. in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, and lead jam-packed lives.
The family butcher shop opened back up last month and now that she’s home, Rohanna will help out there from time to time. There’s a big cattle sale coming up, and the couple hope to soon have 90 calves born on the ranch.
Farm life feels an awful lot like being a tour professional at times – long hours, varying paydays, nothing happens overnight and it often feels like a 24/7 job.
There are times when Gemelia goes to practice with her mom, and times she’s up at 4 a.m. with dad checking on the cattle. The couple has a tremendous support system of grandparents and great-grandparents.
“I guess (Ethan) and I never really went into marriage or parenthood with some type of assumed roles with things,” said Rohanna. “We just both knew we were teammates in this, and we were both willing to work extremely hard with our careers and do the best that we can to raise a human.”
While support from her community and sponsors has been terrific, Rohanna said, there have been enough negative comments along the way that have spurred her on.
“It’s really hard, isn’t it?
“You’re probably going to give up soon.”
“You’re not going to be able to do this.”
“Who’s watching your daughter?”
“It blows my mind that people actually have the nerve to say that your face,” said Rohanna.
Ethan has actually flown on his own with Gemelia more than Rachel – coming out to meet her on the road – and she marvels at the number of women who go out of their way to help him on the plane.
She often feels judged for continuing to pursue a career as a touring pro, while at the same time, some assume her husband can’t take care of the family while she’s gone.
“I get frustrated on his behalf,” she said.
Rachel Rohanna poses with husband Ethan and daughter Gemelia. (courtesy photo)
Two big keys to the consistency of the season, Rohanna said, involved changing from an interlocking to overlap grip at the start of the year, and working with Callaway’s Barry Lyda to change the lie of her clubs from standard to three degrees flat.
“Honestly, without his suggestion,” she said, “I know I wouldn’t have been scoring as well this season.”
During a two-week break in the schedule with three events left in the season, Rohanna and Gemelia tested positive for COVID-19. It worked out well that they could quarantine on the ranch while they recovered and practice in the front yard. The closest neighbor resides a half mile away.
Rohanna felt weaker as the season wound down and dealt with cramps. She ultimately tore a muscle near her rib cage and felt the most pain when she tried to sleep. Rohanna wasn’t sure how much of her troubles could be attributed to end-of-season wear and how much to COVID-19, but she knew there was no choice left but to grind.
“I told myself I’ve made it this far,” she said. “I’m not going to let anything get in my way at this point.”
