Woman Wins, To Buy Cow

When Rachel Rohanna won the Guardian Retirement Championship at Sara Bay in late April, she told the post-round media she would pursue purchasing a “new heifer” with her first-place earnings of $16,500. Laughter ensued and headlines were considered, “Woman Wins, To Buy Cow.” But you should know that Rohanna has the background to tell a cow from a bull and more.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have said that,” Rohanna, 24, said the week following her first professional victory. “But it was too late to backtrack. Plus it’s true.”

Rohanna went home to western Pennsylvania and finalized a deal with her husband/cattle rancher, Ethan Virgili, to buy back a cow named Spot that was sold last year. Rohanna had an affection for that “heifer” and completed the re-purchase one week later. Spot was renamed Sara Bay after the Sarasota, Fla., course where she won.

“I guess I’ll have to send the people at Sara Bay a picture to prove it,” Rohanna said.

Rohanna grew up on a farm in rural Waynesburg, Pa., about halfway between Pittsburgh and Morgantown, W.Va. Her paternal great grandfather and grandfather raised cattle there before selling them a decade ago. That’s why she favors cows, hunting and tractor pulls, where she met Ethan, her husband. Ethan, who went to Penn State on a wrestling scholarship, asked her out on a bet to get new tires for his truck and was soon smitten with the 5-foot-2 Rohanna. When they first met, Ethan was raising nine head of beef cattle; the couple now own 96. They also run the butcher shop, Virgili Custom Meats, founded by Ethan’s grandfather. Rohanna attended Ohio State on a golf scholarship and studied Agribusiness, a major that she can easily fall back on.

“When I left Greene County (Pa.) for Columbus, Ohio, I don’t think anybody there had ever heard of a tractor pull,” Rohanna said. “It all felt normal to me growing up on a farm.”

However, golf has been just as prominent in her heritage. Her grandfather’s brothers own a 5,900-yard course in Waynesburg called, simply enough, Rohanna’s Golf Course. It costs $15 to walk 18 holes on the weekend and there is a driving range across the street that, naturally, aims toward a cow field. Older cousin Robert Rohanna plays on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica and was a recent participant on Golf Channel’s “Big Break” series. Younger sister Emily is a junior on the Youngstown State (Ohio) golf team, which qualified for its first-ever NCAA Tournament in early May.

Rohanna’s maternal grandparents in Youngstown, Ohio, have an even deeper tie to golf. Dick Schwartz has been her only instructor and played the mini-tours and PGA Tour. He can correct Rohanna’s swing flaws just by listening to her describe how she’s playing. Her grandmother Roseann Schwartz played on the LPGA and retired as Youngstown State’s longtime women’s coach two years ago.

“I guess we’re a big golfing and farming family,” Rohanna said. “We’ve got eight pros in the family. So somehow that’s working.”

Rohanna has made a steady progression toward a career on the LPGA. She was the 2010 U.S. Women’s Amateur medalist and a two-time all-Big Ten choice at Ohio State.  In her rookie year on the Epson Tour in 2013, she had no top-10 finishes. Last year, she had three top-10s and placed 48^th on the money list. This season, the victory at Sarasota propelled her to fourth on the money list and she ranks second in Driving Distance (274.5-yard average) and fourth in Greens in Regulation (71 percent) and Scoring (72 stroke average).

“I’ve always seen myself playing on the LPGA,” Rohanna said. “But to finally get that win reconfirmed things. Hopefully that will give me enough confidence to get through the rest of my career. The biggest thing is I didn’t play perfect golf and I won. Just hit fairways and greens and if a couple putts fall, you will do well.”

Rohanna said the victory also gave her the luxury of not having to force anything this season and focus on the Epson Tour. She does have one tournament in mind, qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open, scheduled for July 9-12 in Lancaster, Pa., about four hours east of Waynesburg, Pa. It would be her third U.S. Women’s Open appearance.

“When I won the Guardian, my husband sat down and looked at how much a win on the LPGA is worth,” Rohanna said. “When I said that Lydia Ko won $300,000 at the Swinging Skirts, that really got his attention. I guess that would really buy a lot of cows.”