Rachel Rohanna Virgili, pro golfer and current head women’s golf coach at Waynesburg University, said she grew up with a club in her hand.
“My sister played, my brother played, my parents did,” Rohanna says. “We were super competitive with each other, which was always fun.”
Rohanna is a Waynesburg native, with both sides of her family involved in the game. Her father owns Rohanna’s Golf Course on Rolling Meadows Rd. in Waynesburg, PA, an 18-hole public course that opened in 1965.
Rohanna says that her maternal grandparents are both professionals in the sport, with her grandfather being her life-long coach.
“Like I said, it’s pretty nice to have on both sides of the family, but at the same time, if you weren’t like shooting really good scores, you weren’t invited to our family reunions,” Rohanna jokes.
Starting tournaments at just eight years old, Rohanna went on to play golf through high school and played at the collegiate level for Ohio State University. In January 2013, she turned pro, playing in 88 Symetra tours, as well as LGPA tours.
“Our tour runs from usually January or February until about October, and I’ll play in about 25 events in that timeframe,” Rohanna explains. “It’s pretty cool though, to get back full-time on the LPGA and stay competitive with it.”
A tournament typically consists of 144 players, with three or four rounds. After two rounds, players are cut to top 60 or 70 plus ties and so on.
Rohanna still looks fondly on her favorite tournament memory. It was fresh off a win in New Zealand, with a jet-lagged surprise.
“I flew into Daytona. I was exhausted. We kept getting rained out. So, one day I had to play 30 holes and then we finished on Monday, and I ended up winning the tournament,” she said. “I found out two days later I was actually six weeks pregnant.”
Rohanna said she could feel something was off but blamed it on the jet lag.
“To be able to say, hey, I won a tournament while I was pregnant—it’s always going to be something pretty special for me,” she says.
She doesn’t yet know if her young daughter will choose to continue her legacy.
“I keep telling myself I’m not forcing it on her, but she has a set of clubs and I’m almost like, gee, why don’t you get out there and hit some balls!” she says.
Rohanna picked up coaching at Waynesburg University in the summer of 2021, after she was asked to join. Some tournaments can cost up to $5,000 to play in, so this helps off-set the costs.
She flew down to Florida earlier this month for qualifiers, with her next tournament in Boca Raton, Florida.
When it’s off-season Rohanna still puts in considerable hours, as any career needs. She says being self-employed means you must keep yourself accountable to completing drills.
“You really got to motivate yourself sometimes to get out of the bed early, get a workout in, get to the course,” she says. “Even if it’s 50 degrees and raining, cold and you have to practice or play, but you know, I love what I do.”
Photo provided by Symetra Tour/Ali Palma.