Golf Dads
Just 3 guys who carry the bag for their kids on the weekend. And then some.
Golf Dads
From Junior Golfer to Pro: Rachel Rohanna's Golf Journey
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In this episode, professional golfer Rachel Rohanna shares her journey from junior golf in Southwest PA to competing in the US Women's Open. She discusses the importance of multi-sport development, family influence, and her initiatives to grow junior golf through her Tee to Green Rachel Rohanna Foundation.
key topics
- Rachel Rohanna's early golf influences
- The role of family in developing a golfer
- Importance of multi-sport participation for young athletes
- Initiatives to promote junior golf in local communities
- Training tips and mental game insights from Rachel Rohanna
Hey everybody, welcome. Another episode of the Golf Dads Podcast. Uh this is Ryan. I'm usually joined by Adam and Jason, but they're absent today. Jason is on vacation, family vacation and tied up, and Adam is busy with work and life. So we wanted to get one out and it just kind of worked out to where it's me and our guest today's schedules aligned. Rachel Rohana. Well, I don't know. That's your maiden name. What is your married name? I don't want to mispronounce it.
SPEAKER_00So that's okay. Actually, it's Rohanna.
SPEAKER_01Rohanna.
SPEAKER_00But everybody says Rohana, so maybe we pronounce it wrong. Rachel Virgilli is my married name. So, you know, I know we're all kind of based out of Southwestern PA. So some people may know some of the Rohanas, some people may know some of the Virgillies around here.
SPEAKER_01Right. And yeah, Southwest PA. And hopefully we're reaching all across the golf land with this podcast. And you're in Colorado right now, correct?
SPEAKER_00I am, yep. Denver.
SPEAKER_01Denver, yeah. So for some of you that may not know, Rachel grew up playing junior golf locally and I think on into Ohio State, right? And then is now playing professional golf. And I think that's what you're doing in Colorado, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Uh no U.S. Open for me this week. So I'm at the Colorado Open, um, which is one of our bigger state tournaments here in the U.S. Um So yeah, it's uh a little rough starting day for our first day yesterday, but hoping to steal some more birdies today.
SPEAKER_01Stealing birdies. I like it. That sounds like that sounds like a pretty cool hat, stealing birdies. Yeah. So growing up, Southwest PA, you played a lot of junior golf, and uh your family owned a golf course or still does, correct? Yes.
SPEAKER_00So my great uncles own Rohanna's in Waynesburg. Yeah. So I grew up playing at Rohanna's, and that was obviously from my dad's side, but I feel like a lot of people don't realize this. But on my mom's side, her parents were both professionals. So um I actually grew up learning the game from my grandfather, she was my coach my whole life, and my grandma she would chime in occasionally if she knew my grandfather wasn't around or listening. She was actually more of my sister's coach, and she helped my sister more. My grandfather helped me a little bit more, but they still worked together as a team. And my grandmother was the the the coach at Youngstown State for about I want to say it was like 20 years. Um she retired. Yeah, she retired when she turned 75. She was literally my sister's college coach as well, which, you know, I always think was pretty cool. Not too many grandmother-granddaughter duos in Division I sports, um, or any sport, I feel like, at any level. Um, and then my grandfather played a little bit on tour in the 60s, and he was the the head pro at East Liverpool Country Club for a number of years. So I did spend a little bit of time over at East Liverpool Country Club where he would give me lessons and help me out and and um but I would, you know, they would take me to a lot of uh junior tournaments when I was younger too. So a huge help with the game uh in my life, you know, growing up. So it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01Well that yeah, that's pretty cool. So it is certainly a family affair then, huh? Oh yeah. It's a golf friends deep.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01If you weren't like I'd say under an eight handicap in the family, you weren't really invited to plan any family outings or events of any sort, so it's funny because I see like you know, social media is so present, and uh we sh the two other hosts with me, we share a lot of golf type reels back and forth, and there's one that goes around. I don't know if you saw, but it's actually funny, it kind of reminds me of what you just said, but something to the effect of uh a uh a guy broke up with his girlfriend or a girlfriend broke up with the boyfriend, but the boyfriend was a pretty good golfer, and the dad still stays in touch with him via text and said he was he's playing golf with the new boyfriend, and he's like, ah, he sucked.
SPEAKER_00You know what? I think I have seen that one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's yeah, so that's funny. It that that's how deep golf can be. I mean, it's a serious game in some circles, you know, and also it's a great game. Oh, yeah, for sure. So that's pretty cool. So your grandfather was kind of your coach growing up. Walk me through that. What did that look like? What how how old were you when when you started?
SPEAKER_00So I never knew this, but apparently my dad told me, like, I don't know, it's maybe a year or two ago that when I was younger, I had like a baton or something, and we were all upstairs playing, my siblings and I, and I just happened to be swinging at like a golf club. I have no idea how old I was, I'm guessing four or five, six, somewhere in that age range. And he said he was like, Oh, she had a pretty good swing, uh, that I had a pretty good swing. So he went running downstairs and told my mom, all right, it's time to get you know Rachel started. And um, but it it's kind of a gray area because I feel like we were all born with a club in our hands. Like it was all to us, it just it was like we just assumed everybody golfed. We assumed it was normal to be a professional golfer. Um, you know, obviously on my dad's side, my uncle Randy was the the pro at Rohanna's golf course. My cousin Robert, a lot of people know of him. He he went a long time playing in he played at Penn State and then played a lot on Latin American tour and some other mini tours. And then back to my mom's side, my grandfather, my grandmother, obviously, and then both of my mom's brothers played a little bit of mini tour stuff and and dabbled a little bit in the teaching side as well. So, like I said, it was a little bit of a gray area. He claims that that was kind of the point where he said, Okay, you know, it looked like at a good natural swing, let's let's get things going. And but again, like golf was just so like part of my normal life. I felt like, you know, there's always golf books, golf magazines. We were always talking about golf. There's there was Rohanna's course on my side of the family, and then on or on my dad's side, on my mom's side, they actually did. I forgot to mention this too, they had a little par three up in Columbia and Ohio with Sperm Pines. So again, it was like it was normal. And then whenever I got to second or third grade, I think we did like a little like project on what we wanted to be when we grow up. And um it must have been third grade because second grade when we did that, I said I want to be a marine biologist, but my parents told me that was not realistic. So apparently being a professional golfer was much more realistic. That's funny. Looking back, I guess you know, funny things kids say. So yeah, I remember writing in third grade, I wanted to be a professional golfer like my parents. And again, back then, like I just assumed they're good golfers, they must be professional like everybody else in the family. And they came home to say, well, no, we're not professional golfers, but your grandparents are and your uncle is. And so then that's kind of when the wheels started turning with me. And I was like, you know, I kind of I like the idea of this, and I guess, you know, I I was always super competitive. I played all different sports growing up, and I remember thinking, you know, if I could, if I could play a game or sport and be competitive the rest of my life and make a living out of it, I mean, that doesn't sound like too bad of a deal. So I think that third grade was kind of when I was like, yeah, you know what, let's start signing up from some tournaments. Um I was really nervous for my first tournament. I actually, my grandfather kind of pushed me into it and I didn't want to do it. I shot 69 for nine holes. I was eight years old and won the tournament by one shot. And I'll never forget the look on my the girl that shot 70 on her face. Hey, I guess this sounds bad, but that really pushed me into like, okay, I'm gonna get good at this game and I wanna I wanna win all the time. So I practiced and I think about a month later I played in another tournament, shot 54 and finished second. But I think I was bumped up to a little bit older age group. Um where I know the girl that won was a little bit older than me. But I remember shooting 54 and calling my dad and being telling him like every shot of the the course that I had and so excited because 54 sounded like a pretty darn good score to me.
SPEAKER_01Right, yeah, advancing quickly, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then I wanna say so I was eight, so then the following year is when I started the uh Southwest Pennsylvania junior golf tour, and I think all I remember from that year is taking a 10 on number two at Nemicolin Country Club. I just like I remember having some decent scores, but like uh I just remember Nemicolin Country Club playing really difficult.
SPEAKER_01When your practice routine at a young age, was it was it a strict practice or was he just letting you do your thing?
SPEAKER_00I would say when I was with my grandfather is always lessons, and the thing that I loved about the way he gave lessons uh and I try to do this if I'm ever giving a lesson too, I'm not nearly as good at it, but he you know, he would let me hit shots and not jump in for every single shot. It was like between every 10 balls, then he would come in and say something like, Hey, you know, the reason why you're doing this is because of this. And so you need to feel like the clubhead is here in your swing. So, you know, it was always pretty simple lessons. Everything was very, very simple with him. It was a lot of where do we need to get the clubhead? I specifically remember starting out though, uh using it was like a men's driver when I was like nine or ten years old, and he told me just swing as hard as I can, we'll worry about accuracy later. So 25 years later, we're still worrying about accuracy. But I'm hitting it far. Yeah, right. So, you know, it was always like I said, he kept things extremely simple. He was always teaching about where does the club head need to be. Um and I think, you know, that the way he taught the swing with that was it kind of made everything else fall in place. Like, for example, I host a lot of junior clinics over the winter, and some of the parents were like, Well, can you explain what this hip and this knee and this and shoulder and blah, blah, blah needs to do? And I said, you know, I'm really trying to emulate like what my grandfather did, and that's hey, the club head needs to be here. And yeah, we dive a little bit more into like, okay, where do the hands need to be? Where should we be rotating a little bit? But I do think that if you kind of keep it simple like that, everything kind of does fall into place for most people. So that was pretty cool. He never really gave me specific like practice drills to do. He gave me a couple drills where, you know, I'd laid down an alignment stick on the other side of the ball and to work on my club path. And um, you know, you know, he'd say, You need to go out there and try to hit 10 nine irons between like within 30 feet of each other, like set up two den caddies 10 yards away from each other. He goes, I remember him saying, I bet you can't even get three out of 10 in here. And um, you know, that was also kind of to where I started realizing, yeah, I mean, I hit good shots, but he's right, like I wasn't getting it within 15 feet of the pin every time. And that sounds like a hard feat to do, and it was, but it kind of started really getting me to hone in on my accuracy with my irons. And, you know, I'll I'll remember, I remember him telling me, you know, each round you should have at least one kick-in putt. So he said, especially if I'm a longer hitter, I have a long a lot of wedges in. So basically saying you need to get to work on your wedges. Like you need to be able to hit or kick one of these in. So basically have it three footer or less at least once once around. And I think that that's, you know, and I do realize when I'm having a good season or good streak of weeks or good rounds, and he's absolutely right. It's, you know, a lot of people can look at the putting and say, oh, I'm struggling with my putting, struggling with my putting. But in reality, if you're not hitting it close, you know, you're it's really not your putting. Um and to go on farther in my career, real quick, my college coach said, you know, if you're three putting from outside of 30 feet, don't even blame your putter, basically. So those stats were thrown out the out the door if we were, you know, sit marking down, oh, we three putted six times. Well, how far were you? Oh, 45 feet here, 35 feet here, 60 feet here. And she'd say, Okay, well, that wasn't, you know, that wasn't your putter's fault. That was because you weren't hitting it close enough. So, you know, I mean, I think that going back to my grandfather, um, that question with what kind of practice did he have me set up doing. And like I said, it was it was very simple lessons. And then, you know, going to putting, um, you know, again, I don't remember any specific drills. I remember him giving me a few tips here and there and and just saying, just spend some time on the putting green. Like go out there and just putt. And, you know, it's okay to mess around with different types of grips. And, you know, do you like a split grip? Do you like um the double overlap? Do you like just a conventional type grip, left hand low? So, you know, kind of teaching me to try to be creative with the putting. And, you know, I again, I I don't think putting's always the strong part of my game, but you know, I think that I did learn a lot of little things from him growing up that that stuck with me and and has helped me a lot with with the putting and chipping too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. How old do you think you were whenever he started, you know, you know, hit hit 10 10 nine irons within 30 feet? How, you know, was that early on or was that, you know, after you kind of established yourself as a junior golfer and and now we're actually actively trying to get better?
SPEAKER_00I would say that that was I think I remember that being down in Florida. And so I'm guessing that was my freshman year in high school. And again, like leading up to that, uh, you know, wasn't like I was going out, like I was playing competitive tournaments. I think I did my first US Open qualifier when I was in eighth grade and shot, you know, like maybe 80, 82, 80 or something. Like I don't remember breaking 80 at the US Open qualifier. But again, like I was 13 playing, you know, US Open setup course in terrible weather in Pittsburgh. Um, but I do remember being in Florida. So my freshman year in high school, I spent the month of January with my grandparents down in St. Petersburg and practiced all day for a month straight. And I'm pretty sure it was that that month that he had said, okay, you know, it's time to start really honing in on this. And and I remember him teaching me like that was a time when we started honing in a lot more on my wedges too, and learning kind of that dead wrist move and using kind of more of my upper body to hit some wedges too. Um, kind of a strive stricker move, I feel like. And I also remember my grandparents arguing about how many balls I was hitting. Surprisingly, my grandmother told my grandfather I needed to be out there until my hands bled. And my grandfather, because I my I remember my hands were hurting after about a week. I said, you know, I'm starting to get blisters. And my grandmother's saying, Well, you need to be out there until your hands bleed. And my grandfather's saying, No, she can take a break. She can take a break, which anybody that would listen to this and hear that would probably be like blown away because they probably would have always assumed the opposite. But I remember them saying that. And so that was that was a pretty special month for me, though, to get to spend that time with my grandparents down there and and learn so much about my game and the game of golf and playing golf with my grandparents and you know, learning from somebody who had some experience on tour and another person who coaches Division I athletes kind of how to manage the game while you're playing, like while you're out on a course. Uh so I would say that that was that was probably the big turning point of my my my game.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So like you're 14, 15 years old, and then that kind of set you up to go through high school and then on into college. It's just, you know, that instruction, then the work ethic. So it that's interesting that you bring up, you know, grandma saying you need to be out there until your hands bleed, because that yeah that you hear that a lot. But also, you know, I think it's very true that you need a break and maybe more so now, you know, because golf is is gaining so much attention from young players. Oh yeah. It's probably way different now than even when you were playing, like especially in in the girls' division. But as you know, my daughter plays and you know, we just finished up the Ohio spring tour, and the girls' division, uh, the nine and ten-year-old girls was waitlisted every tournament. I mean, yeah. Like it was full, and there was a wait list. I mean, that's how many girls are getting into golf. And I swear it's just been like in the last three or four years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And these girls are nine, you know, my daughter's nine years old. You were so you said something earlier about playing multiple sports growing up and being competitive, you know, and when you start to travel around in the golf circle, excuse me, like with US kids and everything, you see young players, young athletes that are, you know, they're they're just playing golf. They're not doing other things. They're they're solely focused on getting better at golf. And I listen to other podcasts and read, and and you know, when you're at a young age, I think it's very important. A lot of the experts are saying it's very important to develop as an athlete. Yes. And then maybe focus, you know. And I know you had mentioned one time to me before that you played softball a lot, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Um competitively until high school and then just high school golf or high school softball, which we were competitive. I mean, we were at Whitbules and even states one year, so state playoffs. So, but yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01What do you think it is, you know, if we want a the key to success, what do you think it is as far as if you had to break it down age-wise, you know, on playing different sports, solely focusing on golf, you know, what what do you how do you think that that looks to you?
SPEAKER_00So, you know, I think about this a lot because I think back to my junior career as a golfer and then, you know, the different sports I played. I played basketball through middle school as well. And, you know, and and obviously soft softball is actually my favorite sport. But again, I knew I back in third grade, I'm like, you know, I could potentially have a career in golf. So let's, you know, let's make sure we focus a lot on that as well. And I think back to even my husband who wrestled at Penn State and played baseball and and uh football as well. And you're absolutely right. I think it's extremely important to develop an athlete. Now, you know, everybody's different too. Like you think about different sports, you think about kids and their different personalities and thinking about them in school and even adults in the workplace. And everybody learns differently, everybody's motive to bait it differently. So I think golf is that unique sport where there's a lot of people that I play with that are golfers and they aren't athletes. Um and they'll tell me that. Like, you know, they're like, I mean, I've walked down the fairway with uh a player that had finished second at the US Open. And, you know, eight months later, I'm walking down the fairway with her, and she's telling me she hates sports, she hates sweating, and you know, she doesn't like being outside in the sun. And I'm like, well, why are you here? She's like, because I'm good at it and I can make a lot of money with it. So, you know, again, going back to every kid, I think is going to be different. And I'm learning that now too with my my two daughters. I can tell which one is going to need a little bit more praise and which one's going to thrive more on that. Like, hey, is this the best that you can do? Let's push yourself a little bit farther, right? And I think that's extremely important as coaches, teachers, and parents, no matter where these kids are, whether it's on the ball field, golf course, classroom, just at home, to really, you know, tune into how's your kid going to enjoy doing this? And I'm not saying I started a junior golf foundation to make this all fun so that my daughter would also participate and socialize with all these kids, but you know, I saw how my daughter was like developing and how she was a social person and wanted to have fun with everything. And I thought, you know what, that's something different that I didn't have growing up. I and I I liked the competitive side of it. Again, like that's what I thrived on. And so I started this junior golf foundation to help kids like this to be around other kids their age that wanted to just go out and have fun and learn the fundamentals of golf. And so again, for that particularly, I keep it fun and interesting. And, but I also try to keep an athletic side to it where at the end we do a competition, I bring in a physical therapist that can do some strength training and injury prevention stuff with the kids. But then also going back to like, and I tell the parents, like, you know, this game's different than a lot of other games. It's very mental, it's very stressful. So at this age, like going back to your question, at what age do you like, you know, start the turning point of things? Let's keep it them having fun with it. I have so many parents asking for lessons for their kids. And I'm like, listen, first of all, personally, I can only do an hour lesson just because of the closest place I can go is a half an hour way to give a lesson. So if I'm going there, I have to do an hour lesson. And your six-year-old isn't going to focus for an hour. It's probably, it's not that it's not going to be worth your time or money, but at the same time, let's bring them into this hour and a half clinic where they can have some socializing with it, work on their putting also and the chipping and have a little game going and just get some swings in and learn some basic fundamentals. So I think that this foundation and what I kinda that has naturally happened and what I believe is those kids about, you know, 10 and under, that's kind of what they need with this game of golf. They need to have fun with it. They need to be exposed to it. They need a little bit better access to it. And they want to see kids their age also doing it, right? Um I think that's absolutely amazing. You said that the girls, what was it, nine and under, ten and under. They nine and ten year olds, yeah. Yeah. It's a completely full field and there's a wait list. I think that's amazing. And yeah. So I, you know, I do think they it's important though that these parents come in here and realize that you know, there's so much with this game that these kids can do with it. And it's not just playing at a division one level or any type of college level and then playing professional. You know, let's keep this fun so that they learn these fundamentals so that they can use it maybe as a sales rep somewhere, or maybe they will end up in the golf industry doing something else. But at least now they're familiar with the game. Super important for these kids to be playing multiple sports, in my opinion. When I committed to Ohio State, I told my coach, I said, you know, I I definitely want to come to Ohio State. And I think I was, you know, rules were different back then. I think I was a sophomore maybe in high school. I may have even been a freshman, I honestly can't remember. I said, I absolutely want to come here, but just so you know, like I'm not going to stop playing softball through my high through my entire high school career. And here's a, I think, common misconception with with parents with any sport that their child's playing. And she said, now keep in mind, this is a, you know, a coach that's coaching at Ohio State, like one of the top programs in the country for multiple sports. And she said, absolutely, I love recruiting multi-sport athletes. I think it's very important that I recruit athletes. And I would never ask you to stop playing softball. You know, maybe some things are changing, but again, going back to your child's personality, like if they're like, hey, no, this is all I really want to do. I don't even really like sports, but I love golf. That's totally fine. Great. Continue, go with that. But if your kid wants to play two, three, four sports, then let that happen. Um again, you're training an athlete, and I think that those skills and all that knowledge that they're gonna learn growing up, playing different sports is only going to better them, not to mention the injury prevention side of it too. Uh, I don't know all of the science behind it, but it sounds like kind of common sense about, you know, hey, if you're if you're doing one sport and doing the same thing over and over and over, yeah, you're probably gonna start losing some muscle in certain places that you're not using it or stressing your body more in a particular area. So, you know, if you're training yourself to be, you know, your fast twitch muscles, maybe in as a pitcher, right, in softball. You know, you're working on your stamina by playing basketball or soccer. And and even like, you know, in softball, I did bat left-handed for a year. So to kind of balance out the swing too, I think I just think it's so important. And so, you know, again, I think you have to look at the individual person, the individual child, the individual athlete, like what do they want to do? You kind of have to take their lead on it and let them kind of run with it. And, you know, it's something that I have to every single day back away and think about that with my own kids. And but yeah, I mean, multi-sport athletes, I think, you know, make the best athletes and professionals in in any sport.
SPEAKER_01I think, you know, you you really hit the nail on the head with there's not a blanket way of doing it, and and every kid's different. The personalities, what they're into, what they're not into, I think is very important. And sometimes it's really hard for parents, and and you know, I'm guilty of this as well, is we kind of guide them to the direction we want them to go.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Oh, yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_01You know, and and to be honest, it sounds like you came from that family too, right? Like uh the a family of golfers, and you know, you were you know you you you you absorbed golf.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Or maybe just all sports in general. Uh it probably sounds like it wasn't an accident that you know you ended up playing a lot of different sports and were very competitive.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, so my dad played football at Youngstown State. My mom was a cheerleader at Youngstown State, and I know my mom wanted one of her daughters to cheer or dance or something. We did for a couple of years, but wasn't my sister or my thing at all. But golf was definitely something they handed over to the grandparents, and I think that that was like huge on their part and our part. Grandkids, I think, listen to their grandparents much better than they do their parents. So yeah, and and so, but yeah, I mean, my parents, you know, they were both at pretty athletic and and did different things. And then my brother, my older brother, he loved baseball. So, you know, at a young age, I was out there throwing the ball with him. And so that's why I think I fell in love with softball too. And and then my sister and I, we would make up all kinds of games for golf, and that's how things got fun for us. I remember trying to see who could hit the better flop shot over our house growing up from the front yard to the backyard. And we'll just say that there were a couple windows that were close to being broken, shattered, but we didn't shatter any windows. We may have put a few dents in the siding, but we eventually got that ball over the house. And yeah, and my parents didn't even yell. You know, they said they're like, Oh, good job. Like, I don't know how much they were freaking out inside, but and then, like, you know, even basketball. I mean, I remember in the summers putting a flashlight on our basketball hoop and being outside and playing with my brothers and his friends that were older and my friends, and being out there till 10:30, 11 o'clock at night, and just having so much fun doing that. So yeah, I mean, I was pretty lucky. I don't know if my parents, like, in some sense, it's almost like they were totally oblivious, but I don't think that was actually the case. They were just so good at letting us kind of take the lead and and pushing us when we needed it, but not in a way that was like overbearing, right? I remember my mom in high school telling us, hey, you know, let's go practice chipping and putting before school, and I'll take you to Hardy's and get an ice cream cone. And so we would do that occasionally. And then my dad would lay out like a dollar bill or five dollar bill or $10 bill in our in our living room on the carpet in the winter. And we'd practice putting and he'd say, Okay, if you stop this golf ball on one of these bills, you get to keep it. So um, that was also kind of motivating. Uh, my my brother would set up putt-putt courses inside on the carpet. So, you know, always like supporting everything and motivating us, but never and pushing us, but never, you know, more than it was going to not be fun anymore.
SPEAKER_01Right. A healthy, a healthy nudge.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So, you know, again, being 25 years down the road now, looking back, if there were it, what do you think it are good sports for if you're going to have a multi-sport athlete, what do you think are good sports that translate to get into that would translate well into golf as you get older?
SPEAKER_00So, you know, nowadays, pickleball, I think that that's awesome. I think that, and and my oldest is really gaining a lot of interest in pickleball. Again, her grandmother, my mom, is huge into pickleball, so I don't think that's a coincidence. You know, that kind of really teaches these kids or or tennis, right? Or or or but baseball or softball, but you think about pickleball and you think about tennis with that racket or the paddle and you know, the kids kind of naturally learn, hey, if I face this this way to the left, it's gonna make that ball go left. If I push it out to the right, it's gonna go right. If I want to hit it down the line, I have to get it squared up. And whether they truly know that or subconsciously learn that, I mean, I think that translates great to the golf swing. It ki keeps their fast twitch muscles, you know, going. Because the the swing itself, what is that they say? It's like 1.5 seconds or two seconds or something.
SPEAKER_01So you do need a a round of 18 holes, somebody calculated is like less than four minutes.
SPEAKER_00Right, right, when you're swinging the club. So like you need you need those fast twitch muscles for the swing. Um and then, you know, the the running, the s jumping, the this, you know, back and forth, the agility work, I think, and the stamina you need for pickleball, I think that um that kind of translates into walking nine or eighteen holes and you know, it builds that endurance, which you definitely need for golf. It's it can be a frustrating sport. So, you know, you're kind of taking a little bit of the mental part of that too onto the golf course. I've been playing a lot of pickleball myself, and and uh, you know, the things that I've struggled with a little bit on the golf course sometimes translates over to the pickleball court. Um, for me personally, like with pickleball, I struggle with my serves, getting my serves in. And to me, that's kind of similar to those short putts that I've been struggling with. And so over the winter, like, you know, I kind of had to mentally get over that that, you know, that serve yip. And and I played a few tournaments over the winter. So it was, you know, a competitive level. And I think it did kind of translate into the start of my season this year, like getting to those short putts where I was really struggling with last year. I kind of said, okay, well, you know, you were mentally able to overcome this and pickleball. And and it sounds so trivial and like, you know, okay, well, is it really helping? But it did, you know, it anytime you're working on your mental game, no matter what sport it is, it's going to help with another sport or help you in another area of life. So I do think pickleball, I mean, it's it's a pretty accessible sport. It's not super expensive. You can go out and play with your friends and your family. I think that's a good one to get into. When it comes to baseball and softball, like I said, I batted left-handed for a year. I think that's really that'd be really interesting, especially for the girls who play softball. If they bat or and they golf right-handed, trying to switch over to the left-handed side, become a slapper, who knows? Maybe you are a power hitter, maybe you're that number two hitter that, you know, you're going to be laying down a lot of bunts. But now you're kind of training both sides of your brain and both sides of your body to swing and balance differently. I think that that would be a good sport. Again, going back to even like basketball and soccer, I mean, you're building the endurance of stamina and a mental strength with that too. That'll translate to the golf course. And and, you know, a lot of my golfer friends, they are runners too. And they said it helps them so much with their mental gain. Maybe I should start running. Uh, because, you know, you're out there alone. It's a it's an individual sport and you're pushing yourself to go an extra minute or mile, right? So anything you do, I think, is going to help. But, you know, I think pickleball would be a really good one for these kids to also throw in there. And and that's another sport where, you know, you don't have to take it super competitively, or you can and you can build up and become a better pickleball player. And but I think there's a lot of things that do translate to the golf swing um and and just playing golf in general.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and Scotty Scheffler is a huge pickleball fan. I don't know if he's plays a lot of pickleball, and I guess he's extremely competitive. So I agree. I think uh, you know, the lateral movements to side to side, shifting weight, you know, paddle control translates to clubhead control. Yeah, I mean, just any swing. I've heard, you know, basketball is a good lateral movement, um, it strengthens the legs and endurance. It's funny that you say that, and a lot of people don't seem to equate a level of endurance with golf, you know. Yeah. But there is certainly, especially what we're learning, and I'm sure you know as well, growing up in Southwest PA, if you could walk the courses around here, you could probably play about anywhere.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Especially in the heat and the humidity in the summertime.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_01And that's just not something you can go out and do. I mean, you have to, I would think, have to train for that. Especially if you're carrying your own bag, you know, as a junior golfer or pushing your own cart, if you will. But yeah, physical endurance is is is extremely important, I think, for any athlete. I I I've always said it it I don't care what you're doing, even sitting at a desk, it doesn't hurt. There's no downside of being in shape. Like exactly you're only going to function better if you're in better shape. That's I just don't see a downside, right?
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And you know, and as I get older, I see it too. But and even older people that come to me for lessons, and I think that they think, yeah, there's this stereotype around golf being like, oh, you don't have to be in shape. And and no offense to John Daly, but you know, he doesn't set the best example when it comes to that. And but you know, everybody's learned that he's just his own breed, right?
SPEAKER_01And I but I But he's the anomaly for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. But I have so many people come to me and and it's it's like, you know, I understand what you want to do with the golf swing, I understand what you're trying to do, but you're not flexible here or you don't have that strength here. And it and it's probably hard for adults to hear, but it's the truth. And, you know, I notice it myself. Um when I start having certain misses, it's because my lower body isn't firing the way it needs to. And that's because I, you know, I had a lower back injury a year and a half ago and um did something to my glute. I think on top of that, and I think it's very obvious when I start stop doing a lot of glute strengthening exercises because, you know, my lower body gets lazy and I start kind of getting a block or a snap hook that comes into play. And that's also like, you know, on top of that, I'm walking four, three, four or five rounds a week, traveling. I'm sitting on an airplane for sometimes up to four hours at a time, changing time zones, not getting much sleep. Um, and it's hard to kind of continue doing all of that strength training and flexibility work while performing at a top level and working on my game and having kids and a family.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00But, you know, like I said, I have a lot of older people come to me that want to do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, well, you know, I'm gonna help you with your swing here. It's probably gonna be hard for you to get into a certain position. I would actually recommend going to, you know, um, a physical therapist. And and for, you know, luckily in our area, my um, my cousin has Ronsberg physical therapy in Washington. He's actually TPI certified. So he's certified in knowing the golf swing and you know, picking out where are you weak, why are you weak, or or even like let's prevent an injury this way. And he has helped me personally significantly in coming back from multiple injuries and also, you know, and even having kids, like, you know, rebuilding my core muscles and just like, you know, it the my I feel like some in some cases my anatomy even changed from carrying around a child for nine months. So just you know, helping me with with that kind of recovery and and then the injury prevention for things has been a huge help. And you know, I know this is more for kids, but if there's anybody out there listening that's probably over the age of 20, highly suggest finding a golf-specific plan for strength training. I think that that helps a lot of older people, um, adults too. So and I wonder kids too, though. I mean, you know, getting, you know, working already on injury prevention more at probably the high school age would be helpful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And I that you said your cousin owns the the physical therapy and he's TTI certified. So that's Tyless Performance Institute. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I wanted to bring that up, uh, and that could be a whole nother episode. We'd love to have him on along with you down the road and talk about strength training for golf or injury prevention, and especially as you see a lot of these young kids, you know, focusing solely on one sport, you know, let's let's talk about what we should be aware of, what could happen, the potentials, and so forth. But I know you're on a a time constraint, but I do want to mention um, you know, what you've started with your junior golf academy, and I think you've partnered with your cousin in the the the Tidless Performance Institute. So talk about that and and so forth.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So um about, well, let's see here, not this past winter, the winter before. I just I was having so many people over the last few years asking again for lessons for their kid, and specifically young kids, like five, six, seven, eight years old. And, you know, I was like, yeah, I mean, I I could give them a lesson, but this is kind of what I have to charge. This is where we have to do it. And and there were actually a lot of parents that were totally fine with it, but I I still felt like the kids weren't getting as much out of it. Um I mean, some did, but like, you know, after 20 to 30 minutes, obviously a five, six, seven-year-old's gonna lose some focus and then I have to change it up. And not that, you know, working on chipping and then a full swing and putting is bad. I mean, that's great if you can mix it up in that sense. But I'm talking to a couple other parents, I'm like, you know, it'd be pretty cool to kind of get these clinics together and then also make it so that it's not as you know, it's it's almost offered as a free or low cost thing to them. So, you know, I'm not, I shouldn't, I'm not super familiar with the first tea program, but I'm kind of thinking it's along those lines where, you know, these kids can come and have access to golf and some instruction at a low cost. And so we started this nonprofits called uh T to Green, Rachel Rohanna Foundation, where we've had, we've been very, very fortunate and lucky to have a lot of donors and sponsors that have helped us out to get going and then hosted a few events to kind of raise some money as well. I'll talk real briefly about those events that are because they they are a lot of fun. So if anybody's listening to this and is happens to be in the Green County area and wants to bring their kids, we do it around Halloween and we do it around Easter where we set up like a nine-hole, kind of I call it modified chipping course. They're 20 to 30 yard holes, they have different obstacles, kind of think mini golf, but for chipping. And then you use a wiffle ball to kind of go around and when you hit the hole or the basket, it is you get like there's a little piece of candy or treat or prize of some sort in it. So we've had different sponsors for the last two events, and we try to kind of make them, you know, similar to along those lines. Like, for example, we had a local farm that they have a lot of goats. So we had one hole set up with a giant goat cut out, like in the middle of the hole, and the kids they thought it was the funniest thing. We've had, you know, uh Amen Corner around Easter time because it was actually the week of the masters. So we kind of set up Amen Corner and had different sponsors for them. First Federal of Green County, their hole, we had like chocolate coins in the basket. So, like little different fun things for the kids to kind of just get them interested in the golf. And we had about 75 kids for both events come through. And I mean, I just think that's awesome. And it we provide a free lunch for them and also this is like a free event for them. We just run everything off of the whole sponsors and other sponsors. So that was really neat to see that many kids interested in the area in golf. And and the other thing that kind of got me rolling with this was first veteral of Green County, who's a sponsor of mine. Part of the deal is we're we host a junior golf clinic. And we started it in 2020. And obviously 2020 was an awkward year. So we had about 30 kids attend that clinic. Since then, it's grown to the point that the signups start June 8th, and there's already people like waiting in line for these tickets. And last year we capped it at 100 kids and we had 130 sign up for it. So we had 30 kids on this wait list. So to see how many kids are just interested in the game and want to do this and have fun with it, and was pretty cool to me because it was clearly not like that when I was growing up. I mean, I literally had to knock door to on my friends' doors to even get a high school team together. Um, and it was a boys' team. So to see 130 kids want to sign up for this junior clinic was amazing. Uh, so I started this foundation and, you know, in some ways it's almost growing faster than I was ready for. In other ways, I feel like, oh man, like we should push this more and more and more, right? But, you know, I'm I'm working as hard and as fast as I can. But right now we do have some donated uh golf junior golf clubs. And I know you were you were one to donate some of your kids' clubs to us. Thank you very much. And they have been handed out to other juniors. And every six months, they kind of come back to us and say, Hey, we still haven't outgrown them. Can we keep them a little bit longer? And we're like, absolutely. Or they said, Hey, we've outgrown them. Here they are, hand them down to the next kid. And so, you know, obviously kids growing constantly is really hard for kid parents and to buy a $250 set of clubs every year can get expensive. So we're trying to help with equipment. We're just trying to be a resource hub for parents, like, hey, my kids this age, what do I do next? What tournament should I sign up for? Here's their skill level. We want to go see, you know, swing coach. Who are the swing coaches in the area? What would you recommend for, you know, putting or a certain equipment, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, and again, like we bring in my cousin who does the physical therapy. We're trying to get um a golf psychologist or sports psychologist on board for some of our older kids. Our older kids this summer, so high school level and and actually I say high school level, but they can technically be younger than high school. They just have to be able to break 65 at Rohanna's and have a parent with them if they're under the age of 12. They were doing a little uh junior golf league at Rohanna's. So, you know, to keep the game competitive for the older ones, keep them accountable for getting out there and playing. So just kind of offering all different like resources and opportunities for these kids. That's kind of our main goal. And we have about, you know, I would say consistent 40 to 50 kids right now in our system that, you know, sign up for the different, different uh clinics and opportunities. So it's it's pretty cool though. I, you know, I really didn't know what to expect. And some days, like I think, oh man, I'm posting this and nobody's liking it, nobody's commenting, and nobody's, you know, maybe signing up for it. And then next thing you know, I have like 15 kits coming. So it's it's pretty cool, pretty special for me to to be a part of it and kind of you know spread the game to the kids.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. How do they find you on social? Uh just the T to Green or Rachel Rohana or Rohanna.
SPEAKER_00T to Green, Rachel Rohanna Foundation is our Facebook page, and that's where we share a lot of our stuff. Um, and we even share other things too, like we'll share the SPJGT calendar uh or schedule, sometimes YouTube videos of if we see somebody kind of offering a good little lesson on YouTube. We think this might be good for kids to see or hear. And and yeah, so all different kinds of information on that page that we're offering.
SPEAKER_01And they can follow you on Facebook and social as well for your golf career too, right? Like if you're still out there competing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Instagram and and you know, it's my personal page on Facebook, but they can always shoot me a friend request or whatever, and I'll accept it. And yeah, I mean, I'll be honest, though, I I don't even post too much of golf on my personal Facebook page. It's more just, you know, my kids acting crazy.
SPEAKER_01Rachel, I really appreciate you taking the time. I know you have a busy schedule. This is so much fun.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_01We definitely need to do it again. Yeah. And we're we're going to be uh watching you compete and watching T to Green and seeing it grow. I I I feel like you're probably going to be overwhelmed in the next few years just from the temperature I'm seeing out there is uh kids are are involved. They're they're comfortable.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So thank you so much for having me, and yeah, I'd love to do this again.
SPEAKER_01So okay.