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Pro snaps into emergency mom duty during U.S. Women’s Open round

Rachel Rohanna of the United States plays her shot from the second tee during the first round of the U.S. Women's Open Presented by Ally at Lancaster Country Club on May 30, 2024 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Rachel Rohanna hits a shot off the 2nd tee at Lancaster CC.

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Competitors at this year’s U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club are facing their fair share of adversity: multi-group backups, difficult conditions — even Nelly Korda carded a 10! But no one else in the field experienced the sticky situation that Rachel Rohanna did on Thursday, one that involved her infant son.

Rohanna, who earned a berth in the field as a sectional qualifier — the medalist, in fact — is playing her fourth U.S. Women’s Open. At Lancaster CC’s difficult par-3 12th, Rohanna and her group encountered a sizable backup of players. That’s when Rohanna’s attention drifted to her husband, Ethan, who was watching the action with the couple’s children, 5-year-old Gemelia and eight-month-old Greenlee, who was in a stroller.

What did Rohanna notice? Any parent can probably guess.

“There was a backup with the playing and then there was, you know, the opposite of a backup in the stroller,” Rohanna said after her round. “There was like, I think, four groups or something on the tee box. 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. 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.”

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A competitor changing a diaper in the middle of a U.S. Women’s Open round has to be a first. But Rohanna took it in stride.

“At first I was like, I’m not sure he can come in the ropes,” she said. “Oh, whatever. Nobody is going to say anything. It’s just me and him. So I was like, he had to — like I said, he had to come in because it was definitely a two-man effort. Yeah, no, it was everywhere.”

Rohanna signed for an opening round of 76 — six-over par, though she did par the 12th. Rohanna said she plays primarily on the Epson Tour and is hoping for a good finish this week to help boost her LPGA status.

“Just trying to stay with it and stay patient with everything in my game, and I think a lot of good things I see coming back with my game,” she said. “I think if I can just do what I know how to do, I’ll be fine.”

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