Rohanna stumbles on back 9 in opening round
Rachel Rohanna was rolling right along, then the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open had a 3-hour weather delay and the good shots of the front nine vanished.
The Waynesburg Central graduate shot 8-over on the back nine Thursday afternoon to close the opening round on Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club in Calgary, Alberta, with a 6-over 78.
Stephanie Meadow had the lead in the clubhouse at 6-under 66 with about half the field still on the course.
“The break took a little bit out of me. I didn’t think we’d get back out there,” said Rohanna. “I had a lot of momentum going, then we had a 3-hour break. Like in any other sport, that’s going to be disruptive.”
There was nothing disruptive about Rohanna’s opening nine holes with three birdies, one bogey and five pars, and she did so in rainy weather.
“It was raining on on front nine. It rained pretty hard when we were playing,” said Rohanna, but the weather improved. “It was funny. They blew the horn. The sun came out and it warmed up. We looked at each other, confused. Then, after we marked our balls, we heard thunder. I was never really nasty.
“We went back out and the weather was fine. I hit decent shots. I just had bad lies and bad bounces.”
Rohanna made the turn with a bogey and then added another bogey on No. 11. She steadied herself with a birdie-4 on No. 12, but the momentum was short lived.
Rohanna went bogey-double bogey-double bogey-bogey over the next four holes.
“I was a yard off the fairway on No. 14. The rough is deeper than any U.S. Open rough I’ve played,” said Rohanna. “On No. 15 (a par-3), over a pond, I hit into the wind and it just didn’t make it.”
Rohanna finished out with a par and bogey to play the back nine in 8-over 44.
She hit just 6-of-14 fairways and 9-of-18 greens in regulation. Rohanna needed 32 putts to finish out her round.
“Bad lies, bad luck, the story of this year,” Rohanna said of her back nine. “Miss any fairway and you can count on a bogey.
“The greens are extremely fast. I’m putting the greens well, but they are so fast. We’re leaving them short because we’re afraid of hitting past the hole.”
Rohanna is scheduled to tee off at 4 p.m. (Mountain time) in today’s second round, but that depends on how many golfers are unable to close out the first round.