This year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue has a Pittsburgh connection.
Lois Wholey of Scott, the 91-year-old matriarch of the Pittsburgh family that owns Wholey’s seafood business in The Strip, says her granddaughter, Kelly Wholey Rohrbach, is in the running to be “rookie” model of the year in this year’s issue.
Ms. Rohrbach’s photos are on page 49 and 106 of the magazine, which hit the stands Feb. 10, sporting some skimpy swimwear and a sultry smile. On the Sports Illustrated website’s “rookie” section, there are 27 photos of her, including one where she appears to be wearing no clothes at all.
Ms. Rohrbach, 25, is the daughter of Anne Wholey Rohrbach and her husband Clay, of Greenwich, Conn., and she graduated from Georgetown University in 2012, where she was a member of the women’s golf team. “On paper, 25-year-old Kelly Rohrbach is an American Prep caricature,” said Town & Country Magazine in a short article on its website last week, noting that she was a “golfer girl” at Greenwich Academy, a private girl’s school. No offense meant: the magazine helpfully pointed readers to the Sports Illustrated website so they could vote for her.
Golf Digest has been promoting Ms. Rohrbach as well, although as of Tuesday afternoon, she was running third in the voting for rookie of the year, one of seven women in competition for the title. The winner will be announced March 6, and with it, more publicity — and that’s fine with Mrs. Wholey.
“Kelly hopes this will be a springboard for her acting career,” she said. Ms. Rohrbach couldn’t be reached for comment, but she told Sports Illustrated that while in college, “I needed an arts class, so my coach suggested acting, because it's supposedly an easy ‘A.’ I loved it, and knew immediately that this was what I wanted to do, so I stopped golf to act full time.”
While the Wholey family has plenty of expertise in seafood, there are a lot of two-legged sharks circling the waters in Hollywood. Does Mrs. Wholey believe her granddaughter is prepared for that world?
“I wouldn't know. The only thing I know about is the fish business,” said Mrs. Wholey.
Mackenzie Carpenter: mcarpenter@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1949 or on Twitter@MackenziePG.
First Published: February 17, 2015, 5:41 p.m.
