“Now she can say I’m not just a last name,” said Cheyenne Woods, 23, Tiger Woods’ niece (she is the daughter of the world number one’s half-brother), after winning the first major title of her professional golf career at the Ladies Masters of Australia, a European Tour women’s tournament held at the Royal Pines Resort Gold Coast in Queensland.
The victory gives Cheyenne, who was introduced to golf by her grandfather Earl (Tiger’s father), a name of her own after being all her short career linked to the kinship with the best golfer in the world. The American player born in Phoenix, Arizona, won with 16 under and two strokes ahead of the Australian amateur Minjee Lee, 17 years old.
“This is a great accomplishment for me,” said Cheyenne, who finished with five birdies and one bogey. “Most people see me as Tiger Woods’ niece. I now have a name of my own and a title,” she added.
Cheyenne already won in 2012, her first year as a professional, a minor tournament in the United States. The Ladies Masters title is an important credential for her resume as a golfer, in a tournament that Karrie Webb, one of the best players in the modern history of the sport, won eight times.
“I know what it means to carry this last name and it’s helped me a lot to know how to handle the pressure all these years. But I think I’ve earned, from now on, to be known simply as Cheyenne, not Tiger’s niece.”
It won’t be easy to get rid of that shadow, which has haunted her tirelessly since she began to excel in the sport as a high school student and later in college.
The daughter of junior Earl Woods certainly had a brilliant amateur career. She was voted Arizona High School Golfer of the Year in 2007, won the Arizona State 5A Championships in 2006 and 2007, never finished lower than fifth at the Arizona Championships, scored more than 30 amateur victories, including the Big I Junior Classic and the American Junior Golf Association’s Nike Golf Junior She finished her high school career with the lowest individual score of the season (73.47) and the best average round (74.31) in high school history, l and also finished the most tournaments under par. She graduated in 2012 with a degree in Communication.
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