Comparisons with her uncle are inevitable but in her first year as a pro, Cheyenne Woods wants to be recognised in her own right
Since she was a little girl, Cheyenne Woods has been in the public eye. As a child playing junior golf tournaments TV cameras doggedly followed her progress, while press photographers captured the image of Tiger Woods' tiny niece, proudly dressed in her uncle's trademark Sunday Red. Now 23, Woods cannot help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.
"I have a picture of me from when I was eight or nine years old and I was doing an interview after my event and I had literally six cameras surrounding me," she says, rolling her eyes, "and I'm just like this little girl on a chair. I've had it since I was young. Tiger had not long won his first Masters then, so it was big, I guess. You know: 'Tiger Woods' niece is playing golf.' For me now, the media, it's just like second nature." Woods sighs. "I'm just a normal person. I just happen to have a big last name."
That "big" surname has been more of a help than a hindrance to Woods' career, she says, but still she is determined to be recognised as a golfer in her own right.
Embarking on her debut season on the European Tour, having only turned professional last year, the Arizona-born player hopes to secure an automatic place at next week's British Open at the Ladies European Masters at Denham this weekend. "I want to be an established player on the LPGA tour, respected as a golfer, rather than," she pauses, and adopts a comedy voice, "y'know, 'Tiger Woods's niece'. But I realise it comes with the territory."
It was Tiger Woods' father, Earl Woods Sr, who is credited with starting Cheyenne's career when, as a two year-old, she wielded a golf club in the same garage where it all began for her famous uncle. Two decades later and Woods is making a name for herself as a genuine talent, having won 30 tournaments as an amateur, she recorded a first professional win last year.
Woods Sr only saw his granddaughter during summer holidays, but advised on her junior career from afar, and the two had a special bond. When Woods was three, her grandfather wrote to IMG citing her as a future star of the sport. At the mention of the man who passed away before he witnessed her turn professional, Woods grows visibly emotional. "It was a professional report, and I didn't realise he had written it until I was eight or nine, and he wouldn't tell me what he wrote. He just said: "One day you'll get to that point where they're going to recruit you, and then you'll finally see what I wrote."
Last year IMG approached Woods to sign her up. She takes a breath. "It was a huge moment for me because my grandfather passed away six years ago, so to see that report – in his handwriting – it was really special. I had it framed and everything. I'd heard about it, I knew about it, and then the day finally came, like he said. They'd kept it on record for me all that time. When they gave it to me it was surreal."
The family connection inevitably continues to generate headlines, and so it was when Woods, who has an interest in pursuing a career in broadcasting, asked her uncle a question at the US Open press conference where she was working for channel Back9. The exchange made news coverage around the world but Woods is more interested in the demographic of the assembled media.
"I was the only female in the room, I was the only female journalist," she says, with genuine wonder. "It was intimidating. I mean, it was. Having all the men fill the room.
"I know they're all real journalists and I was just getting a feel for it for the first time … but I mean I'm a golfer, I know golf so I had a little bit of confidence in my questions. I was surprised that there weren't as many women. Even on the female side you don't usually see a lot of female journalists covering the sport."
Gender and golf is a topical issue after criticism when the Open was hosted by the men-only members club, Muirfield last week. At the mention of the controversy, Woods takes a sharp intake of breath.
"This topic reminds me of, I mean," Woods sighs, "golf is not traditionally a black person's sport either. It's traditionally a white man's sport, so to see – if you look on the LPGA tour there's no females with their full LPGA card who are African American.
"An African American woman has never won on the LPGA, so in general I just feel that golf needs to be more accessible and more inclusive. Whether it's women, whether it's what country you're from, it would be great to see the game grow in the broadest sense."
Woods says she did not see any racism in golf as a youngster because her mother had purposefully sought out a junior group for ethnic minorities – "she wanted to make sure I didn't have that feeling of being the only one who was brown." It was only in high school, she says, that the penny dropped. "I used to go to a minority tournament every summer, and when I compared it to the national tours I was doing as a junior I thought, there's so many African American golfers here that I've never seen at any other of my tournaments, where have all these people been?"
Discrepancies between the men's and women's game were also vividly apparent. As a kid Woods watched both but she hopes the women's sport will grow and increase in standing.
"It's about exposure," she says, "once people get to know the players, they see the skill level and the talent they will embrace it. The talent is definitely there, it's not a matter of better players, it's a matter of people appreciating what's already there."
Inevitably Woods's golfing prowess will always be compared to that of her extraordinary uncle, but she insists she has learned to resist the comparisons. "It would be stressful to compare myself to Tiger. Not many people can achieve what Tiger Woods has achieved, at such a young age too.
"My whole life I've just tried to go about my own path, there's really no rush for me to get out there and win 14 majors like Tiger did. I'm happy with my pace and my growth, and my own game. I'm excited for my future."
