Cheyenne Woods: I’m my own person
Cheyenne Woods is, indeed, Tiger Woods’ niece. But at 24 and trying to make it in her rookie season on the LPGA Tour, the Wake Forest product wants to make waves with her first name, not just her surname.
“Yes, my last name is Woods — but you can call me Cheyenne,” Woods wrote in an essay for The Players’ Tribune.
Woods writes about how she is asked about her 14-time-major-winning uncle on a daily basis and that the routine has gotten more than old.
“He’s one of the most famous human beings on the planet and we share a last name as well as a profession,” . “But let me clear something up once and for all: I love my uncle, and I treasure the advice he gives me when we speak every few months, but I am not Tiger Woods.”
She doesn’t keep tabs on Woods. Her life isn’t focused on his struggles. She has a life and career of her own. Woods has made five cuts in 11 LPGA events this season, with a T-24 finish at the JTBC Founders Cup coming as her best finish of the year.
Woods also shares how she has been dealing with the somewhat inevitable comparisons to Uncle Tiger since she was 9 or 10 years old. When she was that age, it was a cool thing as Woods was at his peak. Who wouldn’t want to be Tiger’s niece when he was playing the best golf perhaps ever seen?
However, that comparison was never apt, and Cheyenne wants the chance to walk her own path without the weight of expectation that she’s the next Tiger.
She’s not, and that’s totally fine.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
