14 Friday 20th May, 2011 Earl Sr. didn’t coach Cheyenne, ways. strength. Cheyenne’s answer: mental as he did Tiger, but he bought her “Hopefully everyone lets her be her,” toughness. clubs of her own by the time Tiger says. “People don’t need to compare “I still think so,” she says. “I feel like she was 6 and set her up with a her to me.” having to separate myself from Tiger, and Tiger expects to coach in Arizona, who would They do, of course, and have since she separate myself from pressure, from the send tapes of her swing to the picked up that first club — one of his old expectations put on me, I feel like I can doting grandfather in ones, as luck (and creation myth) would handle that pretty well.” play at U.S. Open California. have it. Even so, Dailey did her best to shoo Today,Cheyenne is 20, a “Let her create her own life,” Tiger reporters from Wake Forest when junior at Wake Forest who says, “and her own path.” Cheyenne arrived, figuring a media circus will compete in this week’s When she was little, Cheyenne would was not what a freshman needed. NCAA championships in ask her teachers on the first day of school: “It got to be too much,” Dailey says, Bryan, Texas. Do you know who my uncle is? It was cool “and we just had to say,‘This is not about She is ranked 23rd by to be Tiger’s niece. She still felt that way famous relatives. This is about Cheyenne. Golfweek, a long shot to win the when she started playing junior tourna- When she becomes a good golfer, you all women’s individual title the way ments and the cameras followed her every can come back and interview her.’ And Tiger won the men’s for Stanford move. that’s now. She is coming into her own.” Cheyenne Woods in 1996. But when Cheyenne Today,Cheyenne does her best to strike As a freshman, she had a 76.2 scoring won the Atlantic Coast a middle ground: She is proud of her average, fourth on the team. As a sopho- Conference champi- famous uncle but eager to own an identity more, she had a 73.47 scoring average, the onship last apart from a man she does not really know school record for women. And this season all that well. she is at 73.60, best on a team ranked 14th “We talk a little bit here and there,” she in the country entering the NCAA cham- Tiger says. “He’s busy.I’m busy.We have our two pionships. The best NCAA finish for Woods separate lives.” Wake’s women’s team was third in 1995; They have played together, though not Wake’s men’s golf team has won three often. “Obviously,I’d love to play with her national championships. more,” Tiger says. “It has been fun to Cheyenne found her ACC title trou- Tiger Woods says he didn’t do any watch her. I have watched her on film, and bling in one respect. When Natalie Sheary more damage to his left leg at the Players it’s been amazing to see her progression won the ACC in 2009 and Michelle Shin Championship and expects to play the over time.” won it in 2010, her teammates got regional U.S. Open next month. Tiger’s face lights up as he talks attention but little nationally. Woods made it only nine holes last about her while walking to his car “They work just as hard as I do,” week at the Players — his shortest tour- after practice before last Cheyenne says. “They should get the same nament ever — when he withdrew after week’s Players recognition.” nine holes because of what he described Championship— from “We understand,” Sheary says, “it’s as a chain reaction of pain from his left which he would bow out not something she controls.” knee to left Achilles and tightening in his early with a knee injury. Sheary,one of Cheyenne’s roommates, calf. He shot 42 on the front nine. “She has sought describes her as stylish — “great clothes” On his Web site Monday, Woods said some advice here and — and loyal — “great friend.” She also he irritated the knee and Achilles with- there,” Tiger says, “but says Cheyenne is surprisingly quiet in out making them worse. He said doctors that obviously is group settings. have advised rest, cold water therapy and between us.” “She doesn’t pipe up in the conversa- soft tissue treatment, which he said he Earl Sr. offered advice tion,” Sheary says, “and then out of already had been receiving. mostly from a distance, except nowhere she throws in a line from a song “Aggravating my injury is very disap- when her family made trips to or a movie, like Anchorman, and it fits pointing,” Woods said. “I’ll do whatever California. On the visit when Cheyenne just perfect, and it’s hilarious. She’s just is necessary to play in the U.S. Open, and was 2, “We came to watch Tiger at the L.A. very,very funny with a bunch of one-lin- I’m hopeful I can be there to compete.” Open,” Susan says. “He was 16. I pushed ers.” her around the course in her little That sense of humor is on display in stroller.” Cheyenne’s bio on the Wake website. That night, Earl Sr. watched her in his Asked for the best golfer she’s ever played garage. Years later, he predicted she’d be with, Cheyenne picks Charles Barkley,the the female Tiger. Basketball Hall of Famer with a notorious Raza claims he “He said that when I was really young, hitch in his swing. too,” Cheyenne says. “So it’s just funny “Yeah, I know, I’m getting a lot of flack how he had this eye for people. He knew for that,” she says, laughing musically. was ‘set up’ when Tiger was young he was going to be “Obviously,Tiger is the best golfer I’ve a superstar. Maybe that’ll be me. ever golfed with. But I had to throw some- Former Pakistan off-spinner Akram “If I just keep working hard — nothing thing different out there.” Raza said on Tuesday that he had been is going to be given to me — I think I have The disappointment question set up after he was arrested over betting the potential.” Tiger, 35, has won 71 PGA tourna- ‘She’s just getting started’ ments, including 14 majors. Still, his last on lucrative Indian Premier League Cheyenne, on track to graduate from Tour win came Sept. 13, 2009. Golf fans matches, cricket365.com reported on its Wake Forest a year from now, hopes to play know the import of that time line. website, on Wednesday. on the LPGA tour some day. He hasn’t won since his life imploded The 46-year-old was arrested at the “If you look at the LPGA, there is after a day-after-Thanksgiving 2009 fender- weekend in a police raid on a gang of nobody that looks like me,” she says. bender with a fire hydrant led to a gusher bookmakers reportedly illegally taking “There’s nobody that has my name. There of revelations about infidelities and ulti- bets on IPL matches. is a lot of potential, I feel like, in my name mately to his divorce from Elin Raza, who played nine Tests and 49 and the fact that I am different from other Nordegren, mother of their two young one-dayers for Pakistan between 1989 and people.” children. 1995, was released on bail on Monday but She means her blend of ethnicities: At a remarkable news conference in will have to appear in a Lahore court “My mom is white. My dad comes from my February 2010, Tiger apologized to family grandfather, who was part Native and friends he had “severely disappoint- later this week. American, Chinese, black and white. ed.” “It was a set-up against me,” Raza told That’s me. I’m a mutt.” AFP. “I have nothing to do with the ille- Her mother and father are divorced. Was Cheyenne disappointed in him? gal betting in IPL and visited a friend’s She has two brothers and two non-mutts — “I mean, I feel like it’s the same as any- office where police came and arrested WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — When month, she immediately thought of her Peanut, a 15-year-old basenji, and Moose, a thing,” she says. “I mean, I don’t know. It’s us.” Cheyenne Woods was 2, she plucked a club grandfather, who died in 2006. 3-year-old chocolate Lab. hard to say.That’s just hard. I don’t know.” from a bag, like a sword from a stone, and Police said they acted on a tip-off and “He would be very proud,” she says, “of “It’s fun to see her mature as a person It is the only time she stumbles in an recovered telephones, computers, televi- whacked a golf ball into the netting in her how far I’ve come.” over the years,” Tiger says. “To see her hour-long interview. Cheyenne is a com- grandfather’s garage, where her Uncle sions and a large amount of money. Tiger tweeted his delight: My niece, grow up, starting … in the same garage munications major who hopes to get into “I will appear in the court and fight Eldrick — you may know him as Tiger — Cheyenne, just won the ACC golf title by 7 where I started the game of golf, and to see broadcasting some day.She is uncommon- out my innocence and will not allow my famously took his mythic first cuts, writes shots! That’s awesome, I’m so proud of her.