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Butz · 03-07-2007, 06:18 PM

Team Wie had better look out. There’s a new girl golf prodigy on the horizon. And this one has the added cachet of a famous name: Woods.

Cheyenne Woods is Tiger Woods younger cousin, and by some accounts is the next teen golf prodigy. She apparently was largely responsible for her High School team winning the Arizona state championships. The press is full of stories about Cheyenne. Many are predicting that she wins the Amateur in the next two years.

If so, she’ll have done something Michelle was unable to accomplish—that, indeed, Michelle really didn’t even really attempt.

Butz · 03-07-2007, 06:19 PM

Cheyenne Woods the US junior prodigy

Making waves as a junior in golf in the USA is Cheyenne Woods, a 16-year-old kid, identified as an absolute prodigy attracting attention from all over the States. From several angles her swing looks uncannily like Tiger, and she holds her pose through n characteristic Woods style.

Tiger Woods is quite impressed with his niece’s approach, style and determination to win. In a recent highly competitive championship she struck a stunning 67 to win the title and from the latter part of last year and through early this year, she has won 6 consecutive title events. The kid still sports her school uniform and tie.

Uncle Tiger has an open line of communication with her, and his constant advice is “Keep grinding away and practice followed by further practice and remember to keep loving what you are doing,” he happily tells her.

Tiger Woods is at the moment, hell bent on making his foundation/academy a success, providing golf for those who cannot afford the game. He personally handles the kids when he has the time, but his greater objective and bigger goal is to break down the barrier between the haves and have-nots. This is an area and example that must attract the attention of the Sri Lanka Golf Union in general, and the Royal Colombo Golf Club in particular. The Caddie class needs attention, encouragement and more time on the Ridgeways. No poverty stricken kid with all the talent, can afford Rs.1000/- for a lesson. The fore caddies and the juniors are crying for polish to their skills and this should be provided. Keep your elitist exclusiveness as a membership club, but it will not hurt if you spare time and a little attention to polish the talent you constantly see before you. Every country in the Eastern part of the world is diverting time, attention and funds to develop the talent of those financially less privileged. I trust these observations will not end like the water poured on a duck’s back.

Going back to Cheyenne Woods, most of the international golf magazines, particularly those published in the States, are loaded with views and comments on the rising star and one ex champ predicts that it will not surprise anybody to see her wearing the U.S. Crown, 2 years from now.

Cheyenne Woods the US junior prodigy

Butz · 03-07-2007, 06:21 PM

Uncle Tiger identifies the next Woods

By Lewine Mair
Last Updated: 12:21am GMT 06/02/2007

The name Woods could one day mean as much to the women's game as it does to the men's. Cheyenne Woods, 16, the daughter of Tiger's half-brother, Earl Jnr, has been tipped by Uncle Tiger as a player with a future.

The subject came up when Woods was asked if "the colour of golf" was changing and if the minority groups nowadays had more of a chance. Woods assured his audience that it was all happening at grass-roots level. Then, when pressed on whether there were any good players coming through one of his schemes, he mentioned his scratch-handicap niece. "Cheyenne has just shot 29 for nine holes at her state high school," Woods said proudly.

He mentioned that her swing was a shade flatter than his and that she was adding length all the time. He also noted that she was not as fiery as he is. "She plays a more patient game," he said, smiling.

But what impresses him most is the extent to which she keeps grinding away in her quest to be a professional. "You have to be prepared to bust your butt to get to the top level," he advised.

Tiger's father, Earl, gave Cheyenne her first set of clubs when she was five years old and watched her hit balls in a net in the garage. By the time she was 12, she had 30 age-group tournaments under her belt, including the 12-and-under division of the US Kids World Golf championship in Williamsburg. She won that event twice in three years.

Where Woods captured three US junior championships in three years before bagging three successive US Amateurs, Cheyenne has yet to start notching results in his league. Last year, though, she shot rounds of 73 and 71 in the US Girls' to qualify with ease for the match-play stages.

It is at this arena, and events such as the Curtis Cup, that Tiger will want her to aim her game. As one who has often said that Michelle Wie should be concentrating on the women's circuit before trying her hand on the men's, he will be anxious that Cheyenne should take things a step at a time.

Tiger will have added to the pressures on the teenager by picking her out as he did. However, he is only mirroring the approach of his father who never, at any stage, did anything to keep him under wraps.

Whenever Woods is asked how he copes so well with all the fame and fuss that comes his way these days, he is apt to shrug off the question with a cheerful: "I've never known anything different."

Uncle Tiger identifies the next Woods | US Tour | Golf | Sport | Telegraph