SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Cheyenne Woods arrived at Kierland Golf Club 20 minutes early for a scheduled instruction shoot. She was accompanied by her caddie, Reynolds Robinson, and longtime instructor Mike LaBauve. Kierland is where Woods attended a junior clinic at age 5 and began working with LaBauve at age 9. It’s like a second home to the niece of Tiger Woods, now a rookie on the LPGA.
It’s easy to imagine a polished Woods rushing through this sort of media obligation. Plenty of other players do it.
Not Woods.
She not only arrived early but stayed late, patiently answering questions, posing for drills and engaging in small-talk like there was no other place in the world she’d rather be. That’s so rare in the world of professional sports it’s almost startling.
This week’s JTBC Founders Cup is a home event for Woods, who missed the cut last year on a sponsor exemption.
“This year has been, I wouldn’t say the easiest,” said Woods, “but the most comfortable year that I’ve ever played. ... Getting through Q-School and having that under my belt gave me a sense of belonging. I think that’s why I feel more comfortable.”
Woods made the cut at the LPGA season-opening event in Ocala and then tied for 44th at the Australian Open. In Thailand, a no-cut event, she finished 66th.
LaBauve will accompany Woods to Wildfire Golf Club on Tuesday to watch her play a practice round.
“I want to make sure she’s good at strategizing on the course,” he said.
Last week, Woods traveled to New York City for only the second time to take part in a whirlwind media tour. She started the week at “Fox and Friends” and made her way to Chelsea Piers for a photo shoot with Refinery29, an online site for fashion news. She chatted with “Self” and “Shape,” “Cosmopolitan” and “Teen Vogue”.
They talked about sun protection (she uses Neutrogena), her “tomboy glam” style, a love of high heels, and the Vitamin E she slathers on her face at night to combat the desert air. Those cheekbones, however, can’t be bought. It’s part of the Woods’ genetic jackpot.
“It was a nice getaway,” said Woods, “and a coming out just for people to get to know about me as a person rather than on the golf course, where I’m pretty well-known just as a Woods.”
Hardly an interview goes by when she doesn’t get asked about Tiger. The two most common questions are what it’s like playing with the pressure of being a Woods and how often she talks to Tiger.
Like many golf fans, Woods doesn’t tune into golf as much when Tiger isn’t playing.
“He adds so much,” she said, “and it’s hard to explain what it is. ... Tiger just has this aura, this sense about him that you can’t help but watch.”
Woods, a Wake Forest grad, went to high school in Phoenix at the buttoned-up Xavier College Prep. The day of graduation, she went down the street to a piercing studio with a friend immediately after the ceremony to get the small stud that’s in her nose.
She has two piercings on each lobe and would like to get more. Her latest addition (high on the inner ear) came on her 24th birthday last July.
With model-like looks and the biggest surname in golf, it’s easy to heave great expectations on her super-fit frame.
Not to worry, Woods already does that herself.
“I think it’s hard rookie year to not get caught up in keeping your card,” she said. “I want to do more than keep my card. I don’t want to be average. I don’t want to be mediocre. I want to excel.”
When Woods won 2014 RACV Australian Ladies Masters, the Golf Channel rebroadcast the final round. Even she couldn’t believe it.
“They wouldn’t have done that it if wasn’t for me,” said Woods, “so it was a little overwhelming. I didn’t realize this many people care. This many people are watching.”
This season Woods joins Sadena Parks as the fifth and sixth African-Americans to be members of the LPGA. The thought of becoming the first black player to win on the LPGA gives Woods chills.
“I think with an African-American woman winning would give golf a different identity in a sense,” said Woods, “just because more people could relate.”
Woods already has fans reaching out to her through social media who say they don’t even know golf but caught a glimpse of her somewhere and now have a reason to tune in.
She won’t disappoint.
