Cheyenne Woods Wins Australian Ladies Masters


The 23-year-old niece of Tiger Woods, Cheyenne Woods, won the Australian Ladies Masters on Sunday for her first major professional victory.

Cheyenne Woods closed with a 4-under 69 at the Royal Pines course in Gold Coast to finish at 16-under 276 in the tournament co-sanctioned by the European and Australian tours.

Woods, the daughter of Earl Dennison Woods Jr., Tiger Woods' half-brother, turned pro in 2012 after an All-America career at Wake Forest. Her only victory as a pro came in a 2012 SunCoast mini-tour event. In December, she missed the cut in the LPGA Tour's qualifying tournament and looked elsewhere to play.

"This is a huge accomplishment for me," she said. "The European Tour has been great to be able to play this past year. I've been able to see all of these great players, play with Solheim Cup members . . . to be able to come out here and compete with them and come out on top was huge for me."

As for the pressure of being related to arguably the best golfer in history, she added, "I've been pro for two years and, for the majority of it, people just think of me as Tiger Woods' niece so now I have a game of my own and I have a title now, a win, which is exciting," she said. "It's nice now to say to people that I can play and I'm not just a name.

"Growing up with the last name of Woods, there's a lot of expectations and pressure and spotlight on you but I always knew that I was able to win. I always knew I'd be able to compete with these ladies so now it's kind of a weight off my shoulders because now everybody knows not just me."

The victory was worth $51,000 and a two-year exemption on the Ladies European Tour. Next up is the LPGA Tour-sanctioned Women's Australian Open in Victoria.

South Africa's Stacy Lee Bregman and Sweden's Camilla Lennarth tied for third at 12-under.

For all the scores, visit http://www.alpg.com.au/default.aspx?s=leaderboard-display&tid=155140.