Whats in a name: Ask Cheyenne Woods

She hopes to qualify for the championship finals later in May before turning pro with the hope of building a career on the LPGA Tour.

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Theres plenty more to Cheyenne Woods game than just her famous last name. With uncle Tiger Woods playing this week in Charlotte,his niece is looking to wrap up her record-setting Wake Forest career with a strong showing at next weeks collegiate regionals.

She hopes to qualify for the championship finals later in May before turning pro with the hope of building a career on the LPGA Tour. It is a little bit of pressure knowing it is my last collegiate event, Woods said Friday. But I want to look at it as something to take advantage of,and end on a high note,and enjoy every moment with my team and enjoy just being on the college team and this time of my life.

College golf has been very good to Woods,who will graduate as perhaps the best womens player in school history. The 2011 Atlantic Coast Conference champion and two-time All-American enters her final regional with a chance to break both the schools career scoring record and her own 2-year-old single-season mark.

Her career scoring average of 74.31 is 0.16 better than that of Natalie Sheary,and her average of 73.62 is tied for second in the ACC and puts her within striking distance of the 73.47 she averaged as a sophomore.

Shes a captain of a Wake Forest team that has never missed the NCAA regionals since the organization adopted that format in 1993. The Demon Deacons hold the No. 14 seed in the 24-team regional that begins May 10 at Penn States Blue Course. The top eight teams and top two individual players not on those teams advance to the NCAA championship finals in Franklin,Tenn. Were definitely going in with the mindset that were going to get that top eight, Woods said.

Soon turning pro

After that,she hopes to eventually play her way onto the LPGA Tour. Once her college career ends,shell declare her professional status and begin looking for sponsors and sponsor exemptions into tournaments.

Her father,Earl Jr.,is Tigers half brother,and she says Earl Sr.,her paternal grandfather,introduced her to the game and got me started when I was young. Cheyenne says the first club she swung as a girl was in her grandfathers garage,and he guided her through her junior career. Earl Sr. died in 2006 at 74. I only got a chance to go out on the golf course with him a couple of times, she said. But I think a few putting tips hes given me,I always keep those in mind.

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She developed a style she describes as aggressively,steady,calm by watching pro golf as a girl. Instead of patterning her game after any one particular player,she chose attributes from a variety of players into kind of a mix of a lot of stuff.

That includes Tiger,though their facial features look a lot more alike than their swings do. Cheyenne says her driver more closely resembles that of smooth-swinging Ernie Els than that of her heavy-hitting uncle.

Cheyenne says Tiger has been nothing but supportive of her through the years. Hes rooting me on,excited for my professional career also