Tiger Woods will be back, says niece Cheyenne Woods

Cheyenne Woods, speaking as the defending champion of this week’s Australian Ladies Masters in Australia, warned against burying her Uncle Tiger just yet.

“Everyone wants to see [Tiger return to competition] so hopefully soon he’ll be back for good,” Woods, whose 2014 Aussie title was the first of her two-year professional career, told the Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday. “Somebody like Tiger Woods doesn’t just disappear like that, so he’ll definitely be back.”

Actually, Tiger Woods has more or less disappeared since withdrawing with a back injury midway through Thursday’s first round of last week’s Farmers Insurance Open.

The increasingly fragile health of the former world No. 1 is more worrisome for Woods fans even than the departure of his form, especially in the short game. The magic touch he used to display around the greens has gone missing since he returned in December at the Hero World Challenge from a lengthy layoff designed to stabilize his surgically repaired back.

Almost everyone in the golf world has weighed in on Woods’ physical and mental fitness, so of course reporters clamored for news from his niece about her famous relative. “I know he’s working hard to get back,” she said.

Before the 14-time major champion made his most recent abrupt exit from a PGA Tour event, he was expected to play next at the Honda Classic later this month, though all bets are off on when -- or if -- Woods makes his next start. As for his niece, Cheyenne Woods earned her LPGA Tour card this season after playing much of last year on the U.S. developmental Symetra Tour as well as the Ladies European Tour.

“Not everything you want comes instantly. And I think for professional golf too, we get so used to seeing it happen instantly for a lot of players and people don’t realize that, I would say for maybe 70 to 80 percent of the players, it’s not the case,” said Woods, who could have been referring to Uncle Tiger and the ease with which he cruised to the top of the golf world back in the day.

“When I turned pro, I assumed everything was going to happen fast and when it didn’t, it was sad,” Woods conceded. “It was hard to get through that and realize that maybe that’s not the path that I’m going to take.”

Growing up in Tiger Woods’ shadow “probably” sparked her belief that success would happen quickly.

“A combination of the expectation, and the fact that I knew that I could,” said the 24-year-old who has been in the public eye since she was a kid. “I knew I could play LPGA, but at that time, it wasn’t for me. When I graduated [from Wake Forest], I was 21 and I just wasn’t ready, so it took me a year and a half or two years to get ready.”

Woods, who nailed down last year’s win with three birdies down the stretch, may be used to the attention her last name garners, but she acknowledged she was somewhat taken aback to realize she was the face of this week’s tourney.

“It’s different just to see my face on the billboards and the players badges,” she said at a news conference on Tuesday

Among Woods’ competitors this week will be Laura Davies, who not only will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame later this year, but was among the first seven women to join the R&A as honorary members.

Apparently the Woods name did not much impress Dame Laura, who was sorry that Karrie Webb, who has won the event eight times, would not be competing this week.

“It’s an okay field. You wouldn’t say it’s the strongest field in the world but it’s an okay field, it’s got enough of the big names,” Davies told SBS. “But there’s no question Karrie will be missed.”