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Cheyenne Woods revisits scene of uncle Tiger’s tee-shot at the Burj Al Arab

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Cheyenne understandably was looking forward to the once-in-a-lifetime adventure at the only seven-star hotel on the planet after carding a three-under par 69 here at Emirates Golf Club yesterday.

Published: Fri 12 Dec 2014, 12:41 PM

Updated: Fri 15 Dec 2023, 12:24 PM

  • By
  • Alex Leach (Senior Reporter)

Dubai — Cheyenne Woods re-enacted a spectacular scene first played out by her uncle Tiger 10 years ago now when she teed-off from the Burj Al Arab helipad on Thursday. The 24-year-old followed in the famous footsteps of her 14-time major-winning relative — and a select group of world-renowned sportspeople — in going up the iconic boatsail-inspired landmark and surveying the sights of the surrounding emirate below.

She understandably was looking forward to the once-in-a-lifetime adventure at the only seven-star hotel on the planet after carding a three-under par 69 here at Emirates Golf Club yesterday.

“It’s even more unbelievable than I thought it would be,” said Woods, who is now on 5-under (139) at the midway point of the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters. “You hear stories and see pictures online, but — once you’re here in person — it’s amazing; the views, the city and how high we are. When Tiger was here, I was 14 years old in middle school with no idea what I was doing. To be here now, it’s a little surreal to know that Tiger was here 10 years ago in the same spot. It’s beautiful. I’m really pleased to be here now.

“Dubai is the one place that everyone wants to go. It’s almost like a fantasy to come here, with the photos that you see online, the view, the Palm Jumeirah and the hotels. To come to Dubai was one of the things on my bucket list. When they had the event here, I had to come and see it for myself.”

Woods’ incremental progress on the Majlis course over the past two days has left her six strokes off of two-time leader Shanshan Feng, of China. However, she intends to keep the same “smart aggressive” strategy over this weekend, with anything riskier perhaps likely to blow her pragmatic challenge off course quite literally.

“I love the course, I’m enjoying playing here and looking forward to the weekend,” she explained. “You just take advantage of the holes that you can and play aggressively when you can. There are some short holes where you can really attack the pins. You’ve just got to minimise the mistakes as much as possible. I’m aggressive when I need to be, but not all of the time. I guess you might call it smart aggressive.

“She (Feng) is obviously playing very well and I’m playing the best that I can. I’ll do everything I can to keep up with the pace, but I’m not going to try and play outside of myself or do anything crazy either because that’s when bad things happen. The greens are tricky, so you want to keep yourself in good positions. The greens are quick and difficult to read sometimes, so you want to be careful.”

alex@khaleejtimes.com



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