Cheyenne is now a freshman at Wake Forest University, where she's off to a good start. That follows on the heels of an excellent high school golf career in Arizona (a couple state championships).
You Been Blinded posted the clip along with this question:
Ok.. So who will have the better pro career, Cheyenne Woods or Michelle Wie? Michelle Wie has more experience, but Cheyenne has the bloodlines. If she has Tiger's drive Cheyenne will easily be the better of the two.
OK ... that's just ridiculous. Comparing Cheyenne to Michelle? That's worse than ridiculous. It's moronic.
Look, Cheyenne Woods was an excellent high school golfer and will likely be an excellent college golfer. But she was not one of the best junior golfers in America, and she is not one of the best college golfers in America. She is very good. She is better than me and probably better than you. And it's certainly possible that she will continue to improve and someday wind up on the LPGA Tour.
But as of now, she is one of about 100 college golfers who might be capable, under the right circumstances, of being a successful LPGA player. Maybe 10 of them actually will turn out to be successful LPGA players. Another 20 of them will pop up in a few LPGA events here and there but mostly play on the Futures Tour or Ladies European Tour. Another 50 of them will play on the Futures Tour for a few years or spend several years knocking around mini-tours chasing the dream. The rest will never find any measure of success in the professional ranks.
Cheyenne's odds of being in the least successful group are probably stronger than the odds of her being in the most successful group. (Although I suspect she'll fall in Level 3, the spend-a-few-years-chasing-the-dream group.)
She's an excellent person by all accounts with a tremendous work ethic and big dreams. So are the other 99 college golfers in the same shoes.
Michelle Wie is a world-class talent who by age 13 had already done something Cheyenne has never come close to doing: Winning a USGA championship. By 14, Wie was playing in the final group of a major championship and posting Top 5 finishes in majors. Even if Wie never played another tournament, she already has done more than Woods will likely ever do.
Again, I'm not discounting Cheyenne's chances for future LPGA success. I'm just trying to put them in perspective.
I certainly wish Cheyenne the best and hope that she does become a great LPGA player. But comparing her to Michelle Wie - especially suggesting that there's any reason to believe she'll someday outdo Wie - is .. what was that word? ... oh yeah, moronic.
