MARATHON CLASSIC PRESENTED BY DANA

August 5, 2020

Cheyenne Woods

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right, welcome to the Marathon Classic Presented by Dana.

Before we begin, I would like to kindly remind everyone about the chat function for requesting to ask questions. I will unmute you once it's your turn.

With that said, this Wednesday morning we've got Cheyenne Woods here with us. It's Cheyenne's fifth year on tour and fourth event of this season.

So Cheyenne, to start, last week the LPGA Tour announced the first five recipients of the Renee Powell Grant. You yourself participated in the Race for Unity event back in June. How was that experience, and what kind of responses did you get?

CHEYENNE WOODS: The experience was great. I thought it was awesome that as golf community we could all come together for a common cause, and a cause that I think is so important for the game of golf and for local girls benefitting from it here in Ohio.

I've gotten to know Renee really well over the last few years. For it to be in her name is really special. She has done so much for the game, so much for myself just in terms of being an inspiration and guidance of just being out here on tour, understanding what it's like.

I'm really appreciative for the friendship I've been able to build with her. Now for this grant to be in her name is just really special. She's so deserving, and I'm glad we were able to come together and raise that much money for girls' golf.

THE MODERATOR: Did she recently reach out to you or when is the last time you spoke with her?

CHEYENNE WOODS: Yeah, we spoke a week and a half ago, so we keep in touch quite a bit. She's like sister, honestly. She's 72 years old, but she's like my big sister. She's been so sweet of just always checking in. I usually play her pro-am in Canton, Ohio that benefits her family's golf course.

But she's so sweet and supportive, and she's excited that her name could be used in such a great way. I know it's special for her to have the first beneficiaries be in Ohio, so it's been good.

THE MODERATOR: So you did that during the quarantine. What else did you do during the past five, six months?

CHEYENNE WOODS: Six months. So I spent a lot of time in Phoenix. Again, it was unexpected that we would have that much time off. I spent a bit of time in Florida playing some mini tour events, and the last three weeks I was in New Jersey practicing a bit and just getting ready for tournament play.

THE MODERATOR: All right. And you played Marathon last year. Compared to last year, where do you think your game lies?

CHEYENNE WOODS: I honestly feel really good. I think quarantine was good for me just to take a deep breath and really assess where I am, have a forced break, which I think a lot of us needed.

But I was able to work on some stuff and just get into a really good place of feeling good about my game. I feel like I played okay last week at Inverness; obviously the conditions were difficult.

But I just feel really confident in where I am. So I'm looking forward to this week. It's a course I've played a lot in the last few years, so I'm excited for tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: Hopefully with some better weather.

CHEYENNE WOODS: Yes, some sunshine.

THE MODERATOR: What do you remember most from playing last year or before, and what are you think about ahead of tomorrow's first round?

CHEYENNE WOODS: When I think about the Marathon Classic I think of the fans, so it's definitely different being here with no fans. We always have so much local support and it's always busy here in the clubhouse and the putting green, so that's a little different.

But it's a golf course that I always enjoy playing. It's always in good shape. I played this morning and the course looks great. So looking into tomorrow and the weekend, I think it'll just be nice to play a great golf course, and like you said, have some sunshine, a little drier is.

So I'm just excited every week honestly to be able to come out and play. It's been hard the last five months. It's the biggest break I've ever had of no big competition. I'm just appreciative to be out here.

THE MODERATOR: With that, we have a couple questions from Rick.

Q. Good morning, Cheyenne. Nice to talk to you again.

CHEYENNE WOODS: Thank you.

Q. I had the pleasure of doing a Podcast with Mike Powell last week. How important is it for people to remember what she has accomplished and what she has meant to the game of golf?

CHEYENNE WOODS: I think it's so important in general just to know our history. And specifically in golf and what Renee has done, it's so important to know how much she's accomplished and how much she truly did change the game.

She was only the second African-American woman to play on the LPGA Tour, and it really wasn't that long ago. Myself, I was only the sixth to earn my card.

The history is there is not many of us, so I think it's important to make that public and allow people to know how important it is to have representation out here and how much we do -- how much room we do have to grow as a tour, as a game.

So I'm thankful to have had Renee come before me and hear her stories, her experiences, what she's learned, and hopefully can now do that for the girls coming after us.

Q. In light of everything that has been going in the country over the last several months, how important is it to you to have a platform to speak out about, whether it's Black Lives Matter or any other social issue that concerns you?

CHEYENNE WOODS: I think it's important. As a professional golfer we do have an elevated platform, and I love being able to use that in a powerful way, whether it's just spreading information and bringing awareness to issues that people never knew of. I have a lot of followers on social media, so I have been trying to do that the last few months of just bringing awareness to an issue that hits close to home for me and a lot of us out here just as humans.

So it is important to be able to do that with the Black Lives Matter Movement. Again, being a black athlete, a female black athlete in a white dominant sport, representation is huge.

So to have that voice and to show that Black Lives Matter not only obviously just generally in the world, but we're out here in the golf world, too. And whatever we can to bring equality and representation into the golf industry, that's what we try to do.

THE MODERATOR: And going off that, I just had a quick question. What do you do on your off time, during your off time? How do you relax and just let everything soak in?

CHEYENNE WOODS: Get away from the golf course a bit. Obviously we're so limited with quarantine. I just go back to where I'm staying and watch a lot of Netflix. I've been watching a lot of baseball.

But that's really it. Just disconnect. Whether it's music, Netflix, a book, just disconnect from golf and find something to just find your peace.

THE MODERATOR: Last question for you: these past two weeks must have been a lot to take in. Looking forward, what decisions are you making as you ride out the rest of 2020 in terms of which events you want to compete in?

CHEYENNE WOODS: It's a strange year having our statuses locked in and not necessarily having to play every event. You know, sometimes we do feel like we have to play ten weeks in a row.

So I think honestly it's a good reality check of finding balance career-wise on the golf course and also life off the golf course of what works for you, what doesn't work for you.

So for me, I'll be back and forth a bit on the LPGA/ Symetra Tour, so I'm going to play as much as I can and also find time to balance and be home with my family.

So I think just definitely prioritizing the balance in life versus totally exhausting ourselves as we do sometimes.

THE MODERATOR: And watching more Netflix.

CHEYENNE WOODS: Yes.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much Cheyenne, for your time, and good luck tomorrow.

CHEYENNE WOODS: Thank you.