Annie Park, Tiger's fellow student, to face Tiger's niece

This will be an interesting matchup: Annie Park, 16, who studies with Sean Foley, Tiger Woods’ teacher, will be in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links quarterfinal Friday morning against Cheyenne Woods, Tiger Woods’ niece.

Park, the Levittown resident, has been working with Foley for several years—well before he became prominent as the latest to help Woods revamp his swing. At the Masters this year, I asked Foley—as he stood near the second fairway, having watched his famous pupil finish the hole—about Park. “She’s really good. She’s going to be as good as she wants to be,” Foley said at the time.

It will be quite a challenge, facing Cheyenne Woods, who was the medalist in the stroke-play qualifier earlier this week at Bandon Dunes in Bandon, Oregon. Woods—the daughter of Earl Woods Jr. (from Earl Sr.’s first marriage)—has swamped her competition so far in the Women’s Publinx. She has scored wins of 4 and 3, 2 up and 8 and 7.

But Park faced the same apparent uphill struggle against Julie Yang in the round of 16 Thursday afternoon, and Yang was the one getting all the attention. Yang has won 73 tournaments worldwide, according to several stories posted about her, and his lived in South Korea, Arizona and Scotland, picking up golf experience all the way. Yang had won her first two matches in routs, 8 and 6, and 6 and 5, before she lost to Park, 1 up. All three of Park’s wins have been 1 up.

Anyway, here’s a column I did late last year about Park and Foley: