“We’ve been friends since forever and I can’t imagine a better end for not only our season but our soccer career,” Woods said to the Palm Beach Post. “To go all the way, to end on a win, to end having a ring and having a gold medal is absolutely the best way to go out. We’ve had such amazing chemistry with this team. I can’t ask for a better team to have played my final games with.” And when it came to summing up the long season, Sam couldn’t hold the truth for far too long.
“I’m just really happy that we got this far,” Woods said. “We didn’t really expect it.” Her words couldn’t ring more true! Let alone a state win, for the longest time, it didn’t look like they were anywhere near to even get to DeLand. Odds were stacked against them. They entered the season with zero expectations, considering they lost their top three scorers to graduation or other pursuits and a losing record of a regular season with just four wins, a 1-4-2 record to start the year, and nine underclassmen on the roster to show for it. But results improved late in the season, and in January, they found themselves in the district championship match. There, Woods scored the only goal in an upset victory over King’s Academy to stretch her soccer career.
“We definitely treated every game like it was our last,” Woods said. “We played our hearts out. We left everything on the field every single time. I think that’s one of the reasons why we made it so far—because we left everything out there. We didn’t only play for each other; we played for ourselves, our team, our coaches, our school. This is a really important moment for all of us.”
Meanwhile, Emily Simon also chimed in and reflected on her bond with Woods. “Me and Sam have been so close for so long. We’ve grown up together… I don’t even consider her one of my best friends. I consider her my family now. I really love her so much. She means the entire world to me,” Simon said, her voice filled with nostalgia.
“She has, I think, a negative connotation to the game because, at that time… when she was growing up, golf took Daddy away from her,” Woods admitted on the Today show in March last year. “I had to pack, and I had to leave, and I was gone for weeks, and there was a negative connotation to it. So we developed our own relationship, our own rapport, that’s outside of golf that we do things that don’t involve golf.”
What’s next for Sam Woods?
During the 2024 PNC Championship, broadcaster Dan Hicks casually dropped a major update: “Tiger Woods’ daughter Sam, who is caddying for him this week, will be attending Stanford University next year.” While Sam has kept her future plans quiet, her dad recently confirmed the news. Following a tough TGL match loss against Atlanta Drive GC on Tuesday, Tiger Woods was asked about his daughter’s big win and what it meant to him.
“Well, the core group of girls that were on that team have been together since they were six, so they’ve played traveled and they’ve played for Benjamin,” he shared. “To be able to end her high school career like that and to go on as a state champion is pretty cool.”
And yes, Stanford is officially happening. “She’s going to Stanford in the fall, so everything is really trending,” he said, and he also mentioned that she “did like the campus.” As for what she’ll be studying? She’s leaning toward a degree in the sciences—either biology or psychology—while her friend Simon is still deciding on her next steps.
