TIGER WOODS AND DAUGHTER SAM ALEXIS AT US GOLF OPENING

This time, as Tiger rehabbed from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and was forced to sit out for two months, he had Sam by his side.

“There’s no way I could have gotten through this without Sam being there,” Woods said. “Spending that much time off and away from training and trying to get better, Sam was absolutely incredible, and I had so much fun doing that. It took my mind away from the fact that I had a surgery done, and just watching her grow, walking, running now, it’s been just the greatest thing in the world.”

Earl Woods lives on in Tiger the father. And, by virtue of Sam’s name, the elder Woods lives on in her, too.

“My father had always called me Sam since the day I was born,” Tiger told reporters last year. “He rarely ever called me Tiger. I would ask him, ‘Why don’t you ever call me Tiger?’ He says, ‘Well, you look more like a Sam.’ ”