There are some celebrity parents who seem to trot out their children for the cameras whenever their career needs a boost (Denise Richards, I'm looking at you!) and others whose babies are as familiar as our own because of the relentless stalking of the paparazzi with long lenses (like Britney Spears and the Jolie-Pitts.) And then there the are celebrity parents who are so refreshingly normal it's easy to forget they are parents at all.

Tiger Woods and his wife Elin are part of the elite category of celebrities who have managed to avoid the spotlight and to keep their adorable baby girl far from it.

Baby Sam was sighted in a rare public appearance to support her daddy at this year's U. S. Open, which he managed to win after a stressful sudden-death playoff against Rocco Mediate.

Even the controversy Tiger garnered during the tournament was brought on by showing a good work ethic. Playing in spite of a knee injury, he modeled that sometimes you have to go to work even though you don't want to or don't feel the best. And just today the golf great announced that he would have to take off the rest of the 2008 season due to another knee surgery and the recuperation it will require, making the Open win even more amazing.

Woods had credited his current golf win to his tiny daughter saying, "There's no way I could have gotten through this without Sam being there ... just watching her grow, walking, running now, it's been just the greatest thing in the world." Here's hoping that sweet little face will prove healing for him again in this next round of treatments.

Tiger Woods(click thumbnails to view gallery)