- Site: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Developer: Electronic Arts
- Genre: Sports
Game Media
By Brad Cook
He began his life in the spotlight on “The Mike Douglas Show,” putting against comedian Bob Hope in front of a national audience. He was two years old. Just a year later, he established himself as a prodigy when he completed nine holes in 48 strokes at the Navy Golf Club. At age five, he found himself in the pages of “Golf Digest” magazine.
Today, Tiger Woods is one of the greatest golfers in the game’s history, and the ’08 edition of his PGA Tour game gives you new opportunities to step into the spiked shoes of Tiger, 22 other pro golfers, or a new competitor of your creation. Play on 14 real-world courses as you take on the new Tiger Challenge Mode, compete in the PGA Tour FedExCup Championship, and go head-to-head against other golfers over the Internet.
Other new features include the confidence meter, which combines your historical outcomes at a particular hole with your golfer’s skill ratings and the current shot’s risk. The higher your confidence meter, the greater your chances of hitting the perfect shot, which will increase your confidence meter the next time you play that hole. Don’t worry if you botch it: random training events, accessible later, let you regain confidence for certain holes.
Dare Seize the Fire
When you embark on a Tiger Challenge, you guide an amateur golfer through a series of progressively difficult tasks, such as driving the ball farther than your opponents or completing all the par-three holes on a certain course. Finish a challenge with at least a bronze medal and unlock the adjacent ones on the hex grid. Each group of challenges culminates in an 18-hole head-to-head match with a pro; the finale pits you against Tiger.
You can also embark on the PGA Tour with your amateur golfer, whose physical appearance you customize from their face to their shoes. Play up to 30 years of a career, competing in each season’s 16 events and earning points toward qualification for the FedExCup Championship. The top 144 golfers gain the right to tee off in the first of the FedExCup’s four tournaments, with the field cut down to 120, 70, and 30 for the next three tournaments.
If you’d rather head straight to the FedExCup Championship with one of the game’s 23 pro golfers, you can do that too. Choose from Tiger, Annika Sorenstam, Vijay Singh, John Daly, and other top golfers from around the world. Each player earns points depending on their success in each of the four tournaments; the grand champion is the golfer with the highest cumulative total after the final hole has been played.
There’s plenty more to discover in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, including trophy balls, which you earn for your first 20-foot putt, your first 300-yard shot, and so forth. You can view them any time, along with your tournament trophies, voluminous career statistics, and replays of your best shots and putts. You’ll find enough virtual golfing activities here to keep you busy until it’s time to hit the real links once again.
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Game Hardware
Check out our systems for your best gaming experience.
Nice Shot. Take par for the hole, subtract two strokes for putting, and you have the number of shots needed to achieve green in regulation.
Stay on Target. That grid helps you determine the angle of slope.
The World’s Biggest Water Hazard. Those colored lines represent your previous shots in practice mode.
System Requirements:
- Mac OS X version 10.4.9
- 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor or higher
- 1GB of RAM
- ATI X1600, NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT, or higher video card (Intel GMA950 chipset not supported)
- 2.7GB hard disk space
- 8X DVD-ROM drive
The Course
- Cog Hill: Home of the FedExCup Championship series’ BMW Tournament, this course, located in Lemont, Illinois, features large greens, tree-lined fairways, and 110 sand bunkers. That last attribute, along with its slopes, earned Cog Hill the nickname “Dubsdread.”
- Doral Golf Resort & Spa: The fabled “Blue Monster” boasts plenty of greenside bunkers, along with a generous helping of the palm trees found throughout Florida, where this course is located. Hole 18, with its unpredictable wind and large stretch of water, may be the trickiest.
- East Lake Golf Club: You’ll play The Tour Championship, the final tournament in the FedExCup series, at this course in Atlanta. Its signature hole, number six, challenges you to reach a green nearly surrounded by water. It was one of the first island holes in America.
- Firestone Country Club: The South Course, where you’ll play the Bridgestone Invitational, is so tough that golfing great Arnold Palmer dubbed it “Monster.” Seven of its holes are nearly 500 yards long, and the 16th hole is not only 667 yards long, but a pond sits in front of the green. This course is in Akron, Ohio.
- Harbour Town Golf Links: This South Carolina course was designed in 1967 with help from legend Jack Nicklaus. Many of its holes are shorter than average, which can be deceptive if you rely heavily on power shots. The 18th is the toughest, with a successful second shot aimed toward the famous red-and-white lighthouse in the distance. Hopefully, you’ll clear Calibogue Sound in the process.
- The K Club: Palmer designed this Irish club’s North Course, where you’ll play the European Shootout and the International Cup during the PGA Tour. Swirling winds play havoc with your shots on several holes.
- Kiawah Island Golf Resort: Another South Carolina course, this one also features difficult winds. On the plus side, you’ll have a beautiful view of the shoreline from all of The Ocean Course’s 18 holes.
- Moonah Links at the National Golf Club: This Australian course is set on coastal dune land. Not only does it challenge golfers with heavy winds that push the ball in all directions, but untamed grasses dominate many of the roughs, making it even harder to recover from wayward shots.
- Pebble Beach Golf Links: Even non-golfers have heard of this course, which hosts an annual Pro-Am that draws celebrities from around the country. Spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean complement some of the most interesting holes in golf, from a strategic perspective. Yes, the ocean serves as a water hazard on more than one hole.
- Riviera Country Club: Located in Los Angeles, Riviera opens with an easy par-five hole, but the sixth hole features a sand bunker in the middle of the green; many of the later holes also challenge you with strategically-placed bunkers. When you reach the 18th, your tee shot will need to hit the fairway if you want a chance at par.
- The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews: The club’s Old Course is the 15th century birthplace of golf. It’s full of sand bunkers — 112 of them, to be exact — and its greens are very large, which often means you could be in for very long putts. Try to keep your shots to the left.
- TPC (Tournament Players Club) Boston: Host of the FedExCup’s Deutsche Bank Championship, this Palmer-designed course has a quaint New England feel, thanks to its unique stone walls on two holes. The last two holes each provide several strategic choices, leading to plenty of final-round drama.
- TPC Sawgrass: Water hazards dominate this Florida course. Nearly all of your shots require precise accuracy, rather than brute force.
- Westchester Country Club: Barclays, the first of the four FedExCup Championship tournaments, happens on this New York club’s West Course. The greens are protected by bunkers on a few holes, including the 17th, where an 18-foot drop snares golfers who overshoot their target.