Game Review: Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’09

Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09 by EA Sports®

Since I’ve been nursing a bum knee, I’ve had a decent amount of time to dig into the latest offering of Tiger Woods PGA Tour golf for the PlayStation 3 system.

If you’re a golfer who likes to spend a little time playing video games (or a lot), then you may have had a chance to play some of the games in the Tiger Woods series. Beginning in 1998, this marks the 11th offering in the line. The 2009 version makes some nice upgrades from previous years and is an overall solid addition to the series.

New Features

Performance coach. Tiger Woods’ real life coach, Hank Haney helps you shape your virtual golf career with tips and insights to help you improve and increase your in-game skill levels.
Club tuning. The game contains a feature which allows you to tune every club in your bag according to your ability and style, to maximize your play, just like in real life.
Dynamic skills. Your in-game play dictates the ability of your golfer. So, instead of just working to max out attributes, now poor play will cause your player to actually go into a sort of slump in ability.
EA Sports GamerNet has added instant challenges. At any point during a round (even in single player mode), you can make a long drive, killer approach, or great putt, and challenge the online community to top it. At the same time, challenges show up in your round for you to try and beat.
Online simultaneous play. When you play online as a foursome, each player is able to play a shot at the same time, eliminating the wait time for other players to play.
New courses and golfers. There are several new courses in the game, as well as many old favorites. New courses include Gary Player CC, Wentworth CC, Sheshan GC, Wolf Creek, and Bay Hill CC. In addition, you can play as Se Ri Pak, Darren Clarke, Nick Dougherty and Rory McIlroy.
In addition, there have been a number of upgrades to gameplay, visual presentation, and online experience.

The Good

Overall, the game is a lot of fun. Let’s take a look at what I like about it.

The in-game challenges are a lot of fun. I almost never do any kind of online gaming, but the challenges are fun after cranking off a long drive or great approach.
The graphics are pretty good. They definitely improved the water and the sky to make some of the views pretty impressive. On my 51-inch HDTV, the game looks great. However, there are some grass and other textures that are not that great, but overall, it’s visually appealing.
There are tons of ways to play, whether it’s stroke play in the PGA Tour season, in a pick-up round, or online with friends, match play in the Tiger Challenge or against an opponent, or any of the numerous other forms of play and mini-games. One of my favorite is “battle golf” (not new) where you play an opponent in match play format, and every time you win a hole, you get to remove a club from his or her bag.
The photo game face feature is pretty neat. I took a couple of photographs (face on and side profile), uploaded them, and the game crunched them to make a player face in the game that looks quite similar to me.
The controls have been modified to allow the shot to be taken with the right analog stick. I can’t recall if it was the 2007 or 2008 version where only the left stick could be used. This totally messed up my swing technique because I developed a unique style that maximizes speed on the power boost button (L1). Making me take the shot with the left stick made it impossible.
Putting has been improved. On lower difficulty settings, you can still get a read, but you can only get it once. I think that’s a nice limitation that leaves a little skill in the equation.

The Bad

While I love the game overall, there are several things that I don’t like.

Without a doubt, the biggest downside to me is the announcing crew. I’m a fan of Sam Torrance, but sometimes it sounds like he was shot with a tranquilizer dart before he sat down to record his dialog. Most of his dialog is wooden and uninteresting. Kelly Tilghman is somewhat better, but sounds too scripted. In previous years, I grew to love David Feherty, especially when he was with Bill Macatee but also when he was with Gary McCord. This crew is a huge step backward.
Some of the players in the Tiger Challenge seem to have generic swings, instead of their normal unique swing actions. If I remember correctly (I seem to have misplaced my notes) Annika Sorenstam was fairly similar to her real life swing. On the other hand, Jim Furyk and Natalie Gulbis seem to have generic swings. It’s kind of lame, considering how unique they are in real life. Also, If I remember correctly, they had Jim Furyk down correctly in a previous version of the game, so I’m not sure why they couldn’t retain that.
There are several glitches that cause computer-controlled players to act insanely. I’ve experienced two of these episodes. In a match with Annika Sorenstam during the Tiger Challenge, she had a couple hundred yards to the green on a par five. There was out of bounds behind the green. She proceeded to air mail the green and one-bounce the ball out of bounds. Even the best players make mistakes, right? Well, she dropped a ball and did it again. And again. And again. Until she ran out of strokes. Obviously this isn’t totally unexpected because the developers put a cap in on the number of strokes a player can take. I had the same thing happen another time, but it was water instead of OB. It was like a scene right out of Tin Cup.
Though the crowds have been improved some, they still seem a bit cheesy and not very dynamic. I’d almost prefer them to leave out the visual and just play the audio.

Conclusion

All in all, despite the criticism, this game is a lot of fun. I’ve always been a fan of the series and this one is a nice upgrade from the 2008 version. With so many ways to play, adaptive skill levels, and several levels of difficulty, there are many, many hours of enjoyment to be had.

If you like to play against human opponents, whether in person or online, you’re going to have a blast. There are so many ways to play, that just about every golf gamer out there will find enjoyment.

Overall, this game is a solid addition to the series. I’ve had a lot of fun with it and I think you will too. If you like golf games, I think you’ll like this one.