Tiger Woods - Celebrity Byte

by John Gaudiosi

NEW YORK CITY -- Tiger Woods was on hand in New York City to ring the morning bell on the New York Stock Exchange and then celebrate the launch of his latest collaboration with EA Sports, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08. The game shipped right before the new Fed Ex Cup kicked off the PGA Tour Playoffs-a tournament that's in the new video game. Woods was on hand to meet some of his fans and play the video game against them. He also displayed some of his real golf skills on the driving range before sitting down for this exclusive interview.

Tiger Woods during the first round of the Memorial Tournament Presented by Morgan Stanley held in Dublin, Ohio, on May 31, 2007. Photo by Mike Ehrmann.

Tiger Woods during the first round of the Memorial Tournament Presented by Morgan Stanley, May 31, 2007. Photo by Mike Ehrmann.

What was the release event like today, and what was it like meeting some of your biggest videogame fans?

It was fun. I think we had a good time today overall. It builds to launch the game here in New York. It doesn't get any better than that. It also was good to hit a few shots and stretch the muscles a bit. But basically it was great to interact with the people. That was the whole idea.

What has the experience been like over the years producing the Tiger Woods games with EA Sports?

The past nine years have been pretty interesting to see how the technology has developed. At first it was my swing, but also kind of not really my swing. It's gotten to a point where, as my swing has evolved and changed over the years, you can definitely see that in the game. Now you can see galleries in the game, which you couldn't see before. The early games golf courses looked two-dimensional, and they didn't have the flow and the hills and the shadowing that they have now. It certainly didn't have the facial response that you have now from hitting a good shot or a bad shot. I think that's been amazing to see the difference. Now wind blows through the trees and you can see how it affects a shot. All of these things work as part of the game.

I'm not that stupid to go online and challenge people because I know they'll whoop me.

Tiger Woods makes his way back from the beach at the 2007 Wachovia Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 6, 2007. Photo by Sam Greenwood.

What specific involvement do you have when these games are produced?

With this game they asked me, what is it about real golf that you think about? How do you play? As a player, you remember shots. You remember what you did three, four, five years ago. Now we have a log of every shot you hit in the game. And basically, that's how you get good. Some parts of the game are dialed in, just like we are, and other parts of the game are weaknesses. You can definitely see how the weaknesses are exposed in the video game now, which didn't happen before.