Written by: Rik
Date posted: September 3, 2023

For the last 25 years or so, the story of sports gaming has been dominated by Electronic Arts, to the extent that the annual release cycle of franchises covering virtually all bases at one point made for an extremely dull area of gaming history, characterised by fatigued reviewers trying desperately to articulate the differences between the latest version and its predecessor and offer an opinion on whether it was worth your time and money or not, with the whole process creating a bleak plastic wasteland of cheap and unwanted copies of previous iterations that nevertheless represented something of a bargain for the economically-minded gamer. For a time, if you were a console owner and wanted a game of [sport], you could probably snap up something that was still quite good for a few quid and be perfectly happy with it.

Similar avenues became increasingly narrow for PC gamers, however, with EA doing away with Windows releases for some series altogether and pushing out technically inferior versions of others. Most famously, as FIFA started to pull away from Pro Evolution Soccer in the late 00s on 360 and PS3, PC gamers found themselves lumbered with knock-offs of the PS2 versions instead. A personal assumption that some other long-running series first established in the 90s continued in perpetuity, on consoles at least, was swiftly corrected by a visit to Wikipedia: what do you mean they don’t make NBA Live anymore?

As it turns out, there hasn’t been a Tiger Woods or PGA Tour Golf game released for the best part of 10 years, either, and you can extend that even further when it comes to the PC: if you ignore the largely borked attempt to pass off the browser-based Tiger Woods Online as the Windows version of the 2012 edition, then there’s been nothing at all since the 2008 incarnation, until this year’s revival.

The FFG approach to such series, as directed by the editorial board, has been to try (with – it has to be said – limited success) to dip in and out of various franchises in an attempt to capture their evolution without necessarily getting into a dry comparison of features at any point. Last time, we took a trip back to one of EA’s mid-90s efforts; Tiger Woods then became the dominant name in golf and in golf-related gaming for some considerable time after that, so it sort of feels appropriate for us to try and cover at least one of his games here for posterity.

That’s the justification, at least, for the dual retro shame of covering a title of this type and vintage, a decision made even more mystifying by the revelation that it does not play well with modern Windows and requires some extremely irritating tweaks in order to run. Furthermore, in what might be considered a metaphor for the physical, personal and professional decline of the once-spry and infallible Woods, my second-hand copy of this game sported crinkly artwork and manual pages that appeared to show evidence that the box had at some point been dropped in a puddle.

Still, here we are, grimly turning off some of our system memory and enduring video clips that can be heard but not seen in order to bring you comprehensive coverage of this old golf game from 2006. What is immediately evident is that this version is, like FIFA, a technological contemporary of the PS2 edition, and as such appears much less shiny and modern than I was expecting. Moderate internet research confirms a hunch that PC golf games were a late adopter of polygon graphics, with several series – including this one – persisting with the tried and tested cardboard cut-out approach, as seen in the likes of Links and distant relation PGA Tour Golf 486, for a little longer than other sports franchises. Tiger’s 2001 instalment was the last flat-packed version, with things moving into 3D the following year.

This 07 edition was developed by Headgate Studios, who were previously responsible for a whole raft of earlier golf titles, including Sierra’s Front Page Sports: Golf and their later PGA Championship Golf series. A key feature of the latter was the so-called ‘True-Swing’ technology, in which accurate swishing of the mouse replaced the traditional multi-mouse-click system widely employed by rival titles, and brought across to the PC versions of EA’s franchise.

As a committed Hardcore Gamer, I resolved to make use of this once-revolutionary technology, and can indeed vouch for the fact that it feels a lot more like swinging a real golf club and like you have more direct input into the success or failure of each shot. However, despite tinkering with various settings – mouse and gamepad control, front-back and left-right swishing, left hand and right handed golfers – I was unable to achieve a level of success required for progress in the game on anything other than the ‘Mr Thicky-Stupid’ lowest difficulty setting, where manifestly poor execution was forgiven far too readily.

This meant a reluctant switch back to the old 3-click system: once to start your swing, once at the top of your swing, and once at the bottom, before watching as your avatar effects the shot on your behalf. It enabled me to crank up the difficulty at least one more notch, but it did also mean that the differences between this and previous golf games covered on this site started to appear less significant.

The major point of difference would be the two available career modes, one of which – PGA Tour – captures the most predictable feature of building up your own Jonny Nomarks golfer from scratch and guiding him (or her) through the various stages of an amateur and then professional career. To do this, you first have to enter the patented ‘EA Game Face’ mode, move various sliders and select between different polo shirts and sweater vests (or, alternatively, participate in the time-honoured tradition of choosing the most ludicrous and outlandish outfits to make your golfer look like a lapsed member of Blink 182 out on the course).

To say the journey to the top is a long-winded one would be an understatement, although there is some significant amusement value in the early matches, which supposedly take place against fictional friends and colleagues. Having never worked in an environment where guys from the office called Zach, Jason and Dale might invite me down to the local course to talk business, to be able to do so here was somewhat of a novelty, and the fact that they all dressed like Grade A American douchebags who might want to bore you to death about the gas mileage of their chosen SUV as you traipse around the course added some motivation to deliver them a beating.

In time, though, these match play events take a back seat to traditional stroke play, which means your opponents appear in more theoretical form as names on a leaderboard rather than in person. And, as you’re technically still on the Amateur tour at this point, you’re denied an accompanying crowd or commentary, instead padding around in silence until you have your PGA Tour card.

In parallel to this, your golfer earns points to ‘level up’ their stats in various areas – power, long game, short game, putting etc. – as well as unlocking a variety of golf lessons, completion of which will give your player more shots and subtleties to draw upon. It all feels like fairly thin gravy at times, with some extras – like the ability to move the ball forward and back in your stance to add height or distance respectively – seeming like a very harsh exclusion at the outset, making some courses (particularly the two ‘fantasy’ ones, Central Park and Emerald Dragon) virtually impossible to negotiate in the early stages. Meanwhile, the power shot seems far too risky to be worth it, while by the time you unlock special shots like the Flop (a high chip shot designed to avoid obstacles), you’ll have already had to learn how to cope without it.

Speaking of courses, there are only 12 in this PC version, which is more than I’m accustomed to, but some way short of the 21 available in the contemporary console efforts. The net result is (especially if you avoid the two novelty courses) that you’ll get a bit tired of repeating the same thing over and over again, as you’re required to do, even if you make progress at the most rapid rate. The introduction of crowds and commentary does add to the general atmosphere, but individual events are generally only a big deal because the menu screen says they are. You might be rewarded with a video clip as you hit various milestones, but otherwise playing a course is the same whether it’s a standard tournament, or one of the major championships, and there’s certainly never any acknowledgement of the stakes involved from the commentators, even if you’re about to attempt a putt to win the whole thing.

Once you’ve won a major, the next goal is to win all four of them, but without an acknowledgement of the extra razzmatazz associated with these events, it’s hard to care very much, especially as there are countless other bog-standard PGA events to play through in between. You do earn money along the way, although outside of travelling and event entry fees, the only thing you have to spend it on is a full range of golf equipment and clothing, none of which seems to convey any significant performance advantage. The other potentially exciting event on the calendar is the President’s Cup, which is a team event, and does at least give you the chance to see some of the famous PGA pros in action.

There is also the separate Team Tour, this year’s EA Gimmick™, in which you are supposed to put together a crack team of pros to rise up the rankings and overthrow Tiger’s team. A combination of globetrotting and the slightly surprising use of cartoonish stereotypes gives the whole thing a Streetfighter II vibe: rather than recruiting lowly PGA players, you’ll instead have access to fictional golfers including the muscly Pacific Islands power hitter, the nerdy Japanese putting expert, and the Indian child prodigy. Iffy profiling aside, the fun characters, and the focus on match play and shootouts with all golfers on the course at once, makes this a worthwhile diversion when you’ve had enough of the po-faced PGA mode. However, if you want your own golfer to be good, then it’s a good idea to have levelled them up first.

It must also be said that the golf itself is reliably enjoyable. Personally speaking, the appeal of a golf game lies less in the ‘big event’ authenticity and more in the feeling of a gentle stroll around the course and trying to post a good score. A slightly chilled-out vibe, with you working out the risk/reward of power vs. control, and trying to avoid doing something completely mad or losing your temper, particularly while putting (even at a gentle difficulty level, it’s still perfectly possible to self-destruct on the greens) is at the core of what I’m after, and this game certainly delivers. Plus, for all my moaning about the external dressing, the ball-chase cam does provide some reliable thrills throughout, whether you’re following a great drive down the fairway or desperately scrambling around in your seat like a madman hoping that your mishit approach shot avoids the water trap.

To a certain extent, though, I remained quite surprised at how little had changed since the golf games of the mid-late 90s, particularly for those sticking with the tri-click method. Although the range of available shots and possibilities afforded by adjusting your stance provided some additional factors to weigh up, it seemed to be a similar story of getting your clicking right, reading the handy grid superimposed over the green, and generally holding your nerve. The intermediate difficulty setting soon became quite easy: however, moving it up a notch took the pace of the swingometer beyond what I could easily cope with, and the level of concentration required to maintain anything approaching a reasonable performance took with it the relaxing background atmosphere I had previously been enjoying. It would have been good to be able to up the opponents’ skill levels without making things harder on your own game, but sadly it’s not entirely clear what in-game differences are effected by a change in difficulty.

On a technical level, it all seems a little bit poor for a game from 2006. The graphics aren’t great: there’s a weird blurring effect that mists in and out during cut-scenes, spectators are noticeably low-poly and don’t react to the ball hitting them (which it will, especially when they stand in stupid places), while left-handed golfers will have to get used to the HUD obscuring their player’s head for the duration. Sound-wise, while I quite enjoyed the commentary, you will often get varying reactions from crowd, commentator and player as to whether a particular shot is good or not. (Incidentally, if your player sinks a decent putt, then he or she will embark on one of a number of largely ridiculous celebration animations, including aiming the club at the camera like a shotgun, and at least a couple that involve break-dancing). And, as previously mentioned, career stuff is always conveyed to you via unexciting menu text rather than any in engine events.

My sincere belief that there is something interesting to be said about the endless iterations of EA franchises from the past occasionally receives a knock, and I must admit that the gathering evidence elsewhere of multiple instances of FIFA all receiving the same score and clustering around the mid-table of the FFG Football League is hardly helping in this regard. At some point during this game the thought crossed my mind that the well-worn stereotype of EA’s sports games – that they’re well-presented and solidly-put-together – might not even be true. (Have I ever actually liked FIFA? I know for a fact that some of EA’s cricket games were rubbish).

I don’t quite know enough about golf to say much about Tiger Woods 07 in this regard, although I had moments of observing some odd ball behaviour on the green, wondering whether the ‘High Spin’ shot actually did anything different to the bog-standard one, and indeed whether any of my tinkering with various settings and sliders made any difference at all to the end result. Was the newness, the annual gimmick, the only point of these games, after all? To keep everything moving along so quickly that in the rush to note new features and the updated graphics, no-one ever questions whether the game is any good or not, particularly if there’s no obvious competitor with similar resources behind it?

I don’t know, readers. Like the games themselves, these questions veer dangerously close to irrelevance. As a rummage into the past to find a vaguely palatable golf game, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 certainly did the job, although I can’t say for sure that it was a significant leap forward, or greatly more enjoyable, than some of the DOS oldies we’ve covered previously. I guess if all old FIFA games seem to end up getting a 5, then old golf games must be similarly predestined to receive a 6.

(And, lo, it was written.)