Like many of last year's Xbox 360 sports games, Tiger Woods felt more like an E3 demo than a full featured game. The game looked OK, had a limited number of courses, and was restrictive in its game mode offerings. The less game modes, the less time in testing, which makes sense when you're trying to meet or closely match a new console's launch date.

Thankfully, EA had more time to round out this year's offering, and the result is a new aiming system, twice as many courses, and more play modes. Adding so much to an already tried and true golf engine, and the result is easily the best Tiger game to date. Unlike the last-gen consoles, there's no doubt that Tiger Woods 07 bears little resemblance to Tiger Woods 06. It's kinda like Tiger 1999 vs. Tiger 2006. Sure he was good back then -- now he's bigger, badder (see the goatee?), and sports a super-model wife at his side.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 will burn hours in any number of ways. There are a multitude of match and scoring modes to delve into, including the ever-popular dorm favorite, skins. There's four-ball, best-ball, alternate shot, stableford scoring and battle golf. Battle golf, in particular, is an interesting remix of match play, where the goal is to win the most holes. In EA's version, winning a hole grants the winner the ability to remove a club from his opponent's bag. Sounds like fun? It is. Nothing beats watching your pal have to hit a five-iron from 100 yards because you've taken his scoring wedges.


Zipping you around Tiger Woods 07 are a host of new presentation effects and nifty screens. The driving range is a key component of your practice time, and the training course in general is a very useful tool. The game prods you to create a player almost immediately so you can start a career. Unlike many games, this is actually a fun exercise in Tiger thanks to the robust player creation tool. Get as goofy or "true to life" as you like. They even let you customize a swing.

Now, here's the one part of Tiger that some might be put off by. At first, your created golfer is not worth of the Hooters, Nike, Nationwide, or any other tour you can think of. So forget the PGA Tour at first and concentrate on putting the time in to make your character playable. Power, accuracy, putting, recovery, and all the skills can be improved by completing some relatively harmless minigames. This is balanced with experience, which requires you to actually take your modest skills out on the course and get some competition. New equipment and clothing can also benefit your game if you need a quick boost, and then there's Xbox Live Marketplace, which offers all the points you need to unlock everything (for a fee, of course).