Tiger Woods 2003

Tiger Woods Interview

The biggest name in golf raps with IGN about his videogame legacy.

Few athletes have gone from promising young players to the most dominant force in their game as quickly and as convincingly as Tiger Woods has in golf. Tremendous adulation and tremendous scrutiny followed Woods as he first shocked the world and then the golf establishment itself with his addiction to winning tournaments and majors. With his unique mix of athletic ability and supreme concentration skills, Tiger, through golf, has become one of the world's most recognizable people, athlete or otherwise. So lending his name to a videogame like EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 isn't a marketing opportunity as much as it is a seal of quality.

We had a chance to talk to the man himself and let him speak on behalf of the game that bears his name. He's more in tune with what it takes to make a quality videogame than you might think, even if, by his own admission, he's not very good at his own game.

Let it be known that Ivan tried contributing his own interview questions that the wise Aaron Boulding promptly deleted. You can see that potentially disastrous list of nonsensical queries on the last page of this article, linked right here.

IGN: Madden and NBA Live have different athletes on their covers every single year, but your name and face are always going to front your golf games from EA. How does that feel?

Tiger Woods: It is pretty cool to have my own video game. As a kid, growing up, it was something I never even thought of. I thought about just trying to get the new game that was coming out, so that my buddies and I, we, could all enjoy it together. When I was a kid, never once in my wildest dream -- even when I turned pro -- that was never something that I really thought about, having my own video game. Thanks to EA, it's a reality.

IGN: What do you think makes your game the best golf title out there?

Tiger: One of the things that we really tried to work on was realism in the game. Obviously speed, you don't want to take too long. Golf rounds take long enough as it is, you don't want to spend 5 hours playing 18 holes. You want to get in and out pretty quickly and enjoy the experience. On top of that, make sure the swings are realistic. You don't want some slow monotone swing for everybody. You want to have everyone's unique swing and their own unique body movements. That's one of the things that EA sports has always prided themselves on in any video game that they've put out. Making sure that it's accurate to the natural body moves of that particular athlete.

I'll be honest with you. When I did the first game I didn't like my golf swing at the time at all. I didn't like the way that it was across the line and that steep. I just made my normal golf swing, they video taped it, they got it into the game, we didn't do motion capture yet, so that was the swing that went into the game. I hated it. '98, '99, 2000, every year after that it's gotten better. It's really neat to see. I'm telling you it's really neat for me because I busted my tail to get my swing a little bit better and to get my club on plane. And to finally see it on plane, it's taken me years to get to it and it's finally evolved to where it's at now.

They've done a heck of a job. From the time that I've been with them until now, the motion capture sequences. When you put in the first game to now, obviously the golf courses look 10,000 times better, but you can actually see the evolution of my golf swing. I started changing my golf swing in '97 and that was about the time when they first motion-captured me. Well, they didn't motion capture me, they video taped me. From there, you could see that my swing was a little bit across the line. Now, every year in between I progressively get a little bit better and my arc and my path get a little bit better. That to me is pretty cool. That's how you know that they've captured the real golf swing. They've been through the whole process.

IGN: You've obviously been to most of them, how accurate are the golf courses in your opinion?

Tiger: The reason why I think that this game is so cool is that Pebble Beach and St. Andrews are very special to me. One is because they're my favorite courses in the world, but more importantly that's where I completed my career grand slam in 2000. So, having Pebbles and St. Andrews was pretty neat. I can say, 'I hit it here and I hit it here.' The mounds and the bunkering is as close as you can get to seeing it without being there in person. It's pretty close.

Not everyone can get to Pebble Beach. Not everyone can get to St. Andrews. These are two pretty exclusive golf courses, but it's pretty tough to get there geographically. Not everyone can afford it, but I think that this is the best way to see it. A lot of people have seen these golf courses on TV before and if they ever get a chance to play the video game, they'll understand that this is pretty close to what it is. The same elevation changes, the same cliffs, the same bunkering, the same position of the bunkering, you've got the wind, anything can happen. I think that's what's really neat about this game now.
IGN: You're the cover athlete and name brand all rolled into one for this game, how do you like the way you look in Tiger Woods 2003?

Tiger: I love it because I'm buffed out in the video game. I wish I was that big in person, but I'm not. It's pretty neat. The facial features are pretty close. They've done a heck of a job getting it better and better, from the first time it came out to now. Each and every game that's come out we've done a better job of making things more realistic.

The hardest thing is trying to get your movements of smiling or frustration, those type of actions into a video game. The new technology is allowing them to do facial features, which is pretty cool, facial expressions, I mean.

IGN: Do you get into some of the more arcadey golf games out there?

Tiger: I don't play them at all. I understand where they're coming from, trying to make something a little bit lighter, something a little lighter than a natural golf game. But, I'm such a competitive person that I want to play something that is as real to that experience as I possibly can. I know I'll never play in the NFL, but I know that the Madden games are the best ones out there and it's the closest one that there is to having real competition of that nature. And NBA live is the same thing. These are the games that I play because I want to be as close as I possibly can to that action, because I know that I'll never be there. I'll never be going over the middle, (Oakland Raider linebacker Bill) Romanowski will take my head off. I'm never going to be in that position. Thank god.

IGN: You say they loaded up on the realism in your game, what do you think non-golf fans will get out of it?

Tiger: I think they'll see how beautiful golf is. EA has done a good job of making the golf course look beautiful. A lot of these courses that we go to, such as Pebbles and St. Andrews, are absolutely aesthetically gorgeous. Especially late in the afternoon, St. Andrews is gorgeous in the evenings, with the sun and the moundings casting shadows. I've taken walks along 17 and 18 around evening time and you can see the big shadows, the big bunkering, the valley on 18, those things are pretty neat to be able to see in person and they've replicated it in the game.

IGN: What's your favorite detail, that only somebody such as your self can appreciate?

Tiger: The galleries, understanding that on PGA tour there are galleries and tournaments. Understanding that trees move when the wind is blowing; grasses move; clouds are moving in the sky where it's casting a shadow because the sun is moving different places in the sky. These are things that you start noticing because I'm out there all the time. This is what I do. They've done a fantastic job of listening to all of us guys in the game and getting our opinions on it. It could be very easy to be ego-centric to say, 'Stuff it. We're putting this game out there.' But, they're not. They listen to us. They listen to our input and it's been real fun working for them.

It's more of the little details, like things moving, certain positions of shadows. As a player, you always pay attention to your shadow and where it's at. If it's in our line, in our putt, it's something we have to take into consideration when reading it. Making sure you have to hit it in a certain spot because the shadow is in the way. There are a lot of different things that we have to take into account that only players on the PGA tour would have an understanding of how to convey that to EA.

IGN: I guess we haven't asked the obvious question yet: are you even good at your game?

Tiger: I am not, no. I am not. I usually shoot in the low to mid 80's which is not very good. Thank god I don't do that in real golf.

IGN: What about in head-to-head games? I'd imagine the repercussions of losing a contest to one of your friends in a videogame that has your picture on the cover would be catastrophic. Are you as competitive in videogame golf as you are in PGA tournaments?

Tiger: Yeah, I've come close to breaking a couple of controllers on my buddies' heads.

IGN: (after awkward silence) Okay, then. You've hung out with Michael Jordan before and he once shot a free throw in an NBA game with his eyes closed. What golf shot would you most like to attempt with your eyes closed?

Tiger: Never. You can't believe how hard it is to do something with your eyes closed in golf, because of the rotation component. Shooting foul shots, you're linear. You're in a linear movement, everything is going forward. In our golf swing, there's a rotation component to it, which throws off your equilibrium. Even doing it with one eye open and one eye closed, you can't believe how hard it is to actually make contact. Even for a professional golfer, it doesn't matter who it is. That's why I give hats off to anyone who's blind and playing golf. To play golf that way is absolutely unbelievable.

IGN: Ah, so you've actually tried it then.

Tiger: I had to because I used to wear contacts. Everyone knows, growing up in Southern California in the mid-'80's, if you have bad allergies and you're out in the Valley with all that smog, it just tears up your eyes and you have to take out your contacts occasionally. I'd take out one contact and it's like playing blind in one eye. You've got your left eye here, you tuck your head this way and if you rotate it too much you won't be able to see the ball. You have to do weird things like that. But at the time I was a kid and you didn't care. You just wanted to compete and play and you'd play anyway you possibly could.

IGN: Well thanks for your time.

And that's that. Ready for the dismissed questions? Turn the page!
1) Hey there, could you please introduce yourself to our readers and explain what your role is in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003? How are you related to the game? What role in the game do you fulfill?

2) Oh, so Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 is a type of golf game then? Uh huh, and what's that all about?

3) Now, since you have the same names, are you related to the Tiger Woods who made this game?

4) Uh huh. Do you play any videogames?

5) Do you like the control styles in current golf games? Do you think some type of new peripheral needs to be created to allow for a more accurate golfing experience? Maybe some kind of stick with a wire on the end? Please elaborate.

6) How do you like your new 3D polygonal model? They wouldn't let me have one (though I was really in it just to wear those funny glowing balls while they recorded me).

7) So how has it been working with nerds? My mom says she's gotten used to my obscure Lord of the Rings/He-Man references, but admits I'm still not ready to work with normals (something about me being horribly embarrassing or a horrible embarrassment), so I wouldn't know what non-geeks think of us all.

8) My father once forced me to play soccer, but I got scared when a butterfly attacked me. What do you think about that?

9) How accurate do you think the game of golf's translation into the digital world has been? Granted, I don't play the actual sport that often, but from the few matches I've had with friends, it seems to be all about caddy abuse, reckless cart driving, and the mass consumption of alcohol. Can these fundamentals of the sport really be achieved with a mouse and keyboard?

10) Why do people wear casual to sporty/formal clothing when golfing? Wouldn't it be wiser to wear sweats or some kind of tube top and leg warmer combo?

11) Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 looks like the worst football game ever, why?

12) Do you meet a lot of attractive golf groupies? If so, how do you avoid all conversation related to the games industry, because I start with the initially impressive, "My name is Ivan and I am a writer," but then it all goes straight to hell when I have to admit exactly what I write about and who cuts my paycheck. Any tips?

13) Can you tell me why I still haven't gotten a playable copy of Freelancer in the office? I'd really like one, yet it hasn't happened. Why is this?

14) I'd also like to know why some PR people send me killer posters that are neatly rolled up and then unceremoniously folded into four squares so that when I try and hang them up there are fat, unsightly vertical and horizontal creases.

15) Who's your arch nemesis? I have two: Daniel Adams (fellow editor) and Prince William.

16) Do you ever read IGN? It's a rhetorical question. You can just leave this one blank and I'll fill in the appropriate response/glowing endorsement.