Iāve played video games as 7-foot-centers and hulking first basemen, Iāve probably pitched to or hit against the virtual counterpart of every Hall of Fame ballplayer who has appeared in the last 20 or so years. The idea of playing a sport as someone famous has well lost its novelty in the modern era of video games.
But playing a professional golf tournament as a 2-year-old? Thatās not something Iād ever done before this past week.
When EA Sports first told me about the āTiger Legacy Challenge,ā in which you relive more than just the great professional moments of Tiger Woodsā life, I was rather skeptical. Using child-age Tiger Woods golfers to recreate how he learned the game (and also, future visions of Woods setting a record for Major championship wins) sounded gimmicky, or at least had the potential to veer in that direction.
That was my biggest concern when executive producer Brent Nielsen mentioned, back in January, that the adolescent version of Tiger wore ābig Urkel sunglassesā and could be unlocked for use in the main game. Recreating events from his career also sounded like a panicked attempt to offer something much easier than last yearās extremely difficult āMasters Moments,ā which drove golfers crazy trying to recreate Gene Sarazenās double-eagle on No. 15, for example.
Nielsen, in January, told me they expected skepticism from Woods himself when they first proposed the Legacy Challenge to him. āWe werenāt sure how heād react to it,ā he said. Especially playing Woods as a child, it would seem to be open to all sorts of gamer abuse and zany YouTube videos, no matter what the intent behind it was.
After a few rounds as toddler Tiger, though, Iām strangely compelled to play all my one-off rounds as the younger Tigers, from age 2 through his tween years. As you can see in this series of videos, heās not restricted to the real world limitations youād expect of a boy his age, even one as gifted as Woods. It presents a stout challenge on the longer holes, but on the shorter ones, you can shoot par or better with anyone.
Gimmicky? Thereās too much content offered to slap it with that label. Does it have a novelty appeal, though? Yes. I donāt know when it will wear off. Iām having too much fun seeing Toddler Tiger birdie Augustaās No. 16 like he owns the joint, even at that age.
STICK JOCKEY
Stick Jockey is Kotakuās column on sports video games. It appears weekends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jl3AiqNemA
Do you think a 2-year-old can drive even the green of No. 16, Augusta Nationalās second-shortest hole, at 170 yards? Well, he can. Toddler Tiger is rated 6āout of 99āin power and a 17 in accuracy, but the stats are basically meaningless on this hole, on Pro difficulty, anyway.
If the game restricted you to the actual distance a two-year-old could driveāand who the hell knows what that is, reallyāthere would be no point to playing because youād probably shoot a quadruple bogey on every hole, and your shots wouldnāt be long enough to require creative decision making or any real accuracy.
But check out the roll on that putt! I went well right of the stick on the drive because I wasnāt really paying attention. That, however, is at least a 30-foot putt, evocative of Woodsā chip-in at the same hole in 2005.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PenPuMYz2SU
A few years ago, Nike released this ad, which placed young Tiger Woods in action on St. Andrews Links at The British Open. That had to be on the minds of the EA Sports developers as they built out this feature. Here Iāve put Woods, as a 10-year-old, on the famous āRoad Holeā No. 17 of the Old Course. Thatās a double bogey, folks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV5my6Rey88
While Tiger Woods, or his people, have considerable input and final approval over this product, itās still remarkable that a star who prizes his privacy so much agreed to, essentially, turn part of his childhood into a video game. The first episode in the Tiger Legacy Challenge is an example.
This is his famous appearance on The Mike Douglas Show, at age 2, in 1978. In real life, Woods showed off his skill with a driver and a putter, showing startling accuracy for a child who probably hadnāt been walking for much more than a year. Of note: In the driving sequence, you can see Earl Woods in the shadows ahead of Tiger, next to anonymous figure I assume is Bob Hope, a guest appearing on the Douglas show with the Woodses.
In this video, you can see me deliberately try to fail a shot, or send a wacky drive sky high into the lights. Youād have to actively try to flunk this, and if you do, itās not like they show you a crying 2-year-old boy. But youāre still toying with someone elseās rather special memory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCaMDyFbx8g
Hereās another example of playing with someoneās memories, somewhat. There are several sequences that take you to the Woods family back yard in Orange County, Calif. in the 1970s and 1980s. Here he is chipping balls into his motherās handbag in an improvised accuracy drill.
When I asked Nielsen if Earl Woods, now deceased, would appear in the game as a playable golfer, he quickly said no. Even though Earl golfed and played against Tiger, a scene many fans would love to create, Woods likely set the boundary early in discussions, if it was even proposed. Familyās off limits with him, but his childhood home, evidently, is alright.
You canāt take off and roam around the yard, kick over the bag or vandalize the place. But still, when my parents sold my childhood home, I swore Iād never go back there because I didnāt want my most recent memory of it to be as something other than where I grew up. I donāt know I would want to turn my own back yard into a level in a video game for others to play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNx6-RmyTVM
The Challenge isnāt entirely sentimental, there are 10 stages, and some of the tasks within the early ones are damn hard, mostly because you are dealing with an underpowered golfer. You can compensate for accuracy by really concentrating hard, but the lack of distance will force you to hit some shots with very little margin for error.
This is the ādistraction trainingā in which Earl Woods would interrupt Tigerās backswing, in order to build his focus and confidence. The distractions offered here are more annoyances than obstacles. After trying this about six times I finally beat the mode last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nsW2OxmJ7Q
The Legacy Challenge also does a rather sweet-hearted thing, setting up Tiger as a 10-year-old in 1986 reliving Jack Nicklausā victory at Augusta National that year as if Tiger was the one making the charge on the 16th, 17th and 18th holes. Again, distance is your biggest enemy, especially on the Par 4, 440-yard No. 17, as you must go through this stretch 2-under par.
No. 16 is one of my favorite holes to play in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, and itās very satisfying to do it as one of the youth Tiger Woods. Some enhancements to the gallery audio mean that when you pull off a great shot you really hear the cheering, as any 10-year-old golf fan would imagine it.
