Konami isn’t just a video game maker. The company is also in the business of producing amusement machines (mainly for the Japanese market), and recently showcased its newest model: the aptly named Golf Connection [JP]. “Virtual golf simulators” like this aren’t new, but Konami’s version (which is based on a high-speed camera and two sensors) has a few interesting selling points.

For example, Golf Connection doesn’t require the ball to be marked, boasts a margin of error of 30 centimeters max., offers 150 replicated 3DCG real-world golf courses and web connectivity: users can upload their results to various social networks to compare themselves with each other.

It’s also possible to access all data stored (on a smartcard) later through a PC or smartphone and view videos shot during playing that way, for example to analyze one’s golf swing technique.

Golf Connection will be released in September (Konami has yet determine a price).

This video in English, shot by Diginfonews in Tokyo, provides more insight:

Mobile Web usage continues to grow by leaps and bounds as smartphones with large touch screens become the new normal. One quick data point comes from the United States Golf Association and IBM, which runs its Websites. During the 2010 U.S. Open golf tournament last week, 1.7 million people visited the U.S. Open’s mobile site, a 518 percent increase from last year. In contrast, the regular site saw only 4.2 million visitors, during the week, up 8 percent.

In other words, nearly 30 percent of traffic to the U.S. Open site was from mobile devices. The fact that golf fans didn’t need to fire up their laptops or turn on their TVs to find the latest scores and keep up with the play was enough to make the mobile site take off. And the mobile site was pretty stripped down—there was an all-text news feed, scores, tee times, and some video.

Really, that is all you need. Mobile sites should still be built for delivering quick bursts of information. When you are on the go, you probably don’t have time to wait for a busy page to load with graphics you can barely see anyway. But before touch-screen phones, the mobile Web was too difficult to navigate. Remove the friction of getting on the Web, and people will come in droves.

When it’s winter outside, you can’t play golf! There’s not even a close substitute. I mean, what are you going to do? Play it as a video game or something? Name me one golf video game! No, for those of us going absolutely bat-shit stir crazy waiting for winter to end, maybe this $13 desktop golf set will help.

Included:

• One golfer
• Three balls
• Two trees
• One pin
• One green
• One water hazard
• One water hazard sand trap

The little golfer can hit the ball up to four feet using a little lever mechanism. All the parts are magnetic, too, so be sure to avoid those hazards ROTFLOL! Move all the pieces around to create different holes. I’d suggest 18 of them but that’s just me.

Don’t trust a thing I say? Here’s a video:

Minutes of fun. Maybe even hours!

Chip Shotz Golfer Desktop Golf Game [Vat19.com]

Oh I like this very much. Very much indeed. The Mantys (or “MANTYS” as the company shouts) is a personal motorized golf cart that’s steered simply by shifting your weight. It weighs just 45 pounds, has a top speed of 12.5 miles per hour, and can go for 36 holes before needing to be recharged. At the end of the day, the Mantys folds down for easy transport.

Rob Hayashida over at Golf Views got some video of the Mantys in action at this year’s 2010 PGA Merchandise show. It’ll apparently be available for purchase sometime in the spring of this year for around $3,250. I’d think that certain courses would rent these things, too.

http://www.viddler.com/player/75d25386/

Very cool. I’m not sure I’d be able to swing the $3,250 to buy one outright but I definitely wouldn’t think twice about renting one.

MANTYS Motorized Golf Cart for One [Golf Views]

After Tiger Woods’ personal indiscretions became public, the championship golfer found himself suddenly devoid of most major sponsorship deals. One of the last big holdouts has been Electronic Arts, makers of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series of golf games. It’s now been revealed that the company will definitely be standing by Woods, with the next version of the console game to be called “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11.”

Said EA Sports President Peter Moore:

“We didn’t form a relationship with him so that he could act as an arm’s length endorser. Regardless of what’s happening in his personal life … Tiger Woods is still one of the greatest athletes in history.”

Woods still retains a sponsor relationship with Nike, as well.

EA tees off on Tiger Woods console game in June [Reuters]

EA Sports has been one of the last holdouts to stand by its sponsorship of Tiger Woods, the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series being one of the company’s more popular franchises. However, a recent survey seems to indicate that EA may be hedging its Tiger-themed bets a bit. One of the survey questions, in particular, is pretty straightforward: “Has the controversy made you more or less likely to buy a Tiger Woods related video game in the future?”

Assuming Woods’ “indefinite leave of absence” from golf is still going on by the time the next PGA Tour game is supposed to come out (June-ish), my theory is that instead of searching for a new cover athlete, EA will simply name the game PGA Tour 11 and make the box art some famous hole on a golf course or something. That’s all well and good for the console versions but let’s not forget that the computer version has gone all-online, all the time and is still named Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online.

If that changes, we’ll know that trouble’s afoot between Tiger and EA.

[via Kotaku]

Gotta hand it to Bloomberg for this riveting one-sentence article written by two people.

“AT&T Inc. is ending its sponsorship agreement with golfer Tiger Woods, company spokesman Michael Coe said in an e-mailed statement.”

I don’t recall seeing Woods in any TV or print commercials for AT&T but he definitely had a few big, fat AT&T logos on his golf bag. The company still has Luke Wilson and the iPhone, so sleep easy, friends.

It’ll be most interesting to see what EA Sports does this year. The company hasn’t announced any plans to drop its sponsorship but with Woods taking an “indefinite” leave of absence from professional golf, a game called Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 might sound a bit silly. We may see a return to the standard PGA Tour Golf moniker from the early days of the franchise.

AT&T Ends Sponsorship Agreement With Tiger Woods [Bloomberg.com]

Photo: Flickr

Thankfully, golf’s reign of terror will come to an end once the Golf Ball Launcher is finally made available for sale at an introductory price of $795. It’s a large gun-like apparatus that uses compressed air to launch a golf ball up to 300 yards.

These guys are serious about using these things on actual golf courses, too. The FAQ section of the website suggests asking your favorite golf course if they’ll allow you to use the Golf Ball Launcher. And if they don’t?

“If they do not allow play, please respect their decision and try a different golf course. Remember, this is the birth of a new sport, so consider yourself a visionary and be patient as this sport will grow as fast as snow boarding grew.”

Mm-hmm.

Unfortunately, you’ll still need a putter and it’s suggested that you bring a wedge of some type for once you get close to the green. The Golf Ball Launcher can be configured to propel a ball “upwards of 300 yards and as little as just a few feet.”

The Golf Ball Launcher [Air Force Golf via OhGizmo!]

For the financially unencumbered, though, this may be a worthwhile purchase as you follow your dream of becoming Intergalactic Mini Golf Champion of the Universe.

There are two built-in courses and the actual putting system works by rolling a real-life golf ball toward the base of the 32-inch LCD video screen, at which point “the ball is detected by the game’s computer [and] the virtual world takes over, calculating both the direction and speed of the ball.”

Up to four players can play, and courses include a “casino-themed Las Vegas course or the tiki torch-themed Paradise Island.”

The Video Arcade Miniature Golf Game [Hammacher Schlemmer via Random Good Stuff]

Pretty interesting behind the scenes article and video over at Sandbox8 about how the seemingly endless stream of statistical data flows around the course at a PGA Tour event. Most of the data is gathered by on-course volunteers armed with various portable survey equipment and wireless devices.

From the article:

If you have ever watched a PGA Tour event on TV, in person, or on your computer, you probably have wondered at some point, how are they able to get the precise distance a ball has traveled, how far it is away from the pin, or the statistics for number of putts Tiger Woods makes within 10 feet?

All that data comes from an army of 300-400 volunteers that follow the action on the golf course using survey grade lasers and handheld devices to record every move each player makes on the golf course and that data is sent in real-time to the PGA TOUR ShotLink truck.

Check out Sandbox8.com for the full article and to take a look at a behind-the-scenes video.

If you groaned a groaning groan at the announcement that the PC version of Tiger Woods would be online-only, cheer up. I played around with the beta for a while yesterday and came away impressed.

For starters, the fact that it’s played inside a browser is pretty amazing given the level of detail. The graphics, sound, and presentation are all well-polished, so it feels close to playing a desktop game. Mac owners will be happy, too, as it’ll be playable on their systems.

In a nutshell, you create your own custom player and then tweak your stats (swing power, accuracy, etc.) on the Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online website and then launch into the game itself from there.

Detailed character appearance and clothing is limited for now while the game is in beta but you’re able to choose from a handful of basic options, with more to come in the future.

There are four courses available so far: Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass, St. Andrews, and China’s Sheshan Golf & Country Club. Each are rendered beautifully provided you have a decent video card.

As for actual gameplay, you can choose between a three-click swing or EA’s “True Swing” mechanic, which involves pulling your mouse backward and then pushing it forward to mimic a real-life golf shot. I found True Swing to be a little laggy, so I eventually stuck with the three-click. Check out the above video to see how everything looks.

On-course physics are a little iffy so far, but it’s not a deal-breaker by any means. There are just a few times where the ball will seem to bounce more than it should on a fairway or come to an abrupt stop once it hits the first few blades of grass in the rough. Overall, though, it’s nothing major.

You’ll be able to play against people online, of course, and you can form groups with your friends in order to hold mini tournaments and whatnot. You can even challenge other groups as well.

All in all, this is looking like a really solid effort so far. No word on what it’ll cost to play the game after the beta period is over but you can play for free until it ends. You’ll have to sign up first and then wait to get an e-mail (mine took about a month, I believe) but I’d guess it wouldn’t take that long now that everything seems to be rolling out.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online [EA]

Amazon’s got a pretty decent deal on a golf yardage GPS unit at $99. I can’t say I care for the $35 yearly fee that enables you to download new courses but if you play the same courses over and over again, you can download them once without the need to renew the service year after year.

Still, $99 isn’t too shabby for a yardage GPS unit. The IZZO Swami 1500 has access to 12,000 courses that can be loaded up 10 at a time via USB connection. The device gives yardage to the front, middle, and back of each green and runs for about 12 hours before needing to be recharged. Looks like it’s relatively simple to use, too, with big LCD numbers and just four buttons.

IZZO Swami 1500 Golf GPS Unit [Amazon via Fatwallet]

Ah the Golfers Mug: such a simple idea. Drink your coffee and then lay the mug on the floor flat-side down for a little putting practice before you tackle the day ahead.

I might suggest putting with a new golf ball to avoid potential pesticide ingestion. That, or cleaning the mug and/or your balls on a somewhat regular basis.

The Golfers Mug costs £8 ($13). Looks like it’s only available in the UK at the moment.

Golfers Mug [Red5 via Nerd Approved]

Short Version: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 with the Wii MotionPlus accessory is the closest you can get to a true golf simulation for $60. The already-great series gets a nice boost this year with true one-to-one motion sensing, addictive online play, and a bevy of other new features that easily justify the purchase.

Long Version: There’s nothing worse than shelling out for a new title in a sports series year after year, only to find that the “new” game you’re playing hasn’t changed much at all from the previous year. It’s my opinion that last year’s Tiger Woods game actually took a step backwards from the year before, due in large part to its cumbersome putting system and duller-than-dull audio commentary. We finally got online multiplayer in Tiger Woods ’09 for the Wii, but I felt that it didn’t bring much else to the table.

Well another year has passed (actually, not even a whole year — Tiger Woods ’09 came out last fall) and I’m happy to report that Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 has really turned into a phenomenal golf game. There’s still room for improvement, but this year’s version has few, if any, glaring faults. Certainly none big enough to keep you from buying the game.

Let’s run down a big list of features, shall we?

Graphics

In-game graphics haven’t changed all that much from last year or the year before, at least not noticeably. There’s still a somewhat cartoony look to all the players and you’re not going to get advanced shading and high-definition textures like you’d see on the PS3 or Xbox 360, but this year does finally add gallery crowds. It’s a nice addition even though the people in the crowd are mostly static onlookers with a little movement here and there.

The 27 included real-life golf courses are rendered well and should be easily recognizable to any golf fan, and weather conditions play a bigger role in this year’s offering with especially nice-looking rain effects. All in all, the in-game graphics look pretty good but nothing really appears to have been overhauled.

Menu graphics, on the other hand, have taken a step forward, with big icons and animated backgrounds making up an intuitive interface. It seems simple and uncluttered, even though there are plenty of menus and submenus.

Sound

Again, not a whole lot has changed. In-game sound effects are familiar, although some whispering and shushing from the new gallery spectators has been added.

The broadcast commentary has made a fair-to-middling improvement, with Kelly Tilghmann back in the booth alongside ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, who replaces the almost-depressing Sam Torrance from last year’s game.

Van Pelt offers up some mildly funny to downright mediocre one-liners that seem as though they didn’t make the cut for an episode of Sports Center. I can’t really describe the experience other than at first being like “Oh wow, Scott Van Pelt does the voice work on this game — nice!” and then once you hear it, you’re like “Oh wow, Scott Van Pelt is much, much, much more entertaining on TV.”

To make matters worse, some of the audio is just plain off. Van Pelt will say “Looks like this putt’s gonna break right, Kelly” even though the green grid and putt preview show it breaking left. There’s also been a few instances where I’ve left a twenty foot putt a good five feet short and Tilghmann has said something along the lines of “Now that is a wonderful putt.”

At least this year, though, you don’t need to turn the commentary off. If I could offer some advice to EA for next year, take a note from MLB 2K9. It’s got some nice, natural commentary that makes it seem like you’re watching an actual baseball game. With this year’s Tiger, I still don’t feel like I’m watching golf on TV quite yet.

Wii MotionPlus

Hands down, the best thing about this year’s game. There’s no reason you shouldn’t purchase the $60 bundle with the MotionPlus add-on over the standalone version of the game. Wii MotionPlus and Tiger Woods golf go together like peanut butter and bananas. Or chocolate. Or jelly.

Want to take a 50% swing? Pull the club back halfway. Three-quarter shot? Take it back to just above your shoulder. Fades and draws finally work reliably, approach shots are easy to execute, and putting — my God, the putting. It’s finally phenomenal.

The new “Precision Putting” feature works just like your real putter. I find myself visualizing a ten-foot putt in my living room, swinging as though I’m putting a golf ball from my feet to my TV, and watching the ball in the game go ten feet. EA has done a wonderful job — total redemption from last year’s putting interface.

The one shortcoming of the in-game swing mechanic is that, compared to hitting a good golf shot in real-life, everything in the game still has to be exagerrated somewhat. You’re still going to have to swing a bit harder to hit a shot at 100% in the game, whereas on a real-life tee box you’d want to take a nice, easy backswing followed by a nice, smooth followthrough. When you swing nice and controlled in the game, you’ll often find that it’ll result in around 80 to 90 percent worth of shot power. Not a deal-breaker by any means, but it’s there.

Chipping, flop shots, and pitching are all way, way, way improved this year. It’s much easier to hit partial swings accurately. It’s quite a difference.

Online Play, Dynamic Weather

There are two classes of gamers: those who like online multiplayer and those who like to play alone. I fall squarely into the second camp, except that I’m addicted to online play in Tiger Woods 10. Why? Because you can play online, alone.

Aside from playing true multiplayer matches just like last year, you can now participate in daily and weekly tournaments where you find yourself playing an 18-hole round against everybody else. Lowest score for that daily or four-day weekly tournament wins.

Even better, you can play against all the pros in real-time as they play in major tournaments. As long as the course is in the game, you can play along and see your score on the in-game leaderboard against all the pros in the field.

Wait, it gets better.

There are also real-time weather conditions pulled down from the Wii Forecast Channel. So for instance, yesterday (June 18th, 2009) it was raining like hell on the US Open, which was being played on the Bethpage Black Course in the New York area (play actually got suspended in real life).

So I fire up Tiger Woods 10 yesterday, hop online, and it’s raining like hell in the game. The greens are slow, the leaders are only one under par, and I’m fighting for my life to avoid double-bogeying holes since the conditions are so awful.

Dynamic weather extends to the offline version of the game, too. I put in a little time on my career golfer today and while playing TPC Sawgrass, it started raining — just like it actually did in Ponte Vedra, Florida yesterday. Really cool stuff.

Career Mode

Career Mode is similar to years’ past. You start out trying to make it on the tour, adding skill points and upgrading to better equipment, winning sponsorships, and that kind of stuff. You can also jump right into the FedEx Cup, which is a four tournament elimination-style playoff.

The career mini-games also make an appearence this year, although they’re much more straightforward and subdued from years’ past. Instead of challenging golfers head on, you try to repeat great moments in real-life tournaments. So you’ll have a scenario like “Tiger Woods birdied all the par three’s on this course back in 2003, see if you can do the same.” Stuff like that. The scenarios involving Tiger begin with a video of him talking about what happened along with some clips from the tournament.

I think it works pretty well — better than previous years where it’d be like “Let’s have a chipping contest against Natalie Gulbis” or “Play against John Daly on all the par four’s on this course.” It’s more realistic now and doesn’t take as long to advance since you don’t have to wait for CPU golfers to take their shots.

Other Features and Mini-games

Most of the multiplayer mini-games and “Golf Party” stuff has returned this year. It’s fun and adds a nice social element to the game. Disc Golf, in particular, is super fun and makes really good use of the MotionPlus controller. I find it to be almost as addictive as the online tournament features. You can play all of the 17 courses with nothing more than long-, medium-, and short-range Frisbees. I thought it’d be gimmicky, but it’s actually quite enjoyable.

Conclusion

All in all, there’s plenty of “stuff” in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10.  The game can appeal to just about anyone, whether you’re a serious golfer, a serious disc golfer, you have a few friends over, or you want to play online.

For longtime fans of the Tiger Woods golf games, PGA Tour 10 will remind you why you fell in love with the series in the first place. Wii MotionPlus makes an excellent debut and adds an entirely new level of depth to the game, the real-time weather and online tournaments are amazing, and the core gameplay itself is realistic and wildly enjoyable at the same time. This year’s edition is a must-buy for any true fan.

Like this video? View more here…

Drink-dispensing golf clubs aren’t new, per se, but this one just hit SkyMall’s new arrivals section so here it is for those of you who haven’t seen it before and are looking for a good way to sneak some booze onto your local golf course.

At $50, it won’t take too long to pay for itself given the prices for beverages purchased from mobile refreshment carts. Plus, those carts don’t often carry the hard stuff, just beer. This hollowed out fake golf club holds up to 48 ounces of hot or cold liquid and is wide enough at the base to drop in some ice cubes.

A simple pump of the lever and it’ll shoot your consumable of choice into that, um, plastic cup you always carry with you for some reason.

Golf Bag Drink Dispenser [SkyMall]

New to Tiger Woods PGA Tour on the Wii this year is the “Disc Golf” feature, which allows you to play all of the in-game courses as a disc golfer. I figured it’d be gimmicky at best.

Well, I was wrong. It’s fun, and it’s a great use of the MotionPlus add-on. If you’ve ever played disc golf before, you’ll probably enjoy playing it in the game. If you’ve never played, it’s not rocket science: throw Frisbee at target, repeat.

Check out the above video for a gameplay demo. I get a triple bogey on the 1st hole at St. Andrews, then follow up with a birdie on the famous 17th hole island green at TPC Sawgrass.

Like this video? View more here…

One of the main problems with indoor putting surfaces is that the layout and hole placement never changes. So you get really good at one particular putt and then once you hit the course, your golfing buddies laugh at you and pull down your pants when you miss any putt that’s not ten feet away and dead straight. At least, that’s what my golfing buddies do and I can only assume the same thing happens everywhere.

The Expand-A-Green Putting Surface features 10 interlocking panels that can be fit together in various configurations, plus two regulation size cups and multiple cup locations. The entire surface area can reach three feet wide by eight feet long and you can even “position the cup knock-outs underneath for varying break” so it’s not a dead-on straight putt every time.

And now the bad news: it’s way too expensive at $130. Maybe it’s not if you have pool table and foosball table money like the guy in the above photo. That’s real money right there.

Expand-A-Green [After5 via Likecool.com]

EA is going the online-only route this year for the computer version of the Tiger Woods golf franchise, called Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online. That’s good in the sense that it’ll be Mac compatible too, updates should be automatic, and you’ll be able to play from any computer.

It’s bad in the sense that you’ll need to be connected to the internet to play the game. While EA doesn’t come right out and say it, this is almost surely to prevent piracy. Expect other game developers to keep a close eye on how well this online-only thing works for EA. If it works, it may reinvigorate the PC gaming market somewhat in the face of certain developers going console-only and it’ll certainly make for a decent Mac game.

The graphics look okay, although it’ll be interesting to see how many visual corners are cut in order to deliver a browser-based experience. Pricing hasn’t been set yet, either, but don’t expect to pay $19.99 and be done with it, as EA says that the game “will be offered through a multi-tiered subscription in fall of 2009.”

Translation: This is the last Tiger Woods game we’re making for the computer and we’ll just keep updating it constantly. That’s actually not a bad idea, as many people have complained that some of EA’s other sports titles seem to merely feature incremental tweaks and roster updates year after year. Those subscription prices will need to be low, though, as we’re all used to paying $20 to $40 per year for PC versions of EA Sports’ boxed games. I love the Tiger Woods games but I’d be a hard sell to even pay $5 per month for an online version. I might go for $2.99 per month. Might.

Full press release:

EA Revolutionalizes Sports Gaming with Ground-Breaking Tiger Woods PGA TOUR(R) Online

Authentic Golf Simulation Streamed Directly to Your Browser

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 29, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Electronic Arts Inc., (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that EA Tiburon, the development studio of the best-selling* golf simulation Tiger Woods PGA TOUR(R) franchise, is introducing an innovative and ground-breaking new product – Tiger Woods PGA TOUR(R) Online. Available this fall, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is an authentic golf simulation experience that is dynamically streamed to a web browser and requires no game installation, no disc, and no additional peripherals. This game is easily accessible and available anywhere, via a web browser and an internet connection.

“Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is for anyone who loves golf and is on-the-go,” said Executive Producer Mike Taramykin. “Whether you have ten minutes on your PC in the office, or hours on your Mac at home, this is a golf game that makes time for you. With Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online, golf lovers can satisfy their golf fix anytime.”

Stuck at the airport waiting for a flight? If you have an internet connection, just open up your computer and fire up Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online! The game is literally just a click away and has high resolution 3D graphics, delivers a feature rich experience and will be regularly updated with new features.

At launch, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online will include several world class championship courses, such as Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass and St. Andrews, while additional new courses will be available on a regular basis. In addition, a fully stocked schedule of tournaments and multiple community features, allowing fans to connect and compete with friends, makes Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online a community for all golf fans. This community will help shape the game’s evolution, including features such as new course additions, pro shop items, and even tournament conditions.

Your time is at a premium and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is designed to work around your schedule – suspend play and resume from the exact same point at a later time. Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online will be the most accessible and feature-rich golf video game experience available on any personal computer.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online will be offered through a multi-tiered subscription in fall of 2009.

[via Joystiq]

Sold by Vat19.com, the product description pegs the item as “the perfect gift for the lunatic golfer,” so you may want to leave the gift on the doorstep, ring the bell, and take off before there’s any trouble.

And if you’re a golfer who’s not already a lunatic, it won’t take long to become one as the putting area is an inch and a half narrower than a traditional golf hole.

Golfer’s Doorstop [Vat19.com]

For ten bucks, Tiger Woods PGA Tour on the iPhone/iPod touch is absolutely, hands-down, the best deal going when it comes to portable golf games.

Features include “touch-n-drag” swing mechanics, seven golf courses (Pebble Beach, St. Andrews, TPC Sawgrass, Doral, TPC Boston, The K Club, and Fancourt), and the ability to create your own player or play as Tiger Woods, Annika Sorenstam, Vijay Singh, Natalie Gulbis, or Retief Goosen.

Graphically, the game hovers around what you’d find on the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Player models and animations are nice and fluid and the golf courses are all rendered well, resembling their real-life personas. Music is upbeat and catchy and sound effects are okay, though a bit sparse. Overall, though, the game is a testament to what’s possible on the iPhone platform.

The play-by-play from Sam Torrance and Kelly Tilghman is downright horrendous, just as it is in the console versions of the game. I turned it off within the first three holes. Kudos to EA for working voice features into the game and it’s clear that they plucked the audio from this year’s console versions — not like they’re going to do all-new audio recording for a $10 mobile game — but still; to EA on behalf of all of us, please bring back McCord and Feherty.

The swing interface is a simple back and forth swiping motion. You can add add a fade or a draw to each shot by curving your finger at the top of the swing meter, and add spin to the ball while it’s in the air by repeatedly swiping your finger across the screen mid-shot. Chipping, flop shots, and pitching are just as straightforward, and putting works well, although it’s pretty easy. I sunk a lot of long putts and never three-putted in all 18 holes of the first round I played.

All in all, this version of Tiger Woods feels like a straightforward version of its console bretheren with toned-down graphics and fewer features — career mode consists simply of tournament events, no mini-games or anything like that — but the gameplay and fun factor is definitely there. Multiplayer would be a killer feature in subsquent versions though at $10, it already plays like a $30 Nintendo DS or Sony PSP game.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR [iTunes App Store link]