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Augusta National and The Masters tee it up with 'Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12' 2011

احدث اجدد واروع واجمل واشيك Augusta National and The Masters tee it up with 'Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12' 2011

Video game golfers will finally be able to play a round at Augusta National Golf Club.

This year's edition of EA Sports' Tiger Woods PGA Tour game adds the home of The Masters to its virtual courses -- the first appearance of Augusta National in a U.S. video game, as it previously only appeared in games released in Japan.

The game gets an earlier tee time, too. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters, to be released March 29 ($60, for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360; $50, for Wii; not rated but typically for all ages), hits stores more than two months before its typical annual release.

Once Augusta National and EA Sports finalized the deal last year, "it was very clear we needed to get the game out prior to The Masters to take advantage to all the excitement around the event itself," says EA Sports president Peter Moore. "It made no sense shipping it two weeks after The Masters. … We are well on target."

In conjunction with the video game news, Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament chairman Billy Payne announced a new Masters Tournament Foundation to support youth golf development programs.

"Our desire to help grow the game of golf throughout the world is sincere, and it is that commitment that first led us to EA Sports more than three years ago," Payne said in an statement. The club will contibute 100% of its proceeds from the game to the new foundation, he said. "EA Sports, Tiger Woods and the PGA Tour have developed an extremely successful franchise that responds to one of the popular entertainment choices of kids to-day. We hope our inclusion will foster an appreciation for the history and traditions of the Masters and inspire the next generation of golfers."

The Masters had remained one of the last real-world sporting venues denied video gam-ers. Getting the course and its famed Amen Corner, the midway holes numbered 11, 12 and 13, "would be the last great coup among major sporting events," wrote Owen Good recently on video game news site Kotaku.com.

Payne and Augusta National's desire to grow the game of golf was a driving force behind the discussions that began more than three years ago with EA Sports.

For the first time, the game's designers laser-scanned an entire golf course. "We have been working with (Augusta) for a number of years to get this right. The ability for us to laser scan every hole on the course, was a big plus," Moore says. "They insisted on every nuance being replicated exactly as it is. … I think the technology is finally caught up with how they want the course to be portrayed."

Other new features in the game include the CBS Masters commentary team of Jim Nantz and David Feherty, a virtual caddy and a "Masters Moments" mode that lets players attempt to accomplish memorable tournament highlights such as Woods' chip-in on No. 16 in 2005 and Arnold Palmer's eagle on No. 13 in 1958.

In addition to Augusta National, the game will include at least 15 other courses including (The Old Course at) St. Andrews, Pebble Beach and TPC Sawgrass. A PS3 collector's edition ($70) includes an additional five courses while the Wii version has a total of 23.

But the Augusta National course itself will be the star, Moore says. "Every year, players have been begging for this," he says. "This will be a course that looks unlike any other course we have ever been able to depict."

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