He’s won more than 40 professional golf tournaments around the world. His career earnings are well over $40 million, ranking him #1 among all golfers in history—and that doesn’t even include what he makes for his many product endorsement deals and appearances. He’s been named Player of the Year for five straight years. In 2001, he became the only player to hold all four major titles at once. In 2000, he won the U.S. Open by a record 15 strokes over the second-place golfer. In 1997, the year after he turned pro, he won the prestigious Masters tournament by 12 strokes.

He’s been billed as the greatest golfer of all time…and he’s only 28 years old.

Tiger Woods keeps breaking records and wowing golf fans with his skill. But he also continues to lend his expertise to Electronic Arts for its Tiger Woods PGA TOUR series, which is about to see its 2005 version released.

Irons and Tigers and Pars…Oh, My! The latest game, which we’ll call Tiger 2005 for short, doesn’t just add a layer of polish to the 2004 title, but adds and improves on it—a task that’s daunting, given how solid last year’s game was, but one that EA is well known for accomplishing consistently across its vast sports-game lineup with each update.

Among the additions are eight new licensed courses—including Sherwood Country Club and Troon North—and two fantasy courses, bringing the total course list up to 14 out of the box. The competition has also been boosted, with a selection of 15 PGA TOUR players—such as John Daly, Jesper Parnevik and, of course, Tiger himself—and 14 new fantasy characters.

Certainly, a year has given EA the chance to improve the graphical appearance of the game, with, among other things, a spruce-up (pun intended) of the trees that line the courses. Tiger 2005 also sports more realistic lighting and shadows, so the game does an even better job at replicating the actual courses—and makes the fantasy courses seem like they really exist.

For more information on the making of the game and some of the new elements we’ll be seeing when it’s released this fall, nZone spoke to EA’s Rich Rogers, who serves as the game’s producer.

NVIDIA: Undoubtedly, Tiger 2005 will keep the franchise moving forward. What new and improved features can players expect to see in this year’s edition?

Rich Rogers: Players can expect to see the evolution of Game Face, the industry-leading player-creation feature. Players may have been able to approximate their appearance when creating themselves in last year’s game, but now they’ll be able to come even closer. Imagine taking this feature to the next level by allowing users to get within 90 percent accuracy in creating themselves. That’s exactly what we’ve done. The combinations are seemingly limitless.

In addition, we’ve added some of the game’s most legendary profiles to our golf roster. Legend Tour is our new mode where players encounter and ultimately compete against these great golf legends.

As if all this wasn’t enough, we’ve added new features, new content and new courses. Also, Tiger this year selected his 18 personal favorite holes from within the game to design his own “Dream 18,” on which players get to challenge him by progressing deep into the game. We’ve even taken this feature a step further and provided players the ability to create their own “Dream 18.” A player’s Dream 18 prestige could even land their course on the TOUR.

Last but not least, we’ve added Tiger Proofing: Act as your own course superintendent and manage the course difficulty through a number of different course customization options. If you find a course is playing too easy, Tiger Proof it!

NVIDIA: In talking to you about Tiger 2004 for nZone last year, you mentioned that Tiger contributes in a number of ways, including that he checks each installment for “accuracy and general fun factor,” as well as participating in some custom video and DVD-style extras doled to players as rewards. How has Tiger 2005 benefited from its namesake’s contributions?

RR: Tiger is involved every year in critiquing the software for accuracy and general fun factor. He’s a big gamer, so he knows what he likes and what he doesn’t. The fact that Tiger Woods is changing the way golf-course superintendents think about their course layouts has not only changed the game of golf, but it has created a great new game feature…Tiger Proofing.

Tiger Proofing is the process of performing course modifications to make the course play tougher. Think of things like narrowed fairways, smaller greens, greater undulations and more. These are all things that we put in the hands of the user in Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2005.

Beyond inspiring new features like Tiger Proofing, Tiger is a big part of the production team, and his contributions year in and year out are invaluable to our success.

NVIDIA: What kind of extras will players get?

RR: “DVD extra”-type footage of Tiger in the game, with camera views of him that people never get to see. Tiger discusses some of the Legends and the impact they’ve had on him and the sport of golf.

NVIDIA: How about on the visual side: Has the game been improved graphically from previous editions?

RR: On the courses, the most stunning graphical improvement is the new trees. They have tremendous detail and much more elaborate lighting. It’s amazing to get under a tree and watch the leaf shadows move across the trunk with the wind while leaves fall to the ground. The tree trunks are bumpmapped and extremely detailed.

The 3-D grass system has also been upgraded to show more natural clumping and movement. It really makes our U.K. and South African golf courses look great.

NVIDIA: NVIDIA’s new GeForce 6800 supports some cool effects and other eye candy. How does Tiger 2005 utilize these advanced features?

RR: We’re presently working with the folks at NVIDIA to utilize the great new capabilities of the GeForce 6800. Most of our efforts will be focused on more natural lighting of the golfer.

NVIDIA: What kind of help did you get from NVIDIA to make Tiger 2005 more attractive and push innovation?

RR: We’ve had a great relationship with NVIDIA for years, and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR customers have greatly benefited from it. They’ve assisted with effects like water ripples, self-shadowing golfers and fabric and skin shaders. NVIDIA engineers have also been helpful in squeezing the best performance out of their hardware.

NVIDIA: There’s an old saying: “Drive for show, putt for dough.” Is that good advice for Tiger 2005 players?

RR: Absolutely! If it’s in the game, it’s in the game!