Offaly man on course to battle Tiger — digitally

NOT MANY young golfers get to take on Tiger Woods, let alone beat them, on the world’s top courses, but gaming enthusiast Stephen Brown from Birr will soon be doing just that — albeit electronically.

Purchasers of the new EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game which will be released in Ireland next month will have the chance to “unlock” Stephen as a character in the game, and subsequently pit him against the world number one or any other opponent.

Stephen’s presence in the game comes after he won a radio competition to select a face for the new Tiger Woods game.

The Offaly native was the lucky winner of a phone-in competition on 2FM last September, where he won the ultimate prize of travelling to the EA Sports ‘You vs Tiger’ launch event in Leicester Square in London, where he played against Tiger Woods for real — on the PlayStation.

In the first phase of the event in Leicester Square, Stephen competed on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 against seven other winners from across Britain.

As the overall winner of this section, he was awarded the ultimate prize of being digitised to appear as an unlockable character in the upcoming Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 video game from EA.

Electronic Arts have announced that this year’s game, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, will be breaking new ground with two key features. EA Sports Gamer Net is a revolutionary game play system driven by interactive user created content.tent. which allows gamers to save their amazing shots, holes or rounds.