While Tiger Woods may not have had a banner year in the real world, he was unquestionably the man of the year in golf games. In fact, for the major consoles and PC, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 was nearly the only golf game in town. While the PC Tiger game met with strong response, the console versions of Tiger were generally disappointingly easy over the long term. In fact, I had just as much fun playing with Tiger's create-a-golfer feature as I did actually hitting the links in the game, which probably isn't a good comment on the game's longevity and challenge.

　　Setting aside the more conservative golf titles, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the unique charms of more renegade golf titles such as Hot Shots Golf Fore! and Outlaw Golf 2. Both games remind me of my first few weeks here at GameSpot when I committed my first big gaffe by confusing the two titles when speaking to one of the PR folks at Global Star (publisher of the Outlaw Golf series). Needless to say I was quickly corrected by said PR person. I half-expected him to say, "No our game's the one with the bikinis and the caddy-paddling."

　　On the handheld side of things, Tiger was present and accounted for in his debut on the Nintendo DS, which made good use of the system's dual-screen setup. He wasn't alone, as Vijay Singh (the man who toppled Tiger as number one golfer in the world) made an appearance on mobile phones with his self-titled golf game and Jamdat Sports Golf 2004 met with high praise for its engaging and surprisingly in-depth take on the sport Mark Twain called, "a good walk spoiled."

　　Because EA owns exclusive rights to the PGA Tour, we can expect more from the Tiger Woo crew in 2005. Because golf is perfectly suited to the handheld environment, I'm especially curious to see how the inevitable PSP version of Tiger shapes up, as well as what improvements EA will make on the DS side of things.