EA Sports' PGA Tour Finds a New Title Golfer

Yesterday, EA Sports and professional golfer Rory McIlroy made an announcement that he would be the cover athlete of this year's PGA Tour game. McIlroy becomes only the second title athlete in the series. From 1998 to 2013, the series released annually with the name Tiger Woods PGA Tour. There was no game released last year.

The announcement comes only a few months before the game's scheduled release in June of this year. The 25 year old Rory McIlroy was understandably excited with the announcement and said that growing up, playing video games was one of the avenues through which he idolized the world's greatest golfers.

Before 1998, the EA Sports series released without a title athlete and frequently lost out to Jack Nicklaus' series, among others. When then-phenom Tiger Woods attached his name to the title, it boosted sales and soon owned the majority of the market for golfing games. Tiger Woods decline and effective departure from the sport of golf leaves a gaping hole and EA is optimistic Rory McIlroy, the world's current #1-ranked golfer, will be the one to fill that gap.

It's worth noting that in the past decade, golf as a sport has seen a dramatic decline in participation across nearly all demographics. Lack of any superstar name, combined with slow pace of play and the advent of social media has provided a tough one-two punch against a sport that is quickly becoming antiquated. For the sake of the sport, let's hope that Rory McIlroy will be the next great.

EA Sports' Rory McIlroy PGA Tour on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June. Official trailer for the game can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eQKOr6sFgk

Brian Zientak
@BZientak