Tiger Woods Named Cover Athlete of Popular Video Game
Tiger Woods will be on the cover of another video game. On Tuesday, 2K announced that the golf legend will be on the cover of PGA Tour 2K23. The video game company also announced that two versions of the game — PGA TOUR 2K23 Deluxe Edition and PGA TOUR 2K23 Tiger Woods Edition — will be released on Oct. 11. The standard edition will be released on Oct. 14. Woods will be a playable character in the game and is also an executive director advising the game development team.
"It's not only great to be back on the cover of a video game, but the Executive Director role makes this a truly unique opportunity," said Woods said in a statement. "2K is the perfect partner for me and I am excited to continue impacting the game and culture of golf beyond my play on the PGA TOUR."
Woods is one of the 14 golf pros featured in the game at launch. Some of the other golfers featured in PGA Tour 2K23 are Justin Thomas, Lexi Thompson, Tony Finau, Lydia Ko, Collin Morikawa, Will Zalatoris and Brooke Henderson. The game will include 20 licensed courses at launch. New additional courses include South Course of Wilmington Country Club, The Renaissance Club and St. George's Golf and Country Club. The standard edition (via pre-order) will include a Michael Jordan bonus pack which includes Jordan as a playable character.
Woods is no stranger to being on the cover of video games. From 1998 to 2013, EA Sports published PGA Tour games with the endorsement of Woods. The series ended after the 2014 version of the game which featured Roy McIlroy as the cover athlete. When speaking to IGN in 2002, Woods talked about being on the cover of a video game.
"It is pretty cool to have my own video game," Woods said. "As a kid, growing up, it was something I never even thought of. I thought about just trying to get the new game that was coming out, so that my buddies and I, we, could all enjoy it together. When I was a kid, never once in my wildest dream — even when I turned pro — that was never something that I really thought about, having my own video game. Thanks to EA, it's a reality."