Tiger Woods Dropped From Cover of His Own Video Game

Tiger Woods has appeared on the cover of the video game bearing his name since 1999. This year, however, he won't.

/ AP Photo

It's been a long road down for Tiger Woods since his cheating scandal came to light last year. Not only has his family life been ripped apart, but so has his golf game and, unlike Brett Favre, his numerous sponsorships.

Now, Woods won't even be appearing on the cover of the latest version of the video game that bears his name, Reuters reports.

On March 29th, video game giant Electronic Arts will release "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters" on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii, Reuters reports.

Since 1999, Woods has appeared on the cover of the bestselling golf video game. This year, he's been replaced with the iconic yellow flag from The Masters golf course in Augusta, Ga., according to the report.

All is not lost, however, as Woods will appear on the PlayStation 3 Collector's Edition of the game, which will cost $10 more and include five additional courses, the news agency states.

According to videogame analyst David Cole of DFC Intelligence, sales of "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11" were down 50 percent to 60 percent on a worldwide basis from 2009, Reuters reports.

Traditionally, Woods goes on a major media blitz to promote the game, but he won't for the latest release.

Analysts say not too much should be read into the video game's cover change, but acknowledged the whole golfing world is suffering financially from Woods' downfall.

[mrlewicki]

omg what is with people? where is your loyalists? Not one person can sit here and read this and think for one min that there an angel. So what the man mess up its not our place to judge him.Tiger has a million fans when he is on top of the golf world but the min he is down we ALL are so quick to forget the things he dose for people and what he has done for the game of golf.The point is yes he has messed up but that no reason to write him off.What EA GAMES has down to him by taking him off the cover of this own game is not right and I always buy his game every year but I WILL NOT BE BUYING THIS NEW ONE!!!!!!Just watch what happen when our man tiger get his swing right just watch everyone will be gettin back on the tiger trian but for me i will be there already bc im not giving up on him.

[mcctee]

What you also won't see in this game is Ben Hogan, as he will be featured on the cover of the new Wii game, 'Five Lessons, The Modern Fundamentals of Golf'.

[Scimajor]

Personally, I'd reather see Paula or Natalie on it anyway. :-)

[TheKnowerseeker]

The kind of people who tend to be attracted to the sport of golf are the type that at least like to *appear* clean cut and straight-arrow, so I can imagine that Tiger's scandals have turned off many a golf fan.

[inmom63]

I wonder when athletes, celebrities and politicians who think because they're rich/famous (or both) will figure out the public is tired of their trash. And I don't care if they're men, women, Republicans, Democrats, black, white or other......!!

[rondivoo]

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Tiger Woods ... just another human being ... and not a very good one.

[Scimajor]

If that's all they added for the Wii version of the game I'm sticking with TW 11. I was hoping they'd add in the use of the Wii balance board to further increase the realism of the game.

Eventually I'm hoping they get to the point where, with the highest realism settings on, the TW scores come closer to meeting reality. The online tournaments are a joke with leaderboard constantly showing scores in the 50's and sometimes even in the 40's. That should never happen in a game the prides itself on realism.