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EA Sports deserved a halfhearted golf clap for its first attempt at delivering the Tiger Woods experience to Xbox 360, a severely limited game that offered far less content than its "lesser" console brethren. Apologists would point to the learning curve associated with delivering a shiny new 3D engine, one created specifically to take advantage of the bells and whistles lurking deep within the next-gen console. Yet when you are accustomed to a yearly dinner of filet mignon, it's hard to go back to hamburger. And after enjoying an impressive number of courses on the Xbox and PS2, players had to make do with a paltry six on Xbox 360. So EA Sports is taking the equivalent of a mulligan on PGA Tour 06, hoping to right a series that had hooked left and tumbled into the rough. 

Risk vs. Reward

The biggest change to PGA Tour 07, other than a more action-oriented picture of Tiger on the box cover, is a replacement for an aiming cursor that left little to the imagination. Appearing on the fairway is a spotlight whose coverage area is dictated by your created golfer's skill level, the selected club, and other variables. The more inexperienced the golfer, the larger the spotlight, which means the shot will land somewhere within the region instead of following the direct path of a cursor. What this seemingly minor change accomplishes is add a degree of risk to your shots. Since you aren't quite sure where the ball will land, do you take a chance and use a club that shows the spotlight covering part of a water or sand hazard? Or do you use less club and risk a potential birdie or eagle? 

Face the Nation

The visuals have also undergone some enhancements, incorporating the publisher's new face capturing technology to show more emotion in a character's reactions. A picture-in-picture display now appears after you strike the ball, showing your golfer reacting to the shot by grimacing, smiling, or waving his arms to help "steer" the ball away from the rough. Since the reactions all occur while a dynamic camera tracks the ball's flight, you are not missing any of the action. The crowds have also been injected with a little more personality, especially around the greens as they try to keep quiet and maintain their composure. Errant shots off the tee have the added benefit of hitting a gallery member in the crotch, so even if you lose, you still win.

Swing Shift

The other changes to the swing system are more a rearrangement of previously introduced features than new additions. The left analog stick still controls the backswing and hooks and slices, but both draw and fade can be applied by swinging at a less pronounced diagonal angle. The right analog shape stick is now called the loft stick, allowing you to perform lower and higher arc shots by pushing up or down before the swing. All indicators in PGA Tour 07 are neatly tucked away in a clean display at the bottom of the screen. The putting interface is mostly the same, but the caddy tips and lame "Tiger vision" have been removed from the higher difficulties to encourage players to learn how to read each green's slope with the default grid system.

New Ways to Compete

Fans will certainly appreciate the increase in play variants this time around. The courses have doubled to 12, the five-year career mode includes more events, and a practice facility is available where you can compete in ten mini-games for fun (two of which are new) or test your skills in training challenges to increase your golfer's core attributes. New game modes include greensome and bloodsome, two-on-two team games that involve alternating shots, and the arcade-style duo of battle golf and one ball. Battle golf is a rivalry match where the winner of a hole takes a club away from his or her opponent's bag. One ball consists of a rotation of up to four golfers hitting the same ball until one holes out.

A Hole in One?

While most of the new features are relatively minor, they help make PGA Tour 2007 a more challenging game. Players will begin their career with weak stats, making each tournament a battle and requiring creative strategies to compensate for their character's shortcomings. Each mode offers incentives to build up your character, increasing the title's already high replay value. Yet PGA Tour 07 still doesn't have as much content on the Xbox 360 as found on competing formats. The Xbox 360 disc still has fewer courses, fewer professionals, fewer customization options, and no "Team Tour" mode. The cups in this golf game don't exactly runneth over in terms of significant content, but at the same time, players shouldn't feel like they’re getting shafted. This is what the first Xbox 360 golf game should have been all along, a familiar but fun time on the links with striking visuals.