Wounded Tiger still on top of his (video) game

If you're like most sports fans, you haven't watched that much golf since June, when Tiger Woods won the US Open – and then announced he was getting knee surgery and was done playing for the rest of 2008. Since then, the PGA Tour has suffered from the absence of its most glamourous celebrity.

But while we may not be watching golf, that doesn't mean we aren't playing it. Even if you don't have an entire day to spend on the links, or if you can't afford the clubs and the green fees, you can still squeeze in 18 holes in about half an hour. And it's all thanks to video golf.

Golf games have been around almost from the start of the video-game era, but over the last decade or so, EA Sports' Tiger Woods series has been atop the leaderboard. This year's edition has a bigger selling point: It's the only way you can see Woods play before 2009.

With Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 – available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable – Woods isn't the only familiar face in his namesake game. You'll also compete against pros such as Vijay Singh and Annika Sorenstam.

But the one guy you'll really see a lot of is Woods' coach Hank Haney, who pops up after every round with exercises to improve various aspects of your game. Haney is a welcome addition, and his drills actually do improve your overall performance.

However, the big improvement in PGA Tour 09 is in the mechanics of swinging your club. The analogue controls in last year's edition made it too difficult to gauge the power and accuracy of your shots. This time, EA has added on-screen indicators to give you a better idea, before you make the shot, of whether your ball is going to slice off into the woods. EA has also added a club tuner that allows you to adjust the controls to compensate for your own tendencies.

The online play is far superior to last year's, with a cleaner interface that makes finding a match much easier.

PGA Tour 09 also borrows a trick from Sony's Hot Shots Golf with simultaneous play, with everyone taking shots at the same time. And the GamerNet instant challenges, in which you're asked to outdo achievements by other online golfers, add a nice element of unpredictability.

As usual, you get a batch of new courses, including China's Sheshan Golf Club and South Africa's exotic Gary Player Country Club.

Longtime fans of the series, however, may be rattled by the new pair of announcers, Sam Torrance (dull) and Kelly Tilghman (annoying).

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