
The resulting product is easily the best Tiger Woods game released in the last several years, minus the “wow” factor many experienced when the dual-stick controls were unveiled. Unlike the previous iterations, which were designed to serve a market that is fairly casual, EA is using the latest edition to target people who are as serious about golf as they are video games. "Īt a time when most publishers are looking for ways to simplify their games in search of mainstream acceptance, it was somewhat surprising to learn that Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 would be doing the opposite.

"While any one of these new features could be the reason players come to Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, most will stay because of the impressive balance between fun and realism. So having Woods, who is also kind of a big deal, across the negotiating table from someone who has the clout of the chairman of Aramco, that’s a better match-up than without him.Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (PlayStation 3) review It’s often said that Woods doesn’t drive the needle, he is the needle when it comes to fan and sponsor interest. And in golf, the biggest name the sport has had in the last third of a century is Tiger Woods. In prestige, in tournaments, in personalities. PIF and Aramco deal in billions.īut the PGA Tour has weight in other ways. This is one reason PIF and LIV have more or less a bottomless pit of money to draw from and why the PGA Tour can’t outspend them. How big is Aramco? According to Fortune magazine, Aramco is the second biggest company in the world in terms of revenue, closing in fast on Walmart, which recently had an annual revenue of $622.02 billion. PIF is also involved in many public works programs in Saudi Arabia, from desalinization projects to resorts. PIF owns 5 percent or more of some of those companies. The reasons we know this is that all investors have to disclose stock holdings of 5 percent or more of a company trading on the U.S. PIF also has stakes in EA Sports (Tiger Woods PGA Tour), Take-Two Interactive (NBA2K), Activision (Call of Duty and others), and Japanese manufacturer Nintendo. companies such as Live Nation, Boeing, Facebook (now Meta), Citigroup, Uber, Disney, and Bank of America. Even though PIF is a small part of the overall Saudi wealth, it is a significant shareholder in many U.S.


PIF was created in 1971 when King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud decided to fund projects that had importance to the country’s economy and well-being. In other words, Al-Rumayyan is kind of a big deal, not just in Saudi Arabia, but around the world in business. Really there are more convolutions to it than a world-class origami expert could sort out. tries to maintain a decent diplomatic relationship with Saudi Arabia. oil companies, which is one reason the U.S. The history since then is tangled up in a variety of U.S. With all the moaning and complaining about the PIF, no one bothered to mention that Al-Rumayyan, in addition to being chairman of PIF, is also chairman of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, which is the largest oil producer in the world.Īramco, is an abbreviation for Arabian American Oil Company, a partnership that started in 1933 between the country of Saudi Arabia and Standard Oil of California. There are both monetary and diplomatic reasons why having Woods enter the picture changes things. Tiger Woods joining the PGA Tour Policy Board as a Player Director is the best thing that could have happened in the ongoing battle/not battle between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund ( PIF) headed by Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
