EA Sports yesterday announced that it is giving fans an opportunity to vote on which golfer will join Tiger Woods on the cover of "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13." Fans can participate in a bracket-style voting campaign involving 16 golfers on the game franchise's official Facebook page. Eight U.S. golfers are featured on one side of the bracket, with eight European golfers on the other side. Voting runs through Oct. 23, with the winner to be announced via Facebook on Oct. 24 (EA Sports).
| AMERICANS | EUROPEANS |
| Ben Crane | Paul Casey |
| Rickie Fowler | Luke Donald |
| Jim Furyk | Ross Fisher |
| Dustin Johnson | Graeme McDowell |
| Zach Johnson | Rory McIlroy |
| Hunter Mahan | Edoardo Molinari |
| Rocco Mediate | Ian Poulter |
| Bubba Watson | Justin Rose |
DIFFERENT CONTINENT, DIFFERENT COVER: GOLF.com’s David Dusek noted there will be two versions of the game. The "winner of the eight-man American bracket will be featured with Woods on the next version of the game sold in the United States; the European winner will appear with Woods on the European version." Both versions “will be available starting in March 2012.” EA Sports Dir of Marketing Craig Evans said, "We thought, 'How can we get fans involved in our marketing?' Then we decided that one way was to allow them to help us pick out the guys who are going to join Tiger on the cover." Dusek noted the 16 players “were chosen based on a combination of FedEx Cup points, Race For Dubai rankings, Official World Golf Rankings and something EA Sports calls ‘Fandom.’” The last factor “takes into account a player's popularity on Twitter, Facebook and the traffic on his personal Web site” (GOLF.com, 10/3). Evans said, “You never know what will happen when you put these things out for a vote. I think the Madden guys would tell you that they never would have thought Peyton Hillis would have gone on to win their contest" (GOLFWEEK.com, 10/3).
