One of the six extra courses in the Masters Historic Edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 is the Augusta National Golf Club as it existed in 1934, the first year of the Masters Tournament, and the course is shown off in screenshots and a trailer released by publisher Electronic Arts today.
Augusta National debuted in 2011's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12, but the Masters Historic Edition marks the first availability of the original 1934 incarnation of the famed golf course, the year in which the Masters Tournament began as the Inaugural Augusta National Invitation Tournament. PGA Tour 14's developers at EA Tiburon "researched [Augusta National] with meticulous detail in an effort to re-create the original 1931 design of world-renowned golf course architect Dr. Alister MacKenzie and legendary golfer Bobby Jones," according to a press release sent out today by EA. The golf club originally opened in 1932.
The studio made use of "unprecedented access to the Augusta National archives ... in-depth discussions with golf historians and even [its] own internal research into the sport in the 1930s," said Mike Taramykin, vice president of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise.
In PGA Tour 14, Augusta National will appear as it looked in 1934 — complete with Depression-era garb and equipment for the people on the course, as well as a sepia treatment to the visuals — and it will play the way it did that year, too. For example, it wasn't until late 1934 that club officials decided to flip the course's first and 10th holes, so the original configuration will exist in PGA Tour 14. The contours and speeds of the greens are also different today from how they played back then.
The Masters Historic Edition of PGA Tour 14, which features Augusta National co-designer Bobby Jones on the cover alongside 2012 Masters winner Bubba Watson, will be available March 26 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for $69.99. The standard edition of the game, which does not include the 1934 version of Augusta National or the six extra courses, but does include the modern Augusta National course and 19 others, will sell for $59.99.
Check out a trailer for Augusta 1934 below, and 12 screenshots above.
