EA confirms Masters partnership for the new PGA Tour golf game

Electronic Arts has announced a partnership with the Masters tournament for its next EA Sports PGA Tour game, which will be subtitled ‘Road to the Masters’.

Fred Ridley, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, announced the news alongside the game’s cover during his annual press conference before the 2021 Masters Tournament today.

According to the publisher, EA Sports PGA Tour will be the exclusive home of all four majors (the Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, U.S. Open Championship and The Open Championship).

EA claims it’s employed “first of its kind” aerial scanning to collect millions of data points from the Augusta National course, which it says was previously inaccessible in golf games.

PGA Tour still doesn’t have a release date, but EA says it will share more news in the coming months.

The game is currently in development at EA’s Tiburon studio (NBA Live, Madden) and will be powered by the publisher’s flagship Frostbite engine, which it says will leverage “stunning fidelity, breathtaking immersive environments, and approachable, dynamic gameplay.”

“We’re honoured to partner with Augusta National, home of the Masters Tournament, to feature the course and its traditions exclusively in EA Sports PGA Tour,” said EA Sports boss Cam Weber.

“EA Sports is committed to growing the love of sports for everyone, and through our partnerships with the PGA Tour, Augusta National and the other majors, we will bring new and longtime fans closer to the biggest events in golf than ever before.”

EA has published PGA Tour games since 1990. In 1998, EA published the games with endorsement from Tiger Woods, a relationship that lasted nearly two decades. The publisher’s last golf title was 2015’s Rory Mcllroy PGA Tour.

Last year rival sports games publisher 2K Sports published PGA Tour 2K21, and recently announced a partnership with long time EA ambassador Tiger Woods.

2K announced it had acquired the publishing rights to PGA Tour in 2018, though EA claimed at the time it still had a relationship with the event.