Oh Boy...EA Sports Turns To Rory

As Tiger needed another whap at his fragile psyche, EA Sports announced that after a year off and no front-man helming their lucrative PGA Tour game, Rory McIlroy will be their new face. The game had been without a frontman for over a year after 15 with Woods.

Danielle Burger of Bloomberg reports.

And while I wish I could belittle Ricard Jensen, professor of marketing at Montclair State University, the impact of the EA game is profound in introducing non-golfers to players, tournaments and courses.

“If you don’t have an iconic star, fans get lost in terms of wondering who to tune in for and who to root for,” Jensen said. “If you can get more young people playing EA golf, it would make them more aware of golf events.”

Golf has a ways to go but still, big numbers even without a star presence:

Before Monday’s announcement, PGA Tour 15 was forecast to produce $98 million in sales from its debut through March 2016, according to Michael Olson, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos. Olson puts sales of EA’s FIFA soccer game at $500 million and Madden NFL at $250 million during the same period.

Luke Kerr-Dineen has some exclusive quotes from Rory talking about the influence of gaming on his ownself and he hopes, the sport. And no doubt he has many millions of reasons to feel that way.

Speaking of McIlroy clout scores, he's at 100 right now in Ireland, reports Brian Keogh, who says Rory's influence helped secured Dubai Duty Free as the Irish Open sponsor. And McIlroy has called in a few favors to attract some big names for the event's May 28-31 playing at Royal County Down. Keough writes that this sets the event up for someday having a "links swing" in conjunction with the Scottish Open and Open Championships.