Tiger Woods, at the Virtual Tee First

The first time I met Tiger Woods, in 2005, I was shocked to find myself talking to a real person.

Standing in a deserted Sheep Meadow in Central Park, he waved off his handful of P.R. people, and we spent about 15 minutes just talking about video games. Personable, gregarious and altogether down to earth, he lighted up as he told me how much he enjoyed the Socom special forces games because his father had been a soldier.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online is being released Tuesday by Electronic Arts, in time for Woods's return to the Masters.

The second time I met Tiger Woods, last June, I couldn't find that guy. Sitting in the atrium of the Nike Store on 57th Street with cameras and handlers and microphones everywhere, he looked me straight in the eye and told me that sadly he didn't play video games much any more because he was too busy spending time with his wife and children.

I bought it, just as millions of people around the world bought into the image he was selling. Over the years something changed.

Unlike earlier versions, the new Electronic Arts Tiger Woods golf game is available online.

What has not changed is that Tiger Woods is still the best golfer on the planet, and that appears to be all that matters to Electronic Arts, as the company prepares to release Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online on Tuesday.

Accenture and Gatorade have dropped him, and you don't even see Nike, which has stood by him, promoting a new line of Tiger Woods products this week as he returns to professional golf at the Masters. But Electronic Arts, with voluminous market research on its side, has determined that the 40-year-old male office worker and golfer who is the target consumer for Tiger Woods Online simply does not care about Mr. Woods's serial infidelity — or doesn't care enough that the drumbeat of tawdry revelations will stop him from buying the game.

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