The addition of YouTube changed Golden Tee for good. Long gone are the detailed stories of brilliant virtual golf shots, both real and fabricated. Now players have the opportunity to upload and share each and every shot they take to showcase the brilliance (or perhaps the opposite of brilliance) with anyone willing to take eighteen or so seconds out of their day to watch.

It’s this kind of enthusiasm that sparked the feature altogether and the reason we began our monthly and yearly features on Goldentee.com and the Golden Tee Blog showcasing the truly incredible shots. When Golden Tee 2012 hits, however, the YouTube era is about to reach another level and more eyeballs. A LOT more.

The Attract Mode, which is the various screens you see on the game when it is not being played, will now feature YouTube Shots of the Week. Although you’ve grown accustomed to seeing leaderboards, quirky screens and perhaps a lovely lady in a bikini every now and then, this section will now also feature the finest Golden Tee moments of the past week.

“We know people love seeing these shots, whether they’re skilled or downright lucky,” Golden Tee project manager Brian Jandula said. “Instead of just having these moments on the computer or even one of the various GT sites or social media outlets, however, we wanted to somehow get them on the game. In 2012, we figured out a way to do just that.”

Each week, up to five Golden Tee Great Shots or Golden Tee Replays will be selected and sent directly to every Golden Tee 2012 LIVE game.

“Without getting too specific with boring programming details, we’ve basically installed parameters to flag down shots that might be truly unique,” Jandula commented. “Although we typically dig through these shots once they hit YouTube, we now will get the truly remarkable shots sent to us.”

When your drive accidentally smashes off a nearby pig and miraculously lands in the cup, we’ll know about it without having to dig through the various shots on YouTube. There are a variety of parameters that will be in place to help us search for the truly unbelievable videos. These can and probably will be adjusted as we go, but there will be items in place come launch day.

Although the process of finding these shots may be changing, the fact that YOUR Golden Tee Great Shot will now be seen hundreds of thousands of times on the game itself is what really has us excited. A screen will flash on the attract mode previewing that the shots are upcoming and you’ll see the videos shortly after. Each week, these shots will change and a new batch will be sent over to the game.

If you’ve ever wanted to share your GT achievements with the rest of the online world, you’ll now have your shot. Best of all, you won’t have to do anything (other than hit it, of course) and then upload it to become a trackball star.

Look for all the latest and greatest Golden Tee shots on your local 2012 cabinet this fall.