Dedicated Xbox 360 golf fans currently treading the stretched fairways and lush greens of Electronic Arts’ latest addition to the long-standing Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise will be relieved to learn that an annoying freeze glitch all-but ruining PGA Tour 08’s gameplay enjoyment is on the fast track to being patched.

Indeed, it won’t be too long before birdies, eagles, albatrosses, and the odd triple bogie can once again become the order of the day.

Beyond outside intrusion by friends or family members, there’s only one other genuine source of player frustration that can sully otherwise full and complete videogame immersion, and that, dear reader, is the glitch freeze.

Oh, how the blood can boil when a prolonged (and likely unsaved) session of significant gaming progress abruptly goes down the tubes as the screen inexplicably freezes, inanimate sprites strobe ineffectually, the stricken hardware whines repetitively, and just you know that only a total reboot is going to solve the issue.

Fingers down a chalkboard? Chewing cotton wool? Teeth scraping against cutlery? Yes, it’s absolutely that level of discomfort and distress.

Thankfully for those gamers who have invested there hard-earned cash in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, the über annoying lock-up error that rears its ugly head in the Henrietta Brockway event during the Tiger Challenge (Grrr) is soon to be patched.

Anyone who’s not yet experienced the sudden and terminal freeze, which, until now, could only be solved by a system reboot, should expect it to appear during the loading screen between hole two and hole three of the challenge.

All is not lost, however, as industry watchers over at TeamXbox this week revealed that third-party publishing behemoth Electronic Arts has come up with a simple temporary workaround to help address the problem prior to the arrival of the official patch. TeamXbox confirms that holding down the ‘A’ button on the controller while launching the game from the system dashboard “enabled us to get past the freeze-up spot and complete the event.”

Keen golfing fanatics wanting to take stock of a more permanent fix should expect an official Microsoft-certified patch to arrive in the not too distant future.