simple PHP question

I know nothing about PHP.
this code is supposed to create a countdown timer when used in a theme in wordpress. I need to use it in a php widget. The widget does not accept the short code PHP of [].
It needs a proper <?php ?> format.
I can not seem to guess what that is, hope someone can help

The following is from the plugin page.....

If you want to insert individual countdown timers, such as in posts or on pages, you can use the following shortcode:

[fergcorp_cdt_single date="ENTER_DATE_HERE"]

Where "ENTER_DATE_HERE" uses PHP's strtotime function and will parse about any English textual datetime description.

this code works to return a list of timers.

Code:

---

<li id='countdown'><h2>Countdown:</h2>
<ul>
<?php function_exists('fergcorp_countdownTimer')?fergcorp_countdownTimer():NULL; ?>
</ul>
</li>

---