The moment Tiger Woods's Ryder Cup challenge was halted

Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | Oct.3, 2010 | Staff

[fightinJAG]

This is the moment Mail photographer Mark Pain found himself in the line of fire at the Ryder Cup - and for a brief moment brought the mighty Tiger Woods to a juddering halt.

The American world No 1 was partnering Steve Stricker and attempting to chip his third shot on the final hole of yesterday morning's fourball match against Europe's Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher on to the green.

But Woods hit the ground behind the ball and duffed the shot straight at Pain.

The man from The Mail didn't flinch, however, and captured this extraordinary picture just before the ball hit his camera, bounced on to his chest and came to rest at his feet.

[rickb308]

“Why is that man in blue signaling a touchdown?”

Not the touchdown. The extra point. Because Tiger nailed the paparazzi dead center. Reflex action. With my sense of humor, I’d have probably done it also. But I’m just that kind of **shole. LOL

[fightinJAG]

Three things about that photo:

1. Tiger’s expression. Whoa.

2. The dude to the photog’s right — the one with the black sheep locks, shorts and, uh, go-go boots?

3. Stogie-man has changed position and is now in the background again — Zelig, he lives!

[the invisib1e hand]

Especially in this case, I thought it would be nice for the photographer to get the clicks.

Very kind of you to explain. Thx.

[fightinJAG]

There’s so much to look at in this photo and all of it tells a story. A great photo.

[Dem Guard]

Yeah, I said it looks like....

[fightinJAG]

Considering Tiger hit the lens dead on, maybe it was a “FIELDGOAL” reflex!

[fightinJAG]

I didn’t realize some folks had downloading issues in clicking on external sites. I can understand your frustration and, for causing that, I apologize.

[rickb308]

Where’s Andrés Cantor when you need him?
“¡GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLL!”

[the invisib1e hand]

omg relax!

[Shanty Shaker]

I like the kid on his hunkers looking between the adults just behind Tiger. Awesome composition of a photo.

[republicangel]

ok

typing versus talking fails again. :-)

[Roscoe Karns]

[Erasmus]

For camera buffs, Pain was using a Nikon D3S camera, with a 24-70 mm lens and a shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second.

Well, maybe the photog switched to his Bigma in two seconds after the first shot.

≤}B^)

[Erasmus]

Nikon autofocus sucks. This is why most sport photographers use Canon. Look at the ball! Dead center of the photo (a sports photo) and completley out of focus! FAIL.

Consider how fast the ball was coming at him, and how close it was. To give Nikon some credit, I serioiusly doubt that a Canon 1Dmk3 could do any better in this particular case.

[[BTW, no Nikon fanboy here. Mostly Canon SLRs going back to 1967.]]

[Erasmus]

Allow me to add...

Your point about most sports photogs choosing Canon is certainly true. It’s their lens lineup and their pro customer service that tops Nikon’s offerings.

Whenever one sees a gaggle of gigantic white lenses, they’re Canons.

[Erasmus]

Your art pays divotends.

[Erasmus]

...I saw him! Funny look on his face. Looks like one of the guys on the loser couch at the frathouse party on “Animal House”.

"Say hello to Jugdish."

[Erasmus]

Now that you mention it, that's a second body with what might well be, as you say, a 24-70 f/2.8. So that could be the camera that he took the shot with.

A better guess for the lens on the camera he's holding up in the second shot would be a 70-200 f/2.8 VR, or whatever Nikon has that's close to that.

[Moltke]

Frankly, I have to wonder whether that's really a golf ball we see in the picture, and not some strange photographic artefact (I have a picture of me holding my flash-equipped camera, taken by someone using a flash which in turn set of my flash ("slave" setting of my flash to those in the know...) which looks somewhat similar...).

Looks like Tiger is well beyond finishing his drive (look at the position of his arms). By that time, the ball would be waaaay down range, no?

[Moltke]

Ooops, sorry, it was a chip, not a drive. My bad.