7 Minute Miles

Camilo Villegas on the 7th Tee


I’ve been publishing this Minnesota golf site for four years. During that period, I’ve photographed many high school state tournaments, a few USGA championships, the 3M Championship, many Minnesota Section PGA tournaments and the Tapemark Charity Pro-Am. I’m not a professional photographer, but I know the rules and try my best to get good results without impacting players in any way.

The PGA Championship is the most prestigious tournament that I’ve ever been issued media credentials for and I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to cover the event. I carefully read all of the media and photography rules and signed an agreement to abide by them. I do not have the photo armband that permits inside-the-ropes photo access, so my camera just has a bright orange PGA bracelet that allows me to have a camera outside the ropes during tournament rounds.

Today I had an unfortunate experience near the 7th tee box during the first round. The caddie for Camilo Villegas talked to the hole marshal after their group teed off and pointed at me (see above). The marshal came over and asked if I had a media credential (which I did) and said that the caddie thought I snapped a picture during Camilo’s back-swing (which I never do). I told him I always wait until the stroke is complete (as the PGA rules clearly state) and that my camera has the orange PGA band. He was very nice to me and said that he didn’t hear anything.

These elite athletes are competing for more money than I make in a decade and I would never want to do anything to impact the outcome of the competition in a negative way.

Camilo, if you ever read this, please accept my apologies if I did something wrong. Tiger was in the next group and Steve Williams didn’t ask to have me thrown out, so I hope I’m doing things correctly… 🙂

Originally published by DK on August 13, 2009 at 11:25 pm in Golf, Longform


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