The Nikon in the Grass

By Eamon Hickey

Andrew Arthur's delightful reminiscence of his days as a golf photographer put me in mind of a long-ago field expedition. In 1992, about seven months after I was hired by Nikon Inc. (USA), I got sent to the outpost known as the Nikon Pro Services trailer at the U.S. Open Golf tournament at Pebble Beach. Magazine photojournalism was still a thriving ecosystem in those days, when huge quantities of advertising dollars were to be found simply lying about the landscape. Accordingly, in this coastal habitat near Monterey I was able to observe a very rare and distinct sub-species of sports/press photographer—the international pro Golfing-only Photographer, on staff at one of the big golf magazines. I believe their population was never more than about a dozen or two.

He (and all but one were male) was a most curious beast.

He is very unlike his close cousin, the familiar Common Sports/Press Photographer. This latter variation is usually observed in jeans and a not-washed-in-five-days Metallica T-shirt. He shaves once a week whether needed or not, and bits of food and other detritus are often seen in his beard, clinging to his clothes, floating in the beer he is almost always found near, or strewn about his lair.

In contrast, and to my astonishment, the Golf Mag Staffers were observed in pressed chinos and v-neck sweaters. They lacked the mangy facial and other fur of their genetic cousins, and spent their time preening and ambling serenely about, apparently secure in the knowledge that their survival was easily assured. They spoke quietly and may even have drunk wine, although I was not able to confirm that by direct observation.

In my limited observations, it seemed to me that the Lesser Common Sports/Press Photographer—the ones who inhabited regional newspapers, small press agencies, or roam about the landscape in freelance fashion—had some envy for the apparent ease and luxury of the Golf Mag Staffer's lifestyle. On the other hand, The Greater Common Sports/Press Photographer—the denizens of Sports Illustrated, or the top sports-shooting niches at the Associated Press and Reuters—looked upon their Golf cousins with some admixture of amusement and modest disdain. In many subsequent years of field observation, I never saw their like again.

I'm just having fun here. Golf photography is, in fact, a pretty demanding job. Like getting old, lugging super-telephoto lenses all over a golf course for ten hours a day is not for sissies. Still, it was not hard to pick the golf magazine staffers out from the rest of the press horde.

And the U.S. Open was a big enough event that it drew a horde. One of that mass of photographers, Terry Schmidt of the old United Press International, told me a fun story: Some time in the late '70s he'd been shooting a previous U.S. Open, and Tom Watson, a notorious hater of distractions, was teeing off. It was raining, and Schmidt was using a Nikon F2, which had a noisy motor drive prone to shorting when wet. Because there is simply no other way the Universe can operate, Schmidt's camera shorted in the middle of Watson's backswing and began firing off at full bore. Watson shanked his tee-shot and spun around in fury, looking for the culprit. To keep the driver-wielding Watson from killing him, Schmidt had dropped the F2 on the ground and backed away, declaiming responsibility by letting the camera continue firing, unmanned, in the grass.

Schmidt was the archetype of the Metallica T-shirt kind of guy. When I met him he had two F3 Pro cameras worn to the brass, and five lifetimes' worth of great stories.

Eamon

Illustration: The Lone Cypress at Monterey Bay, photo by Sharashish

Send this post to a friend

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Tony Roberts: "Hi Mike: I've been doing golf for 35 years on both sides of the Golf/Golf Digest staffer/freelance equation. The guys/girls who niche in golf are a hardy bunch considering the miles logged on fairways, up and down from a kneeling position (usually) and lugging three bodies with wide, 80–200 and a 400mm or 600mm.

"Watson never gave me any trouble esp. after getting the Chip-In during the '82 Open at PB. Nicklaus was the best, was never bothered even with the occasional top-of-backswing burst. Norman, Weiskopf, and the worst ever, Tiger Woods and his henchman, caddy Steve Williams, made our lives miserable.

"Thanks for a great site, very informative and enjoyable. From a former Wisconsin native (Neenah), Tony Roberts."

Mike replies: How great to get a comment from Tony Roberts, one of the best and best-known golf photographers of the past four decades—twice Golf Photographer of the Year and with more than 300 magazine covers to his credit. If you like golf, you've seen Tony's work—especially the famous sequence of Tom Watson's miraculous chip-in that he mentions, surely among the most famous golf photographs ever.

If you are a golfer or golf fan, you'll enjoy spending some time at Tony's website.

Comments

[Andrew Arthur]

Interesting comment about the clothing. When I covered the PGA Championship the entire US team had a new pair of trousers every day.

And these were designed to look like an explosion in a firework factory. I tell you what, from the length of a hole you could tell who were the Americans!Those trousers were the talking point of the match.
After the fact that the UK won for the first time in umpteen years. Led by Tommy Horton they played their very best and I had some great pictures! All in black and white at that stage, there was minimal demand for colour.

At the first St Mellion B&H there was a slight incident. I went into the Press room and signed in, collected the paperwork and went off to work out the plan of action.

While I was doing this a rather untidy looking character wearing a beret came up to me and without preamble said "Who are you working for?".
I was very surprised, I had no idea who this guy was but he had a massive bag full of equipment and I noticed that his cameras were those old Pentax 6x7 SLR's, truly massive things with lenses like mortar barrels. Clearly a pro but quite scruffy.

So anyway I told him the name of the magazine I was working for ( I'd better not say) and he said "Oh are you? That's very interesting!" in a rather threatening way and I thought, well who on earth IS this guy? I'm trying to do a job of work and this dude comes up with all these remarks.

So I said "Don't worry about it!" at which he turned round and stamped away snarling "I'M not worried about it". I just thought, well strange old world and got on with the job.

Next day I logged in to the Press room, signed for the paperwork (Press releases, meal passes, a schedule etc) and the Press room Manager beckoned me over. "I've had a complaint" he says "You've been very rude to one of the leading golf photographers and he's threatening Union action". This is the NUJ (National Union of Journalists), who can be very stroppy when they have a mind to and clearly something was going on.

So I pointed out that this dude had simply steamed up and started snapping at me without even the courtesy of a hello or good morning and I had him down for a crank!The PR man was inclined to dispute this and things looked bleak, then one of the other journo's spoke up and confirmed that the guy had been very rude, very abrupt and he wasn't surprised that I had taken offence.

This changed things somewhat so the PR man said. "Look this man is one of the top golf freelances and he's very upset".
So I said well I am a professional photographer but I don't belong to his Union. Apparently they were trying to enforce a Closed Shop so that only a favoured few got all the work.

The PR man was quite helpful and advised me to keep a low profile, avoid any other journo's in the Press room and just tactfully get on with my job. So that's what I did. But afterwards there was a bit of a fuss and in the end the magazine put my name forward for membership of the NUJ. It was the best way forward for me in the end and avoided further confrontation.