Sneaking Tiger Woods photos means the Masters won't be the same

Fans are not allowed inside the wrought iron gates of Augusta National Golf Club. The sport’s most prestigious American venue prefers to call its attendees “patrons.”

And when those gates swing open on the first day of the Masters Tournament, April 8, the patrons won’t be holding tickets. Instead, they will be wearing badges, many of them handed down like heirlooms from parent to child. Patrons must check their cellphones and cameras, of course.

They are forbidden to run and are expected to meet the standards of decorum set by golf legend Bobby Jones, who co- founded the tournament in 1934. Those standards are still printed each year on the badge’s back: “It is appropriate for spectators to applaud successful strokes in proportion to difficulty … but excess demonstrations … are not proper. Most distressing to those who love the game of golf is the applauding or cheering of misplays or misfortunes of a player.”

Beyond the genteel and exclusive grounds of Augusta National is a world where people make a good living off the misplays of the famous. Some of those people are on their way to Augusta National to sneak photos of Tiger Woods as he returns to professional golf. They don’t care whether he wins a 15th major championship, but they would love to find a 15th alleged mistress.

For Giles Harrison, a Los Angeles-based paparazzo who shoots for Splash News, the game plan is as follows: Buy a Masters badge on the secondary market. Slip a small camera through security. And compete to get the money shot: “Tiger Woods, a gorgeous woman walking by, his eyes looking in that direction.”

Augusta National isn’t used to dealing with photographers like Harrison. But the stakes are higher now. Since the November 27 motor- vehicle crash that led to revelations of Woods’ serial infidelity and the unraveling of his billion-dollar image, paparazzi have camped outside his gated community in Windermere, Florida. A single image, such as the December shot of his wife, Elin, without her wedding ring, can fetch $100,000 from photo services like Splash.

Augusta National, however, is sticking with the official line that this is just another Masters. The club always has a robust force of security agents from Securitas, augmented by officers from the Richmond County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Department. The tournament doesn’t plan to add security, according to a spokesman. The usual plainclothes agents in the gallery will be enough to cart away hecklers or stealth photographers, he says.

Colonel Gary Powell of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Department says the tabloid media haven’t been given a designated shooting area outside Augusta National’s entry.

“They can use public property, and that’s it,” says Powell.