Easy Tiger! The moment Woods's Ryder Cup challenge was halted... by a photographer

By Sportsmail Reporter
Updated: 03:15 EDT, 3 October 2010

This is the moment when Mail on Sunday 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 against Europe's Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher on to the green.

Smile, Tiger: Woods shoots straight at photographer Pain

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

The man from The Mail on Sunday 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.

Woods was furious about his blunder, but neither he nor caddie Steve Williams objected to Pain's position.

Time to leave: Pain (in blue bib) makes a sharp exit as Woods looks on

The Americans accepted that the ball had hit the intrepid photographer only because Tiger's effort, from rain-soaked rough, had been so badly struck.

But it did enable Pain to pull off a much better shot than Woods had made - and nothing could stop Tiger and Stricker from completing a decisive victory over their European opponents.

• 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.