Meet the Photographer Behind Tiger Woods' Iconic Masters Photo

Sunday at the 2001 Masters was, for the most part, dark and overcast.

Tiger Woods would go on to win by two shots over David Duval and complete the ‘Tiger Slam.’ Woods has provided plenty of lasting images at Augusta National Golf Club with the striking red shirt against the brilliant green backdrop of the most iconic course in the world has that effect.

For photographer Fred Vuich, that Sunday will always be a memorable one, too. It was his first week on assignment for Sports Illustrated, and by the time he awoke Monday morning after the final putt had dropped, he had captured one of the most impressive clicks of a camera that the sports world had ever seen.

Woods, on the top of his backswing, on the 18th tee of Augusta National – marching towards another Green Jacket. It got the cover of that week’s Sports Illustrated magazine, the first of 19 for Vuich in his career, and the big boss at the time told Vuich he would love it.

It looked like a painting.

“They didn’t, well, I can’t really say it, but he says ‘they didn’t mess it up with a lot of type,’” Vuich says with a laugh. “You can imagine what that other word was.

“You get one shot. One frame. I take the picture – and then it shows the moment and power of the SI cover.”

It’s become old hat for Vuich to have those cover-gracing opportunities over the last two decades in the biggest moments in sports. He’s been a photographer for more than 40 years now, and will be honored April 10 as the fifth recipient of the PGA of America Lifetime Achievement Award in Photojournalism.

“Fred Vuich is firmly established as one of the greatest to ever photograph our game,” said PGA of America President Don Rea Jr. “Fred’s ability to capture memorable moments on and off the golf course is second to none. On behalf of the more than 31,000 PGA of America Golf Professionals nationwide, I proudly congratulate Fred on this well-deserved honor.”

Vuich’s creative career began thanks to his Aunt Daisy, who lived with his family for a while and was a photographer. He remembers carrying a camera on vacation. It was really sports magazines, though – and Sports Illustrated in particular – that held his interest. He would go to the local library, about a block away from his home, and would read it cover-to-cover every week, along with the monthly sports publications. That’s where he developed a love for those brilliant images.

He thought then, it would be great to have a chance to do that for a living.

Vuich’s father, though, worked in a steel mill. The idea, he admits, was that you could go off to college (he did, graduating from Penn State in 1977) and you’d get a job and wear a jacket and a tie and do something with that. As a parent now, Vuich says, he understands that whole idea a lot better than when he was growing up. That just wasn’t what Vuich was interested in doing, though.

“I thought at the time, ‘well, you’re single – give it a go,” Vuich says. “And here we are today.”

Vuich’s father never played golf, but his mom did. She encouraged him to play the game as there was a nine-hole course about three miles from their home. The pro there, Vuich remembers, made it awfully accessible for youngsters – charging just 50 cents for kids to play.

After Vuich made his decision to try to make a living out of photography, he learned quickly thanks to his first boss at the Associated Press in Pittsburgh. He would go on to shoot his first major, the 1983 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, the same year he walked into those AP offices. He quickly made a splash, as he was only photographer who snapped pictures of Forrest Fezler playing the 18th hole on the final day in shorts. Vuich was, essentially, the only real golfer out of the group of five AP photographers that week, so when he saw a pro had decided to forgo wearing pants, he knew there was something cooking.

Fezler first wore shorts on Wednesday for a practice round and Vuich took the photos inside and he was “really happy” to have snapped them – since that never happens. The AP didn’t use them, however, even though Vuich said how much of a big deal it had been. Fast forward to Sunday and a photo Vuich took of Fezler emerging from a portable toilet with the shorts on ran essentially on the whole page of the local paper on Monday, since the final round had been delayed on the Sunday due to weather and there was not yet a champion.

Vuich took that paper and walked right up to George Peper, one of the senior editors at GOLF Magazine, and gave his best sales pitch. He took that photo. Would Peper want to buy it? Peper said yes and that began a near two-decade journey with the publication – assignments, contracts, and then eventually a staff job.

In a full-circle moment, Peper wrote the script for the video that will be shown at the ISPS GWAA dinner in Augusta, where Vuich will be honored.

The award has allowed Vuich to happily look back on a life well led and photos well taken. He says he doesn’t see himself in that looking-back light although he knows he’s been around a long while. Vuich has seen a lot. He’s taken a lot of tremendous pictures. And now he’s received a well-deserved honor for allowing the world into his lens.

“I don’t see myself as old, but I am,” he says with a laugh. “God has just put so many people in my path to get me here . . . and it’s been amazing.”