Anyone who has watched a televised golf game has seen the volunteers holding up the "QUIET" paddles and like the laugh prompters in the television studio, you are supposed to comply with the request.
For the most part, the gallery at a tournament complies with the request to keep quiet and generally all you hear when someone is ready to hit his or her shot is the drone of a small plane that has overflown the golf course, an emergency vehicle responding with its siren going or a baby crying while the mother frantically searches for the pacifier which the child dropped two holes back.
There are however, those photographers who insist on trying to catch the golfer in his/her back swing and this burst of noise in a silent setting is enough to startle the most seasoned pro. I think these photographers must be your average Joe who purchased a day pass to the tournament and this is the closest they will ever be to a sports hero. I don't know if it is the click of the shutter or the whir of the camera advancing the film which bothers the golfers but I have seen more than one golfer threaten the offender with their driver after they have been so offended. I have heard Tiger Woods ask a Course Marshall to remove such an offender from the course. I think they just gave the guy a stern talking to and confiscated the camera with instructions on how to claim the camera after the round was over.
For those of us on the public links there are no photographers following us, which is understandable, but we do have our own distractions. Several of the public courses I play have tee boxes which are alongside public roads and there's been more than one occasion where a car driver has honked his horn while I was in my back swing. I don't know if these people are totally ignorant of the game and don't realize the offence they are committing or if they are cognizant of the game and are peeved because you are on the course and they are not. When I play with my brothers an occasional well-timed cough can wreck the same drive. I know they don't do this on purpose but it is strange when coughs never happen when we are driving the golf cart from shot to shot!
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