MASTER PIECE

AS TIGER WOODS got set to tee off on the 18th hole on Sunday at Augusta in 2001, he needed to make par to win his second Masters and cap off what would become known as the Tiger Slam. It was the height of Tigermania, and the hordes that followed golf's biggest star were never better captured than by photographer Fred Vuich, who was covering his first event for SI.

Vuich decided to shoot the 18th from one of his favorite spots: the broadcasting tower behind the tee box. He took a rangefinder camera fitted with a wide-angle lens for two reasons. First, it used medium format film—about four times larger than the standard 35mm—which made for sharper images that would reproduce well as a magazine spread. And the camera had no motor drive or mirror mechanism (which accounts for the clicking noise), meaning it could be used to capture the golfer mid-swing. "I heard Jim Rome was ripping me apart for shooting [Woods] at the top of his backswing," Vuich says, "but that particular camera was silent."

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