Football photography has got nothing on the intensity of a sudden death playoff at the Mercedes-Benz Championship. “Sudden death” refers to what happens to several of the photographers when they realize they have to beat the golfers back up to the tee box on number 18.

Kapalua’s final hole is one of longest on the PGA tour at 664 yards. The golfers get driven back up the hill in an air-conditioned Mercedes-Benz GL450. Golf action photographers have calves the size of cantaloupes for a reason.

As the official Mercedes-Benz photographers we get the use of a cart on the course. Unfortunately during a sudden death playoff our cart becomes worthless in the throng of spectators. It is then, as we are running with 20 pounds of glass and metal on one shoulder up a slope you could ski on in the right weather, that we truly appreciate the “breath taking” terrain of Kapalua’s Plantation Course and the photographers who shoot golf action exclusively. These guys like pain!

Mahalo to the people at Sage Collective and Mercedes-Benz USA for bringing us out three years in a row (and getting us a cart every single year).

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