Photographing Professional Golf - Hero Dubai Desert Classic

The Iconic 8th Tee at The Emirates Golf Club's Majlis Course

This past January, I was fortunate to gain media access to cover the 2025 Hero Dubai Desert Classic as a sports photographer, including the above shots of Rory McIlroy, Tyrell Hatton (who won the tournament) and Tommy Fleetwood, teeing off on the 8th tee of the Emirates Golf Club's legendary Majlis Course.

Photographing Professional Golf was a Steep, but Rewarding Learning Curve

It's difficult to describe how nuanced photographing professional golf turned out to be, but the other pro photographers were incredibly generous, patient, and enlightening about their though processes and methodology. I learned how to "keep it clean," by making sure to eliminate any background people or distractions, which involved carefully positioning oneself with angles that would isolate the golfers and make for the best images. This was NOT always easy, particularly when you're making sure to stay out of the way of the TV broadcast cameras, the players' line-of-sight, and the other photographers. Having a long lens is critical. Most of the pros used a 400mm F2.8, but I have yet to afford a $13,000 USD lens, so I was stuck with a rented 200-600mm F5.6 — which mostly did the trick, thanks to the sunny days — and more often I hung out around the greens, bunkers and tee boxes, using a 70-200 and 24-70 (F2.8's).

This brings me to the action on the 8th tee, an iconic location with the Dubai Marina soaring skyscrapers skyline in the distance — making for a memorable image, for sure. I was standing behind the tee, thinking about how best to position myself, when the other photographers simply dropped to the ground and lay down as the golfers and caddies approached the tee.

Being quick to copy their every move, I did the same, and immediately saw what they were going for. If you look at the top right photo above, you can see me on the left, where I had the 24-70mm (and sometimes a 20mm 1.8, as with the bottom right of Tommy Fleetwood), and the resulting shots are the other images. Some photographers stopped down to bring the skyline more into focus, but preferred the shallow depth of field and focused on the golfers. I call these my "Godzilla Golf" shots.

I'll post more about this experience and what I learned, but definitely looking forward to covering more golf in the future. It's a truly enjoyable environment and for sports photography, challenging, but at least the subject mostly stays in one place!