Tim Darby Photography

Hey everyone! Glad to be back and to see you back here! I know it may be the middle of the week but I can still talk about last weekend right? I had a great one filled with some golf, a lot of pool time, a close friend in town for the weekend, watching my Gator baseball team make it to the College World Series, and then more pool time. Really just what I needed.

This week has already had a busy start but I'm enjoying it and absolutely can't wait until Thursday - the first round of the 110th US Open at Pebble Beach! I am a huge golf fan (if you haven't noticed), I'm an even bigger golf major championship fan, and finally I think my favorite golf major championship is the US Open. The Masters is likely a close second but I won't put it in first until I am able to walk Augusta National and see it for myself.

The US Open also has some emotional connection to me as that is the only major championship that I have attended. My dad and I were able to get tickets to the 2005 US Open at Pinehurst #2 and it was a blast. Even cooler, my grandfather took my dad to the US Open (my dad's first major championship) in St. Louis in 1965 - FORTY years earlier. Too cool. While we were in North Carolina for the US Open I had some serious talks with my dad about my future career and life plans and the night before the final round we talked for literally hours (something pretty unique as my dad and I are usually fairly quiet) about what I should do before I finally decided that I would focus my efforts on going to law school and becoming an attorney. Even though at that point in my life I didn't, he knew I could do it, and just told me to do my best. Parents are always right.

Back to the post at hand! I wanted to get back to some of my golf pics since this week is pretty important in the golf year. An important part of my golf year is shooting The Players Championship up in Ponte Vedra Beach at TPC Sawgrass. This year was my third year and it is really one of the highlights of my year that I look forward to as soon as I see the 2nd week in May nearing. It's taken me a while to get to all of these photos because of time constraints plus I don't want to overload you all with a ton of golf posts in a row. The third round of the Players championship was definitely one of my best all time as far as getting images that were used and as always I had a blast doing it. Kind of fitting it was my 3rd year shooting the Players and the 3rd round was my best. Sometimes my life seems to revolve round the number 3.

When I met my editor (and ride) on Sunday morning I noticed there was a newspaper on his dash and a familiar (and very large) photo of mine on the front of the Sports page. Below that picture was a set of four more, another of which was mine. Wow, 2 on the front of Sports - this was a dream come true already and I hadn't opened the paper yet. Inside there were 3 more of my shots. What an amazing feeling! I knew I had a pretty good day but to see the photos in print and know that others (and even editors back at the office) appreciated them was such a cool feeling. I really can't tell you how jazzed up I was and ready to get back out there and do it all over again in the final round. A fellow photographer working with me that day started calling the Sunday edition the Tim Darby edition Sports section because of how many pictures of mine were used on Sunday. I do have to say it was a bit weird and exciting all at the same time seeing that section laying around the media center with a huge picture I took on the front page. Some seasoned photo journalists may see this as no big deal but it was certainly a special day for me.

Here are a few of my favorite (and best) photos from the third round:



































and here's the one that ran as a large print on the front page of Sports leading into the final round of the Players:



more on this shot in a post coming soon.

If you're a true golf fan, or just want to look at some more photos from the Players Championship Third Round gallery.

Thanks for stopping by and reading a little self gloss but it truly was a great day in my "career" as a photographer. I plan on writing a few posts later on explaining how I ended up with certain shots from this day and the story behind them so stay tuned. Thanks for checking in and if you're a golf fan enjoy the US Open - I know I will!