At the opening ceremonies of the 2025 Master’s Tournament, a familiar face hid behind a Sony camera: Ken Griffey Jr. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and 13-time All-Star legend took to the green during the first major golf tournament of the year as one of the official Masters.com photographers as the tournament opened on April 10 at Augusta National in Augusta, Georgia, USA.
While Ken Griffey Jr.’s camera is no stranger to professional sports photography, including MLB games where he once graced the fields rather than the press pit, the 2025 tournament marks the first time The Kid has photographed The Masters. The reason? Superstition. “I said I’m not going to go to The Masters until I play it,” he told Morning at the Masters. “And I got the opportunity to play a couple years ago, and then got the opportunity to shoot it, and it’s been unbelievable and wild.”
Griffey says he first got into photography to focus on his kid's sports games without getting interrupted by fans. “My daughter literally stopped dribbling a basketball and just looked at me, when she was five, and I was like, ‘OK I’ve got to pay more attention to what’s going on.’ And I figured nobody’s messing with the photographer, well let me pick it up.”
Griffey then borrowed some cameras and lenses from some friends, who didn’t give him any pointers besides this one: “Just don’t put it on auto.” Griffey seems to have taken that advice to heart, as the EXIF data from his Masters photographs all indicate the images were shot in manual mode. One image was shot at f/22 to show off the course, although that meant an ISO 12800 to keep a quick 1/2500 second shutter speed.
When Griffey first picked up photography as a hobby in 2015, he started with a Nikon DSLR but now shoots with Sony. His first shots from the Masters were shot with a Sony a9 III and an assortment of different lenses, including the 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS, 600mm f/4 GM OSS, and 28-70mm f/2 G.
Photography and baseball carry a number of similarities for Griffey, including being focused and present in the moment and having a constant desire to improve. “I don’t think that baseball players or photographers are ever really satisfied with what they do,” he said in an interview with Sony last year. “The pursuit of excellent fuels both disciplines.”
The Masters continues through April 13 in Augusta, Georgia, USA.
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