Sports photography isn’t all glamour: there’s getting frozen on a football pitch in February, withered at Wimbledon, and soaked at Sandown. Then there’s getting hit by a ball struck by Tiger Woods. It’s what happened to Mail on Sunday photographer Mark Pain yesterday.

Woods mis-struck his ball in the rough and it careened straight towards Pain and his Nikon D3S. Pain held his nerve and snapped his shot before the ball thumped into his camera, bounced off his chest, and dropped at his feet. Then he made a swift exit.

It might’ve been down to Woods’ play, but I’m not sure I would’ve hung around, either!

Thank you to Bits and Pieces for the headsup, and head to the Mail online for more.

The photo is obviously Mark Pain’s. I’m not that much of a golf buff, really. And I don’t read the Mail.