David Cannon's career honor

PGA of America honors longtime photographer with Lifetime Achievement Award

You might not know David Cannon’s name, but if you’ve followed golf over the past several decades, you surely know his work.

Cannon has been one of golf’s finest photographers since the mid-1980s and, at 66, is still at it.

The PGA of America has recognized Cannon’s long, outstanding career with its Lifetime Achievement in Photojournalism Award. Cannon is the second recipient, with the inaugural citation given to the innovative Leonard Kamsler in 2020.

Cannon will be celebrated May 18 in Tulsa, Okla., ahead of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club.

Photographer David Cannon has shot hundreds of golf tournaments during his long career.

I met Cannon more than 35 years ago when I was shooting golf action on the tournament trail. He was a principal at the photo agency Allsport, and he sometimes would arrive at a major championship after having photographed an important soccer or track and field event. Cannon has worked for Getty Images since 1998 when the media giant purchased Allsport.

An Englishman, Cannon was a keen and talented amateur golfer in his teens and early 20s but developed a love of sports photography after getting to shoot a rugby match in the fall of 1978 and having one of his pictures selected for the sports cover of a big Sunday newspaper.

Cannon put serious golf behind him and got serious about photography. He photographed his first of nearly 200 combined men’s and women’s golf majors at the 1982 Open Championship won by Tom Watson at Royal Troon. (David and I got to share a press-room gathering at the 2014 PGA Championship in Louisville, which was the 100th men’s major for each of us.) He has worked assignments in 115 countries, estimating that he has taken more than three million film or digital images and walked over 13,000 miles while shooting golf tournaments around the globe.

“Over the last forty years, my ambition has been to leave an important legacy to the sport,” Cannon said. “And while I am not done just yet, I hope this award serves as an annual reminder that [photographers] put an awful lot into the game of golf.”