In PGA and USGA events, the media photographers will not start shooting on the back swing, and will only let fire the shutters after the club head kissed the ball goodbye. Shooting during the back swing is not a fact of life, and should not be.
The pros covering the match are not the culprit, and sadly to say, and I have witnessed this many times, it's the amateurs who have no idea what they should and should not do. It's a common that the marshall on the course tells the specators to keep quiet. If the spectators are told to keep quiet, should other sound making equiptments be slienced also?
There is no appeal if you drop a stroke and loose the god damn tornament. Who to appeal to? It's just curtesy.
I'm glad you chimed in DP.
If that's the case, and there are rules or at least guidelines for any photographer or spectator wielding any sort of camera advising against shooting on the back or up-swing, then Woods' reaction may be justified.
It's the organisers' who want the spectators ticket money whose at fault, as well as those 'amatures' who lacked any sense or decency...or is it entirely?
If a recourse for appeal is not in place, and assuming that such high-profile events are probably super widely recorded and documented, and such distractions are evidenced, since they are multi-million dollar events with intensive media coverage, then it might be an issue that needs to be addressed by the powers that be, assuming that the game at the pro level is supposed to be played in absolute silence and serenity.
General etiquette is one thing, but to expect that perfect conditions should exist at pro tourneys is another. A quick look at many precision sporting events even at the World or Olympic level will reveal all sorts of visual and audio disturbance, regardless of intention or condition, and the best of plans or officials' constant pleas for quietness.
Top and pro level athletes are supposed to delve quite deeply into very rigorous mental training with the aid of gazillions of dollars pumped into sports psychology and such, and a large part of the result is supposed to involve handling stress and less than ideal conditions, distractions, intentional or not, as well as upsets of any sort.
Please don't get me wrong.
I am not saying I advocate a lack of courtesy and anyhow anytime anywhere whack photos kind of attitude especially at a pro level sporting event where the difference in winning and losing a huge sum of money can be determined by one single point, but unless there were like 5 or 10 or more people firing their noisy DSLRs all at the same time when Woods was on the upswing, then Woods' losing his momentum or focus just at that point when he should have been fully 'in his zone' might have been a simple failure in his mental game, as well as the arrangements, security and logistics on the part of the organisers. If it was just one inconsiderate person with a machine-gun DSLR, and perhaps a few others with much less noisy PnS, than all the more shame on Woods' mental game and lack of ability to cope.
I'm not saying those who snapped away are free of blame. No, but the bigger and perhaps more real problem might lie elsewhere, as it usually does in real life.