HAVERFORD - At a golf tournament that bars cameras and phones, Max Mason was better equipped than most to capture images of the first round at Merion.

Armed with a pencil and sketchbook, the artist best known for his baseball-themed murals at Citizens Bank Park was working briskly to knock out drawings of all 18 holes on the East course Thursday.

“I got here at 6 a.m. and so far I’ve done holes one through nine,” Mason said while standing with his tools on a hillside high above the ninth green a little after 1 p.m. “I play golf, and I’ve played Merion West, but I have never been to a golf tournament before and have never really (sketched or painted) golf before.”

A resident of the Wynnewood section of Lower Merion Township, Mason road his bike to U.S. Open, parking at Haverford College.

“I’ve had a great time,” he said. “Walking around a golf tournament kind of feels like you’re walking onto a sports field and right up to the athletes, which is awesome. You can also find a quiet spot like this where no one’s around.”

A graduate of Vassar College, Mason began painting baseball subjects as a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. His three 10’x30’ murals of Citizens Bank Park, Veterans Stadium and Connie Mack Stadium are featured at Harry the K’s beyond the left field seats at Citizens Bank Park.

Other Mason works are located in the Diamond Club behind home plate and Phillies front offices. He has also painted several murals for the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

“Right now, I’m working on something called The Baseball Project that has me painting all 30 Major League Baseball ballparks,” he said. “I’ve hit nine of them so far and I will be in Chicago in a week.”

Mason is represented by the Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia, where he has shown his landscape, still life and baseball paintings since 1985.

For more information on Mason, visit www.maxmasonartist.com.