Imagine telling 25,000 people they can’t use their cellphones or cameras at the exact moments they want to.

That’s the task of the Ryder Cup cellphone police — “Mobile Device Policy Enforcement” is what’s emblazoned on their lime-green bibs — out in force this week at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska.

“There are rules and we have to enforce them, said Mark Ehlenz of Stillwater, one of scores of such phone cops.

As smart phones — and sharing of the images they record and their users share — has proliferated, the PGA of America, which puts on the Ryder Cup, and other golf organizations have struggled to stem the tide of inevitability.

“I’m sorry, but that’s the policy, and it’s posted in many places,” Ehlenz told a woman whose camera he confiscated on the back nine Saturday morning. Standing behind the ropes in the spectator gallery, the woman was taking pictures of players as they walked past in the fairway of the 16th hole.

EVOLVING RULES

Rules have changed in recent years and vary among events.

At the Masters, for example, cellphones and cameras are essentially banned from the premises of the hallowed grounds of Augusta National Golf Club. Meanwhile at the Ryder Cup, the rules are more liberal.

“We want people to use their phones,” said Jeff Hintz, tournament director of the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine. “We know people need to communicate with work or family, and we know they want to share this incredible experience here. But we still need some rules.”

There are two problems with cellphones and cameras, from the PGA’s perspective:

First, the clicks, beeps, ring tones and associated banter of the users can disrupt golfers, who are accustomed to silence when they address the ball and swing the club.

Second, the PGA and major broadcast media, most notably NBC and The Golf Channel, have inked contracts over the exclusive — exclusive — rights to the images, moving or still, and sounds of the event. (In fact, those rules extend to any form of communications; technically, most credentialed media are prevented from tweeting actual details of competition as it’s happening.)

100-YARD RULE

The policy the PGA has arrived at for the Ryder Cup, which is posted throughout the course, is known as “the 100-yard rule”: During competition, all mobile devices and non-credentialed cameras most be out of sight if players are within 100 yards. In addition, phones must be in “golf mode,” silent, except for vibrations.

Those rules are looser than in 2012, when the Ryder Cup was last played in America. That year, at Medinah Country Club in Illinois, “several hundred” phones were confiscated, Hintz said. “There was lot more ringing, and we really struggled to keep everything fair for the players.”

At this year’s PGA Championship in New Jersey, when the 100-yard rule was in effect, that number was below 100, he said. Numbers weren’t readily available for how many iPhones and the like have been taken since competition began Friday.

At Hazeltine, the cellphone cops, often in groups of threes accompany groups of players along the ropes as as the golfers progress along the course. Usually, cellphones disappear at the sight of their bright bibs with nothing said — the desired outcome. Often, as when Team USA Vice captain Tiger Woods was walking the course Saturday with players Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, temptation was tougher for the spectators.

‘PUT ‘EM AWAY’

The enforcers often made their presence more well known. “Put ’em away. Put ’em away.” That usually worked, since gawking fans often were focused on the image on their phones or cameras.

But sometimes, they decide to take action, either entering the gallery to approach someone directly, or taking the ultimate action: seizing the device.

“I was just taking pictures,” pleaded the woman, who refused to give her name.

Ehlenz took her camera and wrote her out a claim slip. She would be able to retrieve it when she left for the day.

It was the second camera he had confiscated before noon. He had taken two cellphones.