Matt Kuchar gives in, pays $50k to Caddie

Gator By Marriage · Feb 16, 2019

oxrageous said:
What does Kuchar have to apologize for? He said they made a deal in advance. He did nothing wrong.

Kuchar is rich. Therefore he should pay his “fair share.”
FYI -Any of you are ever in ATL and want me to carry your clubs for 18 holes a day for four days and you’ll pay me $4K in cash, I accept. Just PM me, I’m pretty sure I’ll be available.

oxrageous · Feb 16, 2019

Gator By Marriage said:
Kuchar is rich. Therefore he should pay his “fair share.”
FYI -Any of you are ever in ATL and want me to carry your clubs for 18 holes a day for four days and you’ll pay me $4K in cash, I accept. Just PM me, I’m pretty sure I’ll be available.

I would have carried the bags for free.

Gator By Marriage · Feb 16, 2019

oxrageous said:
I would have carried the bags for free.

And there’s the difference: you’re cheap, I’m easy.

T REX · Feb 16, 2019

Gator By Marriage said:
Kuchar is rich. Therefore he should pay his “fair share.”
FYI -Any of you are ever in ATL and want me to carry your clubs for 18 holes a day for four days and you’ll pay me $4K in cash, I accept. Just PM me, I’m pretty sure I’ll be available.

Are you Caddying a tour event on TV or a middle age hackathon?

gator1946 · Feb 16, 2019

Kuch is a nice guy. He's was absolutely in the right...maybe a little on the cheap side. It was absolutely a terrible PR move. He should of seen it coming.

Gator By Marriage · Feb 16, 2019

T REX said:
Are you Caddying a tour event on TV or a middle age hackathon?

Whatever pays. I’m not too choosy in this area.

GatorScott · Feb 16, 2019

From ESPN.com:

The specifics were that Kuchar would pay Ortiz, who goes by the nickname "El Tucan," $1,000 if he missed the cut, $2,000 if he made the cut, $3,000 for a top-20 finish and $4,000 for a top 10.

There was no provision for winning, but Kuchar paid Ortiz $5,000 in cash.

oxrageous · Feb 16, 2019

gator1946 said:
Kuch is a nice guy. He's was absolutely in the right. It was absolutely a terrible PR move. He should of seen it coming.

According to the story, he offered the guy an additional 15K and it was turned down. I do not know if that's true, but if it is, what the hell happened later?

oxrageous · Feb 16, 2019

GatorScott said:
From ESPN.com:

The specifics were that Kuchar would pay Ortiz, who goes by the nickname "El Tucan," $1,000 if he missed the cut, $2,000 if he made the cut, $3,000 for a top-20 finish and $4,000 for a top 10.

There was no provision for winning, but Kuchar paid Ortiz $5,000 in cash.

Okay, so he went above the agreed upon price. Winning the tourney is a top-10 finish.

gator1946 · Feb 16, 2019

oxrageous said:
According to the story, he offered the guy an additional 15K and it was turned down. I do not know if that's true, but if it is, what the hell happened later?

I heard he offered the 15K after the story broke. Too late at that point. Right after the win he ponied up a whopping extra thousand over the agreement. At least I think that's what happened. Golf's got enough elitist image problems without this.

If he'd added 15K immediately after he won we probably never would have heard about it.

Doopree · Feb 16, 2019

oxrageous said:
They made an agreement in advance of the tournament. The caddie did not have to accept the terms. If Kuchar had been cut and made nothing, the caddie would still have received the 5K. Maybe that would have been unfair to Kuchar and he could make a federal case over it, too.

Saying this situation "cheapens the integrity of the sport" is so over-the-top silly that I nearly keeled over.

Next I'll be accused of being a racist. That's how the script goes with debates these days.

Like you wouldn’t be furious if somebody did this to you? Hah I highly doubt it.

GatorScott · Feb 16, 2019

Personally I think both are idiots. Kuch knows better and is known to treat his personal caddie great so he basically took advantage of this caddie presenting the low ball deal to him and then once he won he should've paid the guy a nice bonus (tip) like is customary. The caddie was an idiot for agreeing to such a low-ball (no pun intended) arrangement and probably what happened is after Kuch's victory the caddie's friends were in his ear telling him he was "el stupido" for getting paid only $5k...even though he made a deal with Kuch. In the end Kuch looks like the "mooch" and the caddie is now $50k richer.

BNAG8R · Feb 16, 2019

How does the $1k/$2k/$3k/$4k breakdown compare to what a professional caddie would get? That should be the basis for the winning purse.

The guy isn’t a professional caddie, he’s a schlep at a local course. Was the $5k bad form? Probably - it certainly isn’t the % of winnings that a 10th place for $4k is. But to say this guy deserves to be paid what a professional caddie gets is a slap in the face to professional caddies. If you think all these guys do is carry the clubs, then you don’t have a clue.

gator1946 · Feb 16, 2019

oxrageous said:
Okay, so he went above the agreed upon price. Winning the tourney is a top-10 finish.

The bitching and moaning is because a regular caddy often gets 10% if his player wins. What everyone forgets is that a regular caddy puts up with missed cuts and low finishes and often pays his own travel expenses.

Not only that but the good one are keeping the "books" on the course, the greens, and are part of a team strategy to manage their player's game.

Getting 10% of a winning check for many journeymen caddies is like winning the lottery. Those who don't know don't get it. So I stick to what I said. If you really understand what's going on maybe this is an OK deal. But for PR purposes it was a bad move.

The guy sure as hell didn't deserve 10%. I don't think he deserved 50K. Whatever. Too late now.

BNAG8R · Feb 16, 2019

So 20th place paid $94k, 10th place paid $194k...he would have gotten about 2.5% for those finishes. 2.5% of $1.29m = $30k...so the $5k was lowball.

Like ‘46 said..he should have done the $20k up front and this would be a nonstory.

fischerwood · Feb 16, 2019

oxrageous said:
According to the story, he offered the guy an additional 15K and it was turned down. I do not know if that's true, but if it is, what the hell happened later?

Sounds like he had people (who were owed nothing BTW) in his ear

BMF · Feb 16, 2019

oxrageous said:
They made an agreement in advance of the tournament. The caddie did not have to accept the terms. If Kuchar had been cut and made nothing, the caddie would still have received the 5K. Maybe that would have been unfair to Kuchar and he could make a federal case over it, too.

Saying this situation "cheapens the integrity of the sport" is so over-the-top silly that I nearly keeled over.

Next I'll be accused of being a racist. That's how the script goes with debates these days.

I think you're right....and the caddie did not "have to accept" the terms. But there were probably 50 other Mexican's ready to jump on the offer. I think Kuchar is taking a bad PR hit - that could have easily been avoided - and should have, out of kindness, paid the guy his $4K then given him a nice "tip" (closer to the amount due a tournament winning caddie). This is life changing money for a low income Mexican. (and I'm no tree-hugging, left leaning pansy. I just feel that "taking care of your people" is important. As a military officer, we are pounded with "take care of your people" - and in this case, he did not "take care of" the caddie).

gator1946 · Feb 16, 2019

BMF said:
I think you're right....and the caddie did not "have to accept" the terms. But there were probably 50 other Mexican's ready to jump on the offer. I think Kuchar is taking a bad PR hit - that could have easily been avoided - and should have, out of kindness, paid the guy his $4K then given him a nice "tip" (closer to the amount due a tournament winning caddie). This is life changing money for a low income Mexican. (and I'm no tree-hugging, left leaning pansy. I just feel that "taking care of your people" is important. As a military officer, we are pounded with "take care of your people" - and in this case, he did not "take care of" the caddie).

Ox is treating this like a pure business transaction. It it were only that he'd be right. But Kuch is also in the entertainment industry. That changes the equation. If I had won the thing, this is what would go through my mind, even if I couldn't stand this caddy. OK, I just won 1.3 million. I owe this guy 4K. But as soon as he gets back to his friends they may very well get in his ear, tell him I'm cheap and start complaining and then I'm going to get a dialog I don't want. I'll throw in a few more thousand and avoid that possibility.

This would have been my thought process and I have a legendarily cheap reputation. I pay for good causes. I pay when it makes business sense. I never pay when there is no good reason.

BMF I changed this post which was originally directed at you and OX. I only read the first sentence of your post.

GatorInGeorgia · Feb 16, 2019

Gator By Marriage said:
Kuchar is rich. Therefore he should pay his “fair share.”
FYI -Any of you are ever in ATL and want me to carry your clubs for 18 holes a day for four days and you’ll pay me $4K in cash, I accept. Just PM me, I’m pretty sure I’ll be available.

East Lake, today at 1:05pm. 18 holes. See you there. :)

GatorInGeorgia · Feb 16, 2019

Gator By Marriage said:
Kuchar is rich. Therefore he should pay his “fair share.”
FYI -Any of you are ever in ATL and want me to carry your clubs for 18 holes a day for four days and you’ll pay me $4K in cash, I accept. Just PM me, I’m pretty sure I’ll be available.

GatorInGeorgia said:
East Lake, today at 1:05pm. 18 holes. See you there. :)

oxrageous said:
I would have carried the bags for free.

Scratch that Gator By Marriage. I found a better deal.

Matt Kuchar gives in, pays $50k to Caddie

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