Drama continues on the PGA Tour
What’s next on the PGA Tour?
Maybe a WWE match between Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson?
Or Patrick Reed vs. the team of Jordan Spieth and Jim Furyk?
We had Sergio Garcia going 12-year-old in a bunker in the Middle East, caddies standing in the wrong places, penalties being penalties until it was decided they weren’t penalties and new rules that were amended less than two months after being put in effect.
It’s getting to the point where you never know what you might see when you tune in to the Golf Channel.
But in the driver’s seat this week to be the headliner on the Jerry Springer show is Matt Kuchar and his reluctance to pay a caddie a reasonable amount after he won the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico.
His regular caddie couldn’t work that week so he picked up a local caddie, David “El Tucan” Ortiz.
The two reached a deal for compensation that was this: Ortiz would get $1,000 if Kuchar missed the cut; $2,000 if he made the cut. If Kuchar had a top-20 finish, Ortiz would get $3,000 and $4,000 if his finish was in the top 10.
Kuchar paid him $5,000 the night of the victory and felt like he had done right by the 40-year-old Mexican caddie. But in the weeks that followed, word started to circulate that Ortiz was becoming more and more vocal about his displeasure in the amount Kuchar paid him.
Kuchar wasn’t budging, however, as he explained Saturday at the Genesis Open.
“Listen, I was stubborn, hard-headed,” Kuchar said. “In my mind, I had it as a deal is a deal, but after I won the tournament, a deal wasn’t a deal. Not a good deal. Any transaction, all parties should come out feeling like they’ve won, and certainly in David’s case, he did not feel like he won in that situation, and I needed to make that right. It’s as simple as that.”
Had his regular caddie been on the bag he would have won $129,000, which is 10 percent of Kuchar’s check. That’s standard operation procedure on the PGA Tour.
And nobody is saying Ortiz should have been paid that much. But $5,000 is well on the cheap side as judged by those who play the game as well as those who wish they could.
So after several conversations on the subject with his agent Marc Steinberg, Kuchar finally relented and wrote another check for $45,000 to get Ortiz to $50,000.
I would certainly hope this incident doesn’t do any long-time damage to the image of Kuchar, who has been a crowd favorite and stand-up guy from the moment he joined the PGA Tour. He obviously suffered a momentary lapse of judgement and while it took him a while, he obviously did the right thing.
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In recent years, Adam Scott has played less and accomplished less as his interests have shifted more away from golf. He’s become a bit more controversial in the last year or so, highlighted by his comment that “golf is becoming a laughingstock” thanks to recent rules changes,
And when he was asked about the slow-play problem play on the PGA Tour, he offered an interesting solution.
He said he spoke to Andy Pazder, the tour’s chief of tournaments and competitions about that situation.
“Make me the victim,” Scott said. “I’ll take the penalty. The only way it’s going to work is if you enforce it. We’ve seen too many years, too much complaining about it. And zero action about it.”
It’s Scott’s opinion that it’s going to take complaints from sponsors and television about the slow play and threats of refusing to pay the freight before anything is done.”
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Do you have an interesting story about your club or course or an individual who has done something special, let me know? Send your story ideas to mike.dudurich@gmail.com.
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Mike Dudurich is a freelance golf writer and hosts The Golf Show on 93.7 The Fan, Saturday mornings from 7-8 during golf season. Follow Mike on Twitter at @MikeDudurich.