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The Matt Kuchar caddie saga from his victory at the Mayakoba Golf Classic is beginning to get ugly.
If you remember, that week, Kuchar’s regular caddie John Wood couldn’t make it so the American enlisted the services of local looper David Ortiz, also known as El Tucan.
Kuchar, of course, went on to win the PGA Tour event – his first victory in four-and-a-half years – and El Tucan, naturally, expected to be rewarded accordingly.
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However, that wasn’t – and still isn’t – the case.
El Tucan has broken his silence on what happened in an interview with Golf.com.
The caddie says he still hasn’t received anything more than $5,000 for his efforts that week – a mere 0.38% of Kuchar’s $1,296,000 winner’s cheque.
On January 24, Ortiz sent an email to Mark Steinberg, agent of Kuchar and also Tiger Woods, saying: “I am a humble man, who takes care of his family, and works hard.
“I am reaching out to you to see if you can facilitate me receiving a fair amount for my help with Matt winning $1,296,000. I am not looking to disparage Matt or give him a bad name. Fair is fair, and I feel like I was taken advantage of by placing my trust in Matt.”
El Tucan says he was hoping for $50,000, which is 3.85% of Kuchar’s winnings. That, you’d think, is perfectly reasonable given caddie earn anywhere between 5% and 10%.
However, Kuchar only offered an additional $15,000 in addition to the $5,000. A $20,000 total is just 1.54% of the winning cheque.
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Asked how he felt about the offer to receive what he said would be an additional and final $15,000 payment, Ortiz said: “No thank you. They can keep their money.”
Ortiz said he wrote to Steinberg because he didn’t have contact information for Kuchar. He sent a total of three emails to which he has received just one response, on January 29, which read: “I am out of the country. What Matt has offered is fair.”
It is understood that the offer of the additional $15,000 was only extended from Kuchar’s camp through a Mayakoba Golf Classic tournament representative.
So, to conclude, it’s a pretty messy situation and an entirely avoidable one as, at the end of the day, what’s $50,000 to a guy who has made more than $46,000,000 in his PGA Tour career?
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