PGA Tour pro Matt Kuchar maintains that the $5,000 paid to his caddie after winning the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico was fair and only regrets that the flap over the amount has overshadowed what was a “great” week for him.
Kuchar earned $1.296 million when he won the PGA Tour event in November, breaking a four-year winless drought. Local caddie David “El Tucan” Ortiz, who was filling in for Kuchar’s regular looper that week, received $5,000 for his services.
“It’s kind of too bad that it’s turned into a story. I really didn’t think it was a story because we had an arrangement when I started,” Kuchar told GolfChannel.com’s Will Gray Wednesday. “I’ve done enough tournaments and had enough weekly caddies, and I’m very clear about what the payment will be. And we had an arrangement Tuesday that David was OK with, and I thought Sunday he was very much OK with it.”
Ortiz traded e-mails with Kuchar’s agent, Mark Steinberg, in the hopes of receiving a total of $50,000, Golf.com reported this week. Kuchar confirmed to GolfChannel.com both the $5,000 he paid Ortiz and that Ortiz turned down an additional $15,000. Usually, caddies receive a percentage of the player’s weekly earnings often up to 10 percent in the case of a win.
“I kind of feel like unfortunately some other people have got it in his head that he’s deserving something different than what we agreed upon,” Kuchar told Gray. “And it’s just too bad that it’s turned into a story, because it doesn’t need to be. We had a great week.”
Kuchar also said didn’t know Ortiz before the tournament and that they originally agreed to a deal that would have allowed Ortiz to make up to $4,000 for the week.
“It’s done. Listen, I feel like I was fair and good,” Kuchar said. “So I certainly don’t lose sleep over this. This is something that I’m quite happy with, and I was really happy for him to have a great week and make a good sum of money. Making $5,000 is a great week.”
