Kuchar apologizes, will pay caddie $50,000

On second thought, PGA Tour veteran Matt Kuchar has elected to pay a fill-in caddie $50,000 for his work during a November tournament in Mexico.

After winning the Mayakoba Classic and $1.296 million in prize money in November, Kuchar paid caddie David Giral Ortiz $5,000. Ortiz is a regular caddie at the club where the tournament was played and typically makes $100 to $200 a day for work on the course.

The original deal between Kuchar and Ortiz reportedly was $1,000 for missing the cut, $2,000 for making the cut, $3,000 for a top-20 finish and $4,000 for a top-10. There were no specifics for a payout if the 40-year-old Kuchar won the event.

When Kuchar left Mexico, he presented Ortiz with $5,000. Kuchar later tried to offer another $15,000 but Ortiz declined, making it known that he believed his work in a tournament victory was worth additional $45,000.

Kuchar’s regular caddie, John Wood, who could not make the event, reportedly would have made at least $100,000 for the victory had he worked that week.

The issue escalated this week when Kuchar told Golf.com that he didn’t understand what the confusion was about because he was in agreement with Ortiz’s terms. Kuchar suggested that somebody told Ortiz to ask for more. A social media firestorm ensued.

On Friday, at the Genesis Open in Pacific Palisades, Calif., Kuchar said he would pay Ortiz the full $50,000 and offered a statement in which he apologized. Kuchar said he had no intention of “marginalizing David Ortiz and his financial situation.”

“My entire (PGA Tour) career, I have tried to show respect and positivity,” Kuchar’s statement read, in part. “In this situation, I have not lived up to those values or to the expectations I’ve set for myself. I let myself, my family, my partners and those close to me down, but I also let David down. I plan to call David tonight when I’m off the course to apologize for the situation he has been put in, and I have made sure he has received the full total that he has requested.”

–Field Level Media