{"id":22387,"date":"2019-02-15T10:43:22","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T10:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/the-stinginess-with-his-mexican-caddie-continues-to-haunt-kuchar\/"},"modified":"2019-02-15T10:43:22","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T10:43:22","slug":"the-stinginess-with-his-mexican-caddie-continues-to-haunt-kuchar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/the-stinginess-with-his-mexican-caddie-continues-to-haunt-kuchar\/","title":{"rendered":"The stinginess with his Mexican caddie continues to haunt Kuchar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kuchar\u2019s victory last November at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, a US PGA Tour tournament played in the Riviera Maya, continues to bring tails despite the time elapsed. The bone of contention is the $5,000 paid to him by his Mexican caddie, David \u201cEl Tucan\u201d Ortiz, after he won $1.3 million dollars for his victory at the spectacular El Camale\u00f3n Mayakoba course.
Kuchar said he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d and \u201csaddened\u201d by the criticism he is receiving as a result of that payment, which is based on the argument that the usual caddies of Tour professionals usually receive ten percent of the prize money, which in this case would have been $130,000. For a club caddie at a resort used to earning $100 to $200 a day, that would be a monumental sum.
And this week, in an interview with Golf.com, he again explained what the agreement he had reached with the caddie before the tournament was. \u201cI was very clear on Tuesday (of tournament week): he had a chance to make up to $4,000 with the bonuses, and he agreed.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"
Kuchar related that he told Ortiz he would pay him $1,000 if he missed the cut, $2,000 if he made the cut, $3,000 if he was top 20 and $4,000 if he finished in the top 10. \u201cThe additional 1,000 was in appreciation for a great week. Those were the terms and he agreed to them. I don\u2019t know what happened. Someone must have told him, \u2018You need a lot more.'\u201d
Ortiz said in a recent interview that he was given an envelope with cash Sunday night after the tournament and counted it after Kuchar had left. In another interview shortly after the Mayakoba tournament, the Mexican caddie said he still expected to receive a bonus check for the victory. He did not believe he had been paid in full.
\u2018El Tucan\u2019 said he would not be interested in working for Kuchar again, although he described him as a \u201cgood person and a great player.\u201d Ten weeks after the tournament, Ortiz was offered an additional bonus of 15,000, but he turned it down . In an interview he said, \u201cNo, thank you. They can keep their money.\u201d He said he believed a 50,000 payout would have been adequate.
Kuchar felt a bit embarrassed that Ortiz had been offered that additional sum. \u201cIt was the agency,\u201d he said referring to Excel Sports Management, which represents him. Kuchar\u2019s agent, Mark Steinberg, is also the agent for Tiger Woods and Justin Rose.
Kuchar smiled and said, \u201cIt\u2019s not coming out of Steinberg\u2019s pocket.\u201d In other words, Kuchar was implicitly acknowledging that the money was coming out of his. He said the additional payment offered was Steinberg\u2019s effort at damage control.
\u201cI think people know me well enough to know I wasn\u2019t trying to get my way \u2013 that\u2019s not how it works,\u201d Kuchar said. He added that some players were giving him a hard time over the caddie pay controversy.
Kuchar said he didn\u2019t quite understand why the pay dispute has become such an emotional issue. The $2,000 amount against a $1.3 million prize seemed meager, he admitted, but said he had a different view.
\u201cFor a person making $200 a day, a $5,000 week is really a big week,\u201d he said.
\u201cI try to look on the bright side of everything,\u201d Kuchar said. \u201cI hope he\u2019s happy, I hope things are really good in his life. I have to think that if he was given the same opportunity to do it again, he\u2019d say \u2018yes.\u2019 He\u2019s got a good character. He\u2019s easy to be with. The picture of the two of us with the trophy, that will always be on my office wall.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kuchar\u2019s victory last November at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, a US PGA Tour tournament played in the Riviera Maya, continues to bring tails despite the time elapsed. The bone of contention is the $5,000 paid to him by his Mexican caddie, David \u201cEl Tucan\u201d Ortiz, after he won $1.3 million dollars for his victory at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}