By now we all know the Matt Kuchar story.
Kuch was a late add to the field at Mayakoba and his regular caddie, John Wood, couldn’t go. So he hired a local caddie, El Tucan, for the week. Kuchar would go on to win the tournament, his first in 4 years.
It seemed like a great story about a great guy. Then a story surfaced that Kuchar May have stiffed the caddie on his way out of town. Michael Bamberger at Golf.com tracked the caddie down and we now know for sure that he was, in fact, stiffed to an extent.
Well, thanks for a twitter user we now know as well that throughout the course of Kuckar’s career that El Tucan was not the only caddie he has treated less than nicely.
The first day that we're on the course, Bryce is going to play a practice round with Chez Reavie, Matt Kuchar, & a 4th who I can't remember. I do everything I can to keep up and follow the lead of the professional caddies who were in the group with the other guys. 2/8
— Legal Hooks (@LegalHooks) February 12, 2019
Chez & the 4th guy in the group hand some free ice cream to their caddies. Matt turns to me and hands me what I thought was ice cream for me. I tell him thank you very much and start to open it. He yells at me to stop like I'm about to set off a bomb. 4/8
— Legal Hooks (@LegalHooks) February 12, 2019
After everyone hits & we start walking down 10 fairway, his caddy comes over and pats me on the back and offers me a granola bar that he had. It was obvious that Kuch always treated people like this. 6/8
— Legal Hooks (@LegalHooks) February 12, 2019
So, this is a long rant just to say that Kuch has always been a guy who demeaned and talked down to caddies. I'm sure he treats all "the help" like that. I'm glad the story about #ElTucan came out so that everyone can see it. 8/8
— Legal Hooks (@LegalHooks) February 12, 2019
The PR hits just keep hitting Kuchar and he is doing himself no favors by continuing to remain silent. Plus, once again thanks to Bamberger, his agent Mark Steinberg also comes off looking bad as well by basically blowing off El Tucan as well when he asked for more money.
This whole story has been weird from the get go and thanks to this revelation from Chris Chaney of Wrong Fairway, it also bring a whole new meaning to this famous Kuch gif:
This gif takes on a whole new life after reading @LegalHooks thread… pic.twitter.com/giBgYKTWL9
— Chris Chaney (@Wrong_Fairway) February 13, 2019
Update: Kuch finally broke his silence and let’s just say he probably should have just stayed quiet.
Bamberger tracked him down and we now know that not only does Kuchar think that what he paid El Tucan was more than fair, he was less than thrilled that Steiny tried to resolve this whole thing by offering to throw in that additional $15k because Kuchar would have had to pay it.
Kuchar seemed slightly embarrassed that the additional sum had been offered, as he felt his financial obligation to Ortiz was complete. Asked how it came to be that the additional sum was offered, Kuchar said, “That was the agency.” He was referring to Excel Sports Management, which represents him. Kuchar’s agent there is Mark Steinberg, who also represents Tiger Woods and Justin Rose.
He also still doesn’t seem to understand that while the money might not seem like a big issue to him, for a guy like El Tucan the money can be life changing.
Kuchar said he did not really understand why the pay dispute has turned into such an emotional issue. Told that a $5,000 caddie payment on a $1.3 million payday seemed frugal, he nodded, but indicated he had a different view.
“For a guy who makes $200 a day, a $5,000 week is a really big week,” he said.
Bamberger didn’t pull punches this time around either, taking a little jab of his own on the way out.
Kuchar, the player ranked 10th on the all-time Tour money list with $46 million, has his own answer. He paid $5,000. Had he paid $50,000, you’d be reading something else. And had he paid $130,000, he’d be a legend at Mayakoba, and in caddie yards far and wide, forever.
You can read the full story here.
