Kuchar - Mayakoba Caddie Drama - Your Take?

[BuckNasty]

Kuchar - Mayakoba Caddie Drama - Your Take?

Following his win Kuchar's agent should have told him "pay the local 10% or you're going to hear about it later".

This may be the worst reason I’ve ever heard to pay someone a ton of money, “Give him 130k so he stays quiet”. In today’s social media culture there will always be someone with something negative to say about people in the spotlight, this incident will have zero impact on his reputation, sponsorships or future earnings and that is all he and his agent should worry about.


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[Canadan]

You don't think he "paid low", but other people may think the caddie deserved 10% ($130,000).
All factors considered, the only way Kuchar's good reputation could have been maintained was by paying the 10%. But now that the story is out it's too late for that.

First of all, I don't "think" anything of it. The man got paid his salary and more. (that is a fact).

When you go to a restaurant with your friends, how many times have you grabbed their check to see how much they tipped their server? If often, how quickly are you to judge if it's not the standard you're accustomed to tipping? America has this crazy mentality on tipping that is kind of gross in an obligation sense, and we're really losing sight on 'money owed' vs 'money paid' here.

Kuchar's reputation is still excellent.

 

[Pringles]

This whole thing is crazy...I think in the future if you are going to have a local caddie you should have some paperwork agreeing to a monetary number for how much money you will pay them regardless of the outcome of the event. That way no matter if you finish 1st or last that caddie knows how much money they will be making and then any additional monetary incentive given from the player based off a more positive outcome is a bonus. Just my take. This way there is no guess work and no one is the "bad" guy.

 

[The_Dude]

"Ortiz told Golf.com that their arrangement was for him to be paid $3,000 for the week, with an additional (and unspecified) percentage of Kuchar’s winnings."
If this is true, I find it odd that this wasn't hammered out prior to starting tournament.

 

[DG_1234]

How has this cost him future income? Again, because some social media keyboard warriors who are the VAST minority are upset they can’t dictate how someone spends their own earnings?

Kuchar's reputation is now harmed. How much so remains to be seen. Regardless, paying $130,000 is certainly a small price for Kuchar to pay to preserve his reputation, image.
The irony is that had Kuchar paid 10% to a local caddie, and that story been told, Kuchar's reputation would have been enhanced, his image as a "good guy" would have grown.

 

[Canadan]

Who I feel bad for after all this nonsense is the regular list of caddies who work hard ALL year for their player with the agreed on (I'm assuming 10% per suggestions). They now look at this like "wow any random caddie reserves the right to show up for a week and get the same perks while I spend the year away from my family in hotel rooms trying to make magic happen for my player"

That sucks a lot. That 10% is WELL earned, and this is making a mockery of it.

 

[MWard]

Kuchar's reputation is now harmed. How much so remains to be seen. Regardless, paying $130,000 is certainly a small price for Kuchar to pay to preserve his reputation, image.
The irony is that had Kuchar paid 10% to a local caddie, and that story been told, Kuchar's reputation would have been enhanced, his image as a "good guy" would have grown.

Harmed to who? The only people who should be wary are local caddies, apparently. You might get a month’s salary for 6 days of work.

How he paid someone who worked a week for him is none of my business. Just like how he spends his money, is also none of my business.

 

[Jman]

Kuchar's reputation is now harmed. How much so remains to be seen. Regardless, paying $130,000 is certainly a small price for Kuchar to pay to preserve his reputation, image.
The irony is that had Kuchar paid 10% to a local caddie, and that story been told, Kuchar's reputation would have been enhanced, his image as a "good guy" would have grown.

Again, I ask you once more, HOW is it harmed? Because the internet keyboard pounders say so? That segment plays little to no role in peoples opinion of Kuch, I promise you that.

 

[mancest]

I hate this story for many reasons but from the latest article here is what I can figure:

El Tucan is a local club caddie who worked for Kuchar for the Mayakoba tournament, he regularly makes $100 a round at his club. Say he loops 2 rounds a day, 7 days a week, he is pulling in $1400 a week. His base pay was agreed upon at $3000 for the week. He did not have airfare or hotel costs that a regular caddie would have had.

Kuchar won the tournament with El Tucan on the bag, and because of this El Tucan given a $2000 bonus. How much help was El Tucan to Kuchar? I would assume anyone reading this has zero idea how big of an impact he was, but regardless he got a 60% bonus of what his agreed upon rate was.

Now, the ugly part is that Kuchar won 1.2 million dollars.... Could Kuch have kicked this guy 50-60k and really not have noticed on his bottom line? Sure he could have but HE won the money not anyone else, so he gets to decide how he allocates to his team, especially someone who was a part time employee.

That Kuchar's team would go back and offer an additional $15k (bringing total compensation to $20k, $17k above what the original agreement was, or a total of about 200 loops for El Tucan) in my opinion solely because this became a story and a bad look for Kuch... well it doesn't change the fact that they offered this guy another $15k.

All I know is what should he have paid El Tucan over and above what was agreed upon is not my place to judge. I can't say what I would have done because I have never won $1.2 mil and sadly for me probably never will

 

[RNG]

I don't understand the whole discussion. This is between Kuchar and the Caddy. None of our business. I don't why it is required that we have opinions about things that don't concern us at all. This whole episode hasn't changed my opinion of Kuchar at all. He is a world class golfer based on what I see. I have no idea what kind of man he is nor do I need to!!

 

[DG_1234]

This may be the worst reason I’ve ever heard to pay someone a ton of money, “Give him 130k so he stays quiet”. In today’s social media culture there will always be someone with something negative to say about people in the spotlight, this incident will have zero impact on his reputation, sponsorships or future earnings and that is all he and his agent should worry about.


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Kuchar's got 10 more years on the regular Tour and then comes his Champions Tour years. For "saving $130,000" he's now got to have people looking at him, asking questions, talking about the Mexico caddie situation for the next 20 plus years.
You think if had the chance to do it over , on that Sunday afternoon following his win, he would not write a check for $130,000 and hand it to the caddie with a smile ?

 

[Canadan]

I don't understand the whole discussion. This is between Kuchar and the Caddy. None of our business. I don't why it is required that we have opinions about things that don't concern us at all. This whole episode hasn't changed my opinion of Kuchar at all. He is a world class golfer based on what I see. I have no idea what kind of man he is nor do I need to!!

Well, the problem my friend, is that twitter is home to some absolute WARRIORS and one of them found something to complain about in what Kuchar did.

 

[Jman]

Kuchar's got 10 more years on the regular Tour and then comes his Champions Tour years. For "saving $130,000" he's now got to have people looking at him, asking questions, talking about the Mexico caddie situation for the next 20 plus years.
You think if had the chance to do it over , on that Sunday afternoon following his win, he would not write a check for $130,000 and hand it to the caddie with a smile ?

For TWENTY years? Really?

I'd say more like give it a couple months and people care even less than they do already.

 

[mikeg_74]

this doesn't smell right to me. it feels like extortion. let me blast your character in the public arena, demand $50,000, and see what happens. the caddie has nothing to lose. why now? if you were so pissed before, and you wanted to let the world know how bad a guy matt is, why wait so long? someone got in his ear and they concocted this plan.

why do we believe the caddie? what has he done to earn our trust? he has every motivation to lie. this is his one opportunity to cash in.

If this was some sort of "moral high ground" he wanted to die on, then why accept the $5k intially? Turning down $15k is just stupid and like you said smells of extortion and someone got in his ear thinking they could shame Kuchar to pay more. I'm glad Kuchar stood his ground and didnt cave in.

None of this sits well with me. Not from Kuchar's standpoint, from everything else.

You work four days and start demanding 50,000 dollars? Give it a rest. I'm not giving the clerk 100,000 dollars for selling me a winning lotto ticket either.

Also, turning down 15,000 dollars, if accurate, is next level stupidity.

If he was so worried about feeding and taking care of his family, he would have taken the extra $15k and ran. $3k american dollars would give you 4-5 months of average pay in mexico. Lets say the $5k provided 5 months of salary...the additional $15K would have provided another 15months or so of salary, so don't give me the sob story of needing to take care of my family because if that was the case this would be a non story and over.

 

[Canadan]

Kuchar's got 10 more years on the regular Tour and then comes his Champions Tour years. For "saving $130,000" he's now got to have people looking at him, asking questions, talking about the Mexico caddie situation for the next 20 plus years.
You think if had the chance to do it over , on that Sunday afternoon following his win, he would not write a check for $130,000 and hand it to the caddie with a smile ?

I am more impressed that you think this 'situation' is going to be discussed for another 20 years.

 

[Jman]

Again, I ask you once more, HOW is it harmed? Because the internet keyboard pounders say so? That segment plays little to no role in peoples opinion of Kuch, I promise you that.

And I'm quoting this because I'd really love an answer on just how his rep has legitimately been harmed.

 

[ddec]

Kuchar's got 10 more years on the regular Tour and then comes his Champions Tour years. For "saving $130,000" he's now got to have people looking at him, asking questions, talking about the Mexico caddie situation for the next 20 plus years.
You think if had the chance to do it over , on that Sunday afternoon following his win, he would not write a check for $130,000 and hand it to the caddie with a smile ?

20 years? dude this story won't even be a blip on the radar down the road. Hell, I don't think even think it's a story now.

 

[Jman]

20 years? dude this story won't even be a blip on the radar down the road. Hell, I don't think even think it's a story now.

This. .

 

[RNG]

Well, the problem my friend, is that twitter is home to some absolute WARRIORS and one of them found something to complain about in what Kuchar did.

I guess it's just statement about our current society. Sad!!

 

[DG_1234]

Again, I ask you once more, HOW is it harmed? Because the internet keyboard pounders say so? That segment plays little to no role in peoples opinion of Kuch, I promise you that.

Time will tell.
This Kuchar story reminds me of when Stewart Cink cheated at Harbour Town, 2004. From that Cink "won the tournament" but in doing so his reputation was harmed and he still today has to answer questions about it. The $200,000 or so Cink gained (from taking 1st place versus 2nd place), was not worth the damage to his reputation and image.

 

[lanoxrehab]

Kuch should of given him a pair of Sketchers with the $3/k. This would of been a non-story. Or he should of asked himself "WWPD"*

*What Would Phil Do

 

[MPlefty]

Well, the problem my friend, is that twitter is home to some absolute WARRIORS and one of them found something to complain about in what Kuchar did.

And it looks like we have one on thp too, there is no issue here, Kuch will be fine, the caddy will be fine, can we move on?

 

[Jman]

Time will tell.
This Kuchar story reminds me of when Stewart Cink cheated at Harbour Town, 2004. From that Cink "won the tournament" but in doing so his reputation was harmed and he still today has to answer questions about it. The $200,000 or so Cink gained (from taking 1st place versus 2nd place), was not worth the damage to his reputation and image.

So, no answer as to how, it just will. Got it.

And now we are comparing a GRATUITY to cheating?

 

[BuckNasty]

Kuchar's got 10 more years on the regular Tour and then comes his Champions Tour years. For "saving $130,000" he's now got to have people looking at him, asking questions, talking about the Mexico caddie situation for the next 20 plus years.
You think if had the chance to do it over , on that Sunday afternoon following his win, he would not write a check for $130,000 and hand it to the caddie with a smile ?

Again I think you forget the day and age we live in, there is a new “shocking” story almost daily and last week’s news becomes old news quick. If you think this lingers on for more then a couple months, let alone 20 years, then I don’t know what to tell you.





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[mikeg_74]

Kuchar's got 10 more years on the regular Tour and then comes his Champions Tour years. For "saving $130,000" he's now got to have people looking at him, asking questions, talking about the Mexico caddie situation for the next 20 plus years.
You think if had the chance to do it over , on that Sunday afternoon following his win, he would not write a check for $130,000 and hand it to the caddie with a smile ?

Kuchar did nothing wrong. This is pure greed from the caddie based on everything that has come out. The amount of money he gave up is selfish because that could have helped his family for a long time.

I think people are confusing full time tour caddies with "one week rentals" when comparing what compensation should be. A full time caddie who is with his guy week in and week out, not getting paid if they dont make the cut, traveling on their own dime most of the time, they absolutely deserve a bigger piece of the winnings given that it has been earned over a longer period of time and not a "one week rental" situation like we are seeing with this one.

Kuchar will not suffer endorsements, public perception or anything negative from this one. if anything he'll get more support from people now that they know how greedy the caddie is being.