It's crazy that Kuch thinks a legit rationale for the cheap payment is that the guy is used to making crap money anyway. As in, the regular caddies are used to making more, and because of that, they deserve more. It's such an entitled way of thinking.

Matt Kuchar has won 43 million dollars playing golf, does zero social media, and gives zero ****s.

Matt Kuchar offered him an extra 15k and the guy turned it down because it wasn't enough. He wants 50k.

Before leaving Mexico, Kuchar paid the fella with an envelope of cash totaling $5k that contained $5s and $10s, so he probably gave him all the cash he had on hand.

Guy probably makes $100/day at his normal caddie job. Not very smart!

If the tour comes back to that club next year I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that nobody will want to hire "El Toucan"

what exactly did this caddy do that warrants a pay jump from 100-200/day to 32500 a day? pga tour caddies get 10% bc theyre traveling with the player, reading greens, clubbing the player, working with the player mentally, keeping him calm, basically they know the player and his game. sure this guy probably knows the course since hes a local, but matt has played there before and had practice rounds. this guy had no expenses this week AND he agreed to 3k flat fee up front. this whole thing is such bull**** bc this guy just decides to freeroll the player by accepting the 3k flat fee then making a scene in the media when matt does well. congrats to this dip**** on never getting another loop when the pga tour comes back.

If your forum name is in green, does that indicate you are somewhat mentally challenged?

what if he got last for 14k, what should he have paid him? do u have an argument or do u just think that 1.3 million is an unfathomable amount of money?

The bolded is all we need to know that Kuch is in the right.

we will see in the long run if Kuchar is right or wrong. Golf is such a mental game. He has never had anything but fan support and love from the media and sponsors due to his reputation. Let's see how he plays when he's in the same category as Poulter, Sergio and Patrick Reed.

Sponsors also have plenty of options when it comes to picking golfers. No one wants to be associated with a guy who stiff his caddy and doesn't win much anymore.

This is going to get dragged up over and over again. But, on the other hand, he has an extra $45k in his bank account, so I guess he has that going for him.

what long run? hes 40 years old. hes never had any controversy and is universally loved by everyone in golf. this is the tail end of his long run and people are throwing out 20 years of excellence for 15 minutes of snarky comments about him being "cheap". if you're on the side of him being a piece of **** then the long run has no meaning.

Standard caddy payment from what I've read is $1-2k per week salary towards travel expenses, plus a sliding scale payment based on finish (10% if they win, 7% in Top 10, 5% outside top 10, etc).

Kuchar gave his caddy a 0.39% tip for a win. I am not sure how you can justify that by talking about the guy not having travel expenses. Come on.

Obviously the caddy must have done a pretty good job, since Kuchar won. If he did a crap job and Kuchar still won, then that pretty much discounts your argument about how important the caddies supposedly are to the players' success.

Bottom line - he tipped the guy on his bag for 4 days .39% - on a WIN. That is cheap. There is no other word for it. Sorry. Maybe he's a great guy in all other respects. I don't know him so I can't say. But I know cheap when I see it.

well hes not a pga tour caddy so why does any of that pertain to him?

it wasnt a tip. it was a pre determined amount he was getting that week. he was even offered more and refused it.


thats some very special specious reasoning.



why does one incident discount my argument that a regular tour caddy helps a tour player? you really like believing 1 incident proving to be fact for all situations.

so thats the big point of all this? that hes "cheap"? does one incident that we dont have all information on completely determine a person's character regardless of a lifetime of being a model tour pro? i think youd be shocked at how much these guys give to charity both in time and money. youre willing to throw away 20 years of kuchar being a universally loved guy for someone youve never heard of and will never hear from again bc he feels wronged even though he was paid on an agreed amount AND offered more? if there ever was a time for giving someone the benefit of the doubt, this is it.

You have no clue what you are talking about. Yes, there is a sliding scale payment used for regular tour caddies. They do a crap ton for the players both before and during the tournament.

This guy did none of that, and did not have an agreement for a sliding scale (in fact, if given the option, I bet he would have declined the sliding scale because he wanted a guaranteed pay day). Kuchar and the caddie don't even speak the same language. So why exactly does he deserve to get paid anywhere close to what Kuchar's normal caddie would have gotten paid. he literally was just like a human golf cart. he carried the bag and handed Kuchar certain clubs. For that easy job, they agreed on a flat fee of $3k or $4k, and Kuchar then just paid him $5k total.

He got exactly what he agreed to up front. He would have gotten this amount if Kuchar missed the cut or if Kuchar won. For him to act entitled to more is ludicrous. I'm sure the guys at Bandon Dunes or Pebble Beach would take $5k for carrying a pro's bag for a week. And they probably do much more at Bandon Dunes or Pebble Beach than this guy did for Kuchar.

And not taking the extra $15k Kuchar offered him is very dumb.

Sure, I get that it looks cheap on Kuchar's part, and I agree he could have paid him $10k or $15k right after the tournament. But the caddie has no right to act like he is entitled to more than he got. This should be a non-story.

this is absolutely hilarious if true.

Yeah that just seems stupid. Did he think by coming out Kuch would give him more? At this point Kuch could give him $50,000 and its not changing his image

I still think Kuch is a cheap SOB and his image takes a hit.

When you win a poker tournament no were does it say you need to tip the dealers they get paid a salary. Its not part of your signed entry. Yet if you don't your a cheap bastard.

All this is true and rational. But, this isn't a story about being right anymore. It is all in the world of public perception/opinion and the average person doesn't care too much about the details.

Even if you got 100% of people to agree that Kuchar did nothing wrong, 90% of those same people will say "he looks cheap."

Kuchar being right and being cheap are not mutually exclusive.

the fact that he's 40 years old just means that he's been a cheap stingy miser his entire life and never got called out for it until now. i'd be less likely to judge him if he was younger.

I don't think you have any idea how professional golf works. He could continue playing for the next 20 years. That's 20 years of people potentially heckling him, sponsors deciding if they want to be associated with him, corporate events that he may not get invited to participate in, etc.

That's the thing about a reputation, it can take 20 years to build up and one stupid decision to destroy.

This was clearly a boneheaded move by Kuchar. And note how very little support he is getting from anyone in the game. They know a toxic situation when they see one.

The reason Kuchar is not getting any support is that there are likely very few PGA golfers who would give a replacement caddy (even one that "doesn't speak the same language" - not sure what that has to do with anything???) 5 grand after a $1.3 million win. Regardless of what the guy "agreed to beforehand". Because it sucks, and most people wouldn't do it.

it's true, golfers are generally very good about not sticking their neck out into the sea of dummies.

i haven't seen any tour pros condemning him. can you provide an example or two of tour pros saying something negative about kuuuuuuch?

from my point of view, it's just the twitter peanut gallery mouthing off.

the tour pros who support him will laugh about it with him in the locker room - they have no incentive to get on social media and back him up.

The bolded part...that's called a contract. The foundation of civilized commerce.

After Kuchar won, he offered the guy 5x the contracted amount. He didn't have to do that, but the guy tried to jack it up and Kuch essentially said GFY.

We're forgetting that Kuch would've still given him the $3k had he missed the cut. If he stiffed him then we'd have a beef.

The entitlement mentality is all on the side of the people who think Kuch did anything wrong.

Is he cheap? Probably, but it's his money.

He was literally outed by a tour pro.

And Cameron Percy threw him under the bus.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that players will be lining up to hire the services of El Toucan. DUCY?

never heard of Cameron Percy, google says he is not on the PGA tour. who is the pro who outed him? Billy Bunker?

because kuchar won? maybe. it doesn't seem like he will be getting a positive recommendation from his previous employer!

ill take that for any amount. pga tour players absolutely hate anyone that talks about what goes on inside the ropes

actually it was dwayne zackamore