Back in November, pro golfer Matt Kuchar won the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico, which earned him $1.3 million. It’s customary for golfers on tour to give their caddies a 10-percent cut of their tournament winnings, which means that Kuchar’s caddie, David Ortiz, should have earned $130,000 for his week of work. But Ortiz only got a measly $5,000, and Kuchar doesn’t seem to think he did anything wrong.
Ortiz is a club caddie in Mexico, and was picked by Kuchar to serve as a replacement when his regular caddie was unable to make the trip. After stewing over his paltry payment for a couple of months, Ortiz sent an email to Kuchar’s agent in January asking to be paid $50,000. He was instead offered an additional payment of $15,000, which prompted Ortiz to tell Golf.com that Kuchar and his agency could “keep their money.”
Golf.com caught up with Kuchar this week, seeking explanation for why Ortiz was paid so little. Kuchar defended himself, claiming that the terms of Ortiz’s employment had been worked out in advance of the tournament, and that the caddie was only actually supposed to make $4,000; the extra $1,000 was a bonus Kuchar gave him for helping him win the tournament. Kuchar also seemed to imply that because Ortiz is from lower means than an established tour caddie, he should have been delighted to receive the little amount of money he did:
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.
Kuchar is No. 10 on the all-time PGA Tour career earnings list, having won over $48 million over the course of his career. This, my friends, is one rich prick.
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[Golf.com]
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