Hit a rogue sz and the epic flash. Liked the rogue much better. Want to get fitted for a driver so hopefully I can find someone that will still fit me in one.
It will be classic Phil for him to win this tourney while the US Open is here later in the summer in which he’ll likely miss the cut.
Tee time on Torrey Pines North for 7:40am Friday and the weather forecast has changed to low rain chances
Seems like it rains whenever the pros are in town. Tiger loves Riv but plays like trash here every time he’s teed it up. Paul Casey has had success there and is playing well right now. Of course, Bubba and DJ are always favorites.
I don’t know what to think about Kuch paying the caddie 5k. Seems like a lot of money for carrying the bag 4 days. I don’t think the guy deserves what a tour caddie would get because that’s understood to include travel and lots of ups and downs. Should he have paid him 10k or 20 to make this a non issue? Probably.
I think the bigger story here is how out of touch he is. I don’t think he realizes the magnitude of the outrage over this on the internet. It’s completely ruining his reputation. I wonder what the majority of four players would’ve paid. No one expects the caddie to receive what a pro would but 5% seems reasonable. 50K would’ve been 4%.
Maybe the caddie should've had an agreement in place beforehand. Or maybe he did and $5,000 was the agreement and since Kuchar won, now the guy wants more.
I’m in the running to win some money for this segment (first 13 weeks) in my one-and-done league and am going with JT this week
That appears to be exactly what happened. They agreed to 3k base salary and then a bonus of 1k. Not sure what the terms of the bonus were. Kuchar paid him 5k. Once that came out and everyone lost their mind the caddie realized he didn’t get an adequate payout and asked for more.
Kuchar said 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 had a top-20 and $4,000 if he had a top-10. “The extra $1,000 was, ‘Thank you — it was a great week.’ Those were the terms. He was in agreement with those terms. That’s where I struggle. I don’t know what happened. Someone must have said, ‘You need much more.’” An extra grand, that’s all Kuch thought he deserved for the win.
It just means Kuch was shitty up front. He may have held up his part of the deal but he knew he could win 1.3M and the fact he would only be willing to pay his caddie 0.4% is ridiculous
I’m sure it’s super interesting for the NLU guys and the insider PGA tour reporters but the Kuchar story is already boring as fuck to me. The tour schedule is pretty much in full swing and it seems they would rather do takes on this than just about anything else. He stiffed a local. Call him an asshole and treat him like one if you wish but I’d rather them do stories on just about anything else at the moment.
This Kuch thing is fucking outrageous. The caddy got exactly what he was told he was getting. The fact that people are complaining about this is a microcosm of exactly what’s wrong with this world. It’s not his tour caddy. It’s not a team sport. He’s a fucking looper. If Kuch had paid him 5% and then missed the cut nobody people would be bitching that he should have at least paid him a stipend, I mean shit. He said he’d pay him exactly what he said he would, the guy agreed. Kuch gave him an extra 1k. When the guy started bitching they sent him another 15 and he returned it. The caddy is a jerk. Get the fuck over it.
Just because he got what they agreed to doesn’t make Kuch not an asshole who took advantage of the guy. So you’re telling me it’s acceptable for his normal caddie to make 130k and this guy to make 4k in the same situation?
Do you not think the caddy contributed to the win in the way of advice, strategy, course knowledge, and green reading?
What are you gonna do about it? Yell in his backswing and boo him at events? The story is out there and everyone has already decided if they think he is a huge asshole or not. There’s just no where else for this story to go.
I agree. The dude with like a hundred million dollars being a greedy asshole over 50-75k is a great analogy
I think the bigger picture people are failing to realize which is propelling the story is that Kuchar is actually known on Tour for this behind the scenes. His comments in the newest Bamberger article about being a good tipper is not an opinion his colleagues agree with. He was originally aired out for a reason. If this was a one time thing, this wouldn’t be the story it is.
If it was even the slightest advantage at all you’d have guys using local caddies at every tour stop.
I’m not going to do anything about it other than continue to think Kuch is an asshole who takes advantage of people without seeing the fault behind it
All that said, this is a longer term story that probably isn’t going away... https://www.golf.com/news/2019/02/13/adam-scott-rule-changes-pro-golf-laughingstock/
If that's what is agreed to then yes. If the guy wanted more money then he should have asked for it up front. He negotiated a bad deal and he is stuck with it. Had Kuch not won then this would be a non-story. So because he happened to win he should have to pay more? Should he have given the guy more? Sure. Should he have to give the guy more? Nope. Should this be some big story? I don't think so, but of course here I am talking about it weeks later.
He sent him another 15k when the guy started complaining. He returned it. This guy is only interested in his 15 minutes of fame.
He should’ve sent $50k, for his own sake. He’s about to lose way more than that in future endorsement deals.
This guy has caddied for other professionals before. He knows how the deal typically works and he made a deal before hand. It’s not like this is some kid off the street that kuch took advantage of. This whole thing is ridiculous.
Team Kuch. It’s not like it was the caddies first time caddying at the event. He can negotiate any deal he wants. I’m sure Kuchar preferred Him To grabbing a local out of the crowd but he’d far prefer a tour caddy. Kuchar isn’t asking this rando for green reading advice on a Sunday.
I was going to share my but it seems Dukes and I share the same opinions on this. Here's the deal....I don't mind someone who is an asshole as long as they own it. Kuch, paying him that little then coming back and saying, "but that's what he agreed to beforehand" is a worse asshole move than anything.
He and his agent/PR guy are morons for having him come out and address the story. Everyone had made up thier minds regardless so he just gave the story more oxygen.
This is my take as well. I think the other component to this is it flys in the face of this persona that Kuchar and his marketing team have crafted. The family man schtick seems to be a false veneer when it comes out that he stiffed El toucan (fantastic name btw) and has a rep in the locker room and around certain places for stiffing people.