Kuchar makes belated U-turn

MATT Kuchar made a dramatic U-turn this last week and handed over $50,000 to a local caddie who looped for him as he won the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico last November.

Readers will recall that Kuchar who scooped a $1.1 million winners cheque originally handed over $4,000 to David Ortiz, a local caddie at the course where the event was played at the time.

The problem lay with the fact that if Kuchar’s regular caddie John Wood been on the bag that week, he would have pocketed a cool $101,000 as 10% of the winner’s prize money.

Ortiz complained to Kuchar’s manager Mark Steinberg that he hadn’t been paid enough and was then offered a further $11,500, but he (Ortiz) told Steinberg to “keep it”.

Kuchar’s biggest sin in all of this affair was probably his comments after the story came to light when he said something like : “$4,000 for a week’s work is not bad and I’m not going to lose any sleep over it”.

Matt, who is usually one of golf’s good guys, should have paid over a decent sum at the time and the matter would have never surfaced had he done so and while there’s no doubt that the caddie’s local knowledge played a huge part in his win, surely Ortiz he wasn’t expecting to get 10% of the prize money like a regular tour caddie would?

Ian Woosnam won the 2009 Irish Seniors Open at Ballybunion after an exciting play off with American Bob Boyd and pocketed €52,500, but did he give his local caddie €5,250 ?

I somehow doubt it, but then we’ll never know as the man in question has remained tight-lipped ever since as to how much he received, despite being quizzed by many over the years.

Clarke’s Good Form

DARREN Clarke fired three rounds in the 60s as his good form continues on the Champions Tour but in spite of shooting 68-69-67 he still finished well down the field at the Chubb Classic which was won by Miguel-Angel Jiminez after a playoff with Bernhard Langer and Olin Browne.

The difference between winning and finishing down the field is so small nowadays as Clarke was just four shots behind the winner but finished joint 16th for a $25,500 cheque while Jiminez pocketed almost ten time that amount.

There used to be a time when a player reached 50 he could join the Seniors tour and earn a very lucrative living shooting mediocre scores, but Jiminez’s winning score was thirteen under par for just three rounds proving that seniors golf is just as competitive as regular tour golf.