Euan McLean

Slow to pay, slow to play PR disasters

THE VOICE OF GOLF TIGHT-FISTED, tortoisepaced winners, tantrums and the totalitarian regime. The alliterative list of shame that sums up golf’s image problems, fittingly, to a tee.

In a normal month the embarrassing climbdown of Matt Kuchar – exposed for short-selling the caddie who’d helped him to a first winner’s cheque in four years – would be enough to dominate the negative headlines.

But not in this current climate where golf’s governors and players are queueing up to blacken the name of the game.

It’s been a constant stream since the European Tour rolled into Saudi Arabia to get in bed with a state vilified worldwide for their human rights abuses and discriminatory antifemale laws.

So widespread was the condemnation of Tour chief executive Keith Pelley’s decision to take the Saudi dollar you’d almost think Sergio Garcia was doing him a favour by losing the plot out there.

Disqualified for deliberately damaging five greens, the Spaniard was lucky not to be hit with a ban and stripped of his appearance fee.

Another failure that earned more criticism for the Tour accused of again letting the big names away with murder when less famous players are made an example.

Guys like Haotong Li, who the previous weekend was harshly judged the first victim of the new rule intended to stop caddies lining up players before shots. That his bagman was walking away from Li and not even looking as he took his stance made the two-shot penalty, costing him 100 grand in winnings, seem grossly unfair.

And that’s before we get started on Kuchar. Remember the sympathy for the nice guy grinning and bearing it with dignity after Jordan Spieth pipped him to the 2017 Open at Birkdale?

He can kiss all that goodwill goodbye after the row that’s been brewing since Kuchar won the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico last November, IN RECORD SPORT employing local looper David “El Tucan” Ortiz for the week as regular caddie John Wood was unavailable.

Had Wood been on the bag he’d have received £100,000 as his 10 per cent cut of Kuchar’s £1million winner’s cheque. But he gave Senor Tucan five measly grand, less than half a per cent.

And when Ortiz later complained the next offer of £15,000 added insult to injury for a guy who felt, with good reason, he was due at least £40k.

The scandal really caught fire when Ortiz broke his silence. Cue Kuchar trying to justify himself with a depressing lack of perspective from a man whose career earnings stand at £36m.

He said: “For a guy who makes $200 a day, a