Kuchar apologizes, pledges $50,000 to Mayakoba caddie

LOS ANGELES — Matt Kuchar apologized Friday for what he said were insensitive comments about the caddie he used at the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico last fall and said he would pay the $50,000 the caddie requested.

He also said he would make a donation to the tournament to be distributed to charities in the Cancun area.

“Golf is a game where we call penalties on ourselves,” Kuchar said in a statement released by the PGA Tour. “I should have done that long ago and not let this situation escalate.”

Kuchar’s regular caddie couldn’t make the trip to Mexico in November, so he used David Ortiz from El Camaleon Golf Club. Kuchar won for the first time in more than four years and earned $1,296,000. Ortiz received $5,000. Kuchar defended the payment — regular PGA Tour caddies typically get 10 percent from the winner — by saying they had an agreement at the start of the week. In an interview with golf.com, Kuchar said he did not understand why there was such a big buzz on social media.

“For a guy who makes $200 a day, a $5,000 week is a really good week,” Kuchar said.

Ortiz had told the website he didn’t expect the full 10 percent as a fulltime caddie, but that he thought it was worth $50,000. He said he sent three emails to Kuchar’s agent, Mark Steinberg at Excel Sports Management, and was offered an additional $15,000, which he turned down because he found it unacceptable.

Now he’s getting his money after Kuchar spent the last two days defending the arrangement.

“This week, I made comments that were out of touch and insensitive, making a bad situation worse,” Kuchar said. “They made it seem like I was marginalizing David Ortiz and his financial situation, which was not my intention. I read them again and cringed. That is not who I am and now what I want to represent.”

Kuchar, who opened with a 68 on Friday at the Genesis Open, said he would call Ortiz after play Friday, which he said was overdue.

“I have made sure he has received the full total that he has requested,” Kuchar said.