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19th Hole

David Ortiz shares his side of the story from his Mayakoba controversy with Matt Kuchar

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Matt Kuchar returns to the site of his 2018 Mayakoba victory this week—a week which proved extremely damaging to the 41-year-old’s public persona.

The result of last year’s win was overshadowed after Kuchar paid his stand-in caddie, David Ortiz, $5,000 for helping him to his eighth PGA Tour win and the $1.3 million prize at Mayakoba. After a messy, publicised back and forth, Kuchar eventually paid Ortiz $50,000, and over the weekend the Mexican caddie revealed his side of the story.

Speaking to the New York Post, Ortiz revealed that he carries no animosity towards Kuchar following the incident, stating

“Kuchar is a good person. I’m not angry. Everything is good. Not paying was not good. But I have no anger.”

Per the report, before the event, Kuchar’s deal with Ortiz was that he would pay the stand-in caddie $1,000 for the Tuesday practice round, $1,000 for the Wednesday pro-am and $3,000 for the tournament rounds (cut made, or no cut made).

However, Ortiz then requested 10 percent should Kuchar go on to win, to which the 41-year-old responded “Of course,” though Ortiz claims, “it felt like he was just looking at me like I’m this little guy.’’

Kuchar’s payment of $5,000 did not equal one percent of his winnings and led to plenty of vocal critics amongst golf fans and pundits alike.

It was then director of golf at El Camaleon, David Lopez, who got involved on Ortiz’ behalf. Lopez contacted Kuchar’s agent, Mark Steinberg, who curtly blew off Lopez’ request that Ortiz’ payment be increased, responding to his email saying “No. What we paid you is fair.”

Following Kuchar’s comments that, “For a guy who makes $200 a day, a $5,000 week is a really big week”, Lopez once again emailed Steinberg stating that the issue had now become a racial one, and per the report, two days later, Ortiz had been sent an extra $45,000.

All’s well that ends well for Ortiz, who explained to the Post how important the $50,000 is to him.

“Fifty thousand dollars, for me, is big. It’s everything to me and not much to (Kuchar). The $50,000 I needed for my business and to fix my kitchen and bathroom at home and to buy a new cell phone.”

 

 

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Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at [email protected].

19th Hole

3-time PGA Tour winner calls for LIV to buy Champions Tour to fix ‘joke’ purses

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While speaking on the Subpar podcast, former PGA Tour winner and current PGA Tour Champions player Chris DiMarco said he hopes LIV buys the Champions Tour.

“We’re kind of hoping that LIV buys the Champions Tour,” he said.

“Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC (Sawgrass, at the $25 million PLAYERS Championship) that made more money than our purses.”

In 2024, the Champions Tour had a total of $67 million in prize money over the course of 24 events.

DiMarco also defended LIV players for taking the money and said he would take it also.

“They wanted to play for a lot of money, and they deserve it. They have had some great careers, why not go and get some money?”

DiMarco also offered insight on Graeme McDowell’s move to LIV.

“I saw Graeme McDowell at the Old Memorial Pro Member, and he goes, ‘Listen, I went up to Jay Monahan and said I love the tour but I am struggling to keep my card and these guys are offering me all this money and less golf. I’m sorry, I’m going.’ And I do not blame him one bit, and I said I would have too.”

DiMarco was ranked as high as 6th in the world in 2006.

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19th Hole

‘It won’t win you golf tournaments’ – Golf analyst rips Charley Hull’s course management

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Charley Hull came just short of her third LPGA Tour victory over the weekend at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship when she played her last two holes at 3 over to slip all the way to 10th on the leaderboard.

After the round, Hull was blasted by Sky Sports commentator and former LPGA Tour player Trish Johnson for her lack of golf course management.

While speaking on the Sky Sports Golf podcast, Johnson spoke harshly of Hull.

“I’m probably her harshest critic, because I know how good she is. She doesn’t win anywhere near enough for her talent, and she doesn’t get involved enough, in all honestly.

“The thing with Charley is that you’re never going to change her. I read something the other day that said how much she loves the game and it’s her love of the game [that costs her]. She’s never going to change and she’s just going to go for every pin.

“In theory that’s great, but it won’t win you golf tournaments, it just won’t because she’s not that much better than anybody else. If you put Charley against Nelly Korda, then I’m picking Nelly every single day of the week.”

Johnson also made a fascinating comparison between Hull and a famous male golfer, John Daly.

“Golf-wise that’s the way she plays the game and it’s a little bit like watching John Daly I suppose.”

“There’s something that John Daly had that made him a major winner and a winner, but Charley is kind of lacking that. Her talent is not in question, but maybe her application is. Maybe it’s just the case of her never changing and that will cost her golf tournaments, there’s no two ways about it. You cannot go for every pin because that’s the way you play and it being fun, as other players are better than that and you have to have course management.”

Hull is still only 27, and therefore has plenty of time to work on her flaws to achieve the success her talent should allow.

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19th Hole

Former agent lifts lid on being fired by ‘zombie’ Tiger Woods

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Discussing his new book “Rainmaker” with the Daily Mail, Tiger Woods’ former agent, Hughes Norton, recounted the events leading up to and after his split with the 15-time major champion.

Norton was abruptly fired by Woods in 1998 after his 1997 Masters win and monster deal with Nike.

In the book, Norton talks about the way Tiger views his relationships, calling him a “zombie.”

The solace I can take, which doesn’t provide much, is this: He was an equal opportunity zombie with relationships, his swing coaches, his lawyer, the guy negotiated the IMG representation deal, with caddies, When it’s over, it’s over.”

Norton added:

“It is the way he terminates relationships with everyone. Whether it’s girlfriends, whether it’s his former golf coaches. It’s ironic, really. In a way he’s so good at confrontation on the golf course. If he’s playing you, he will beat your brains out every single time.

“But when it comes to confronting things like me and other people that are in his life, he has no social skills whatsoever. It’s maddening, actually.”

After he was fired by Woods, Norton was let go by IMG, which he believes was due to Woods’ influence.

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