19th Hole
David Ortiz shares his side of the story from his Mayakoba controversy with Matt Kuchar
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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19th Hole
Brandel Chamblee has a surprising new take on the PGA Tour-LIV stand-off
One of the more outspoken analysts throughout the LIV Golf vs. PGA Tour saga has been Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee.
This week, Chamblee reversed course, saying he believes the PGA Tour should strike a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund (PIF).
Golf Channel Brandel Chamblee in his biggest about-face since the Framework Agreement on June 6, now says that making a deal with the PIF "is the better end of the bargain."
He says:
"The PGA Tour is in this pickle like it or not, but, do you want to compete with someone (LIV… pic.twitter.com/XDZaC1I6B8
— JCAGOLFReport (@JCAGOLFReport) May 10, 2024
“The PGA Tour is in this pickle like it or not, but, do you want to compete with someone who’s not going to go away, who can outspend you”.
“Every move they make that makes their tour better deletes your tour and causes more division within the tour. So the time is now, to Rory’s point about making a deal, I wouldn’t have said that a year ago… but it is the better end of the bargain.”
Chamblee’s new stance seems to be in line with that of Rory McIlroy, who reportedly wanted to rejoin the PGA Tour board with hopes of pushing a deal with the PIF closer to the finish line.
Chamblee will be in the booth for next week’s PGA Championship which has 16 LIV players in the field.
More from the 19th Hole
- Phil Mickelson drops big retirement hint; Says LIV will grow the game “on a much more global basis”
- 2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
- Tiger explains why golf has “negative connotations” for daughter Sam
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19th Hole
Xander Schauffele explains free drop ruling during round one of Wells Fargo Championship
During Thursday’s opening round of the Wells Fargo Championship, Xander Schauffele blasted his tee shot in the woods to the right of the fairway on the par-4 8th hole.
The ball was almost not found, but Xander’s group managed to track it down just before the three-minute time limit was reached.
When the ball was found, it was just beyond the penalty area close to a fence. In the moment, it seemed incredibly unlikely that Schauffele would be able to hit the ball through the trees towards the green.
However, through the woods and above the fairway, there was a hanging wire from a ShotLink tower that Xander claimed was in his way. He was then granted relief, and two club lengths from the spot positioned him all the way out of trouble. He played his ball onto the front of the green and two-putted for par.
Here is the full video of the interaction between Schauffele and the rules official.
??? #WATCH — The full video of the Xander Schauffele #DropGate situation ?
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) May 9, 2024
After the round, Xander said he “got really lucky.”
“Got really lucky multiple times, on 1 with Wyndham finding it, 2, being able to move the rocks, and 3, the ShotLink tower being in like my only shot line possible. To walk out there with sort of a no breeze 4 with what I thought was almost out was a really good break.”
“Yeah, I hit it in the trees. My ball was probably like a foot, two feet from the fence. If I — ball was here, fence was kind of here, hitting back this direction.
“If I went towards the green, the fence kind of worked this way so I had what I could hit, a 4-iron or something low and just kind of run it through. If it gets stuck, I’ll just kind of hit my next one out. But I brought the rules official in there with me because I was like, you’ve got to be OK with this because this is literally the only shot I can hit.”
“So Austin [Kaiser] and I moved two massive rocks that weren’t embedded and then I got relief out of the junk and then hit a pretty good shot on the green from there. What was a very stressful moment turned into a pretty stressless par.”
Schauffele finished the round at seven under, which gives him a three-shot lead going into Friday’s second round.
More from the 19th Hole
- Phil Mickelson drops big retirement hint; Says LIV will grow the game “on a much more global basis”
- 2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
- Tiger explains why golf has “negative connotations” for daughter Sam
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19th Hole
Report: Tiger Woods voted against Rory McIlroy returning to policy board; Will be the only player negotiating directly with Saudis
According to a report from The Telegraph, the relationship between Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy has soured.
Last week, reports surfaced that McIlroy, who was a member of the PGA Tour policy board during most of the past few years, was looking to rejoin the board, presumably taking Webb Simpson’s seat.
However, on Wednesday, McIlroy revealed that he will not be rejoining the policy board, due to people on the board being “uncomfortable” with that “for some reason.”
Here's Rory McIlroy talking about the PGA Tour policy board and the "subset of people on the board that were maybe uncomfortable with me coming back on for some reason." pic.twitter.com/0skNOwtWxz
— Patrick McDonald (@pmcdonaldCBS) May 8, 2024
The Telegraph has reported that Tiger Woods was among the players who voted against McIlroy returning to the policy board.
The divide is apparently due to McIlroy pushing for the game of golf to unify, whereas Woods, reportedly, believes the PGA Tour is in a fine position where it currently stands.
The Associated Press added another wrinkle to the situation, reporting that Woods is the only player who will be negotiating directly with the Saudis.
The other members of the committee are PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, board chairman Joe Gorder, John W. Henry of Fenway Sports Group, and Joe Ogilvie, who was a former PGA Tour player.
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