Matt Kuchar defends low pay to caddie after he won $1.2M in November tournament

Matt Kuchar is known as being one of the nicest guys on the PGA Tour. He's always quick with a smile when fans yell, "Koooooooooooooch" seemingly every weekend on the PGA Tour and he never seems to be even close to being rattled.

But apparently he's also one of the cheapest guys on Tour because after a win last November at Mayakoba Classic, in which he earned more than $1.2 million for, he paid his caddie just $5,000.

His caddie, David "El Tucan" Ortiz, was a stand-in that week for Kuchar's regular caddie. So you think Kuchar might want to give him even more for stepping in and helping pick up his first win in more than four years.

Instead he gave him $5,000 and walked away feeling like he had done the right thing.

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Kuchar had a chance to correct things when asked about it Wednesday before this week's Genesis Open but instead he doubled down on it by saying, "Making $5,000 is a good week."

Kuchar said to Golf.com that he told Ortiz he would pay him $1,000 if he missed the cut, $2,000 if he made the cut, $3,000 if he had a top-20 and $4,000 if he had a top-10. "The extra $1,000 was, 'Thank you - it was a great week.' Those were the terms. He was in agreement with those terms. That's where I struggle. I don't know what happened. Someone must have said, `You need much more.' "

 Take into account that Kuchar has won more than $46 million on Tour and is 10th on the all-time money list.

According to a report, Kuchar later offered to pay the caddie another $15,000, but Ortiz turned it down, telling Kuchar he could keep his money.

Good for Ortiz on that one. But Kuchar should have done the right thing early on and tossed him a bunch of money after his because he has it and Ortiz sure deserved it.