Kuchar Pays Caddie $5k, Is Shamed, Pays $50k

[3jacker]

Lol. 

His mgmt team was too busy looking out for their own cut!

[Nutsmacker]

2 minutes ago, 3jacker said:

Lol. 

His mgmt team was too busy looking out for their own cut!

Lol.  yea, probably.  They probably saw that if the caddie got 50K then they wouldn't get as much

[3jacker]

Cheap SOB!! lol. Everbody be fightin for every penny...

[iacas]

22 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

Well I think it may be an issue to blame his management team for in a sense. When Kuchar won you’d think they’d have a plan in place for such an occurrence and ensure their client doesn’t get wrapped up in a mess such as Kuchar’s. Someone on his mgmt. team should’ve been able to foresee this issue as damaging and take action promptly. 

I don't think they micro-manage that much at all. And remember, they work for the client, not the other way around.

[saevel25]

1 hour ago, Nutsmacker said:

Having some generosity would have gone a lot farther with Kuchar's long term income potential then shorting the guy 40-50K after winning over a million.  I guess that skecher's commercial will not have the same panache as it did before knowing that Kuchar is just another stereotypical entitled pro golfer in the eyes of the public; instead of the friendly next door neighbor that he was purported to be.  

I doubt it. The only thing he has to do is watch out the next time he gets a local caddie, and if he wins. Outside of that, this will blow over pretty quickly. It's not substantial news.

23 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

Well I think it may be an issue to blame his management team for in a sense. When Kuchar won you’d think they’d have a plan in place for such an occurrence and ensure their client doesn’t get wrapped up in a mess such as Kuchar’s. Someone on his mgmt. team should’ve been able to foresee this issue as damaging and take action promptly. 

Do you even know if he has a management team? He probably has an agent who gets him advertisement deals.

Second, even if he does have a management team, did he even run this by them? If not, then how can you blame his management team?

Also, I bet if he gave the guy 50K, he still would have gotten slammed in social media by someone. It would have looked less bad, but in some instances you can't look good at all.

 

[iacas]

7 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Also, I bet if he gave the guy 50K, he still would have gotten slammed in social media by someone. It would have looked less bad, but in some instances you can't look good at all.

That's a huge stretch.

[Nutsmacker]

11 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I doubt it. The only thing he has to do is watch out the next time he gets a local caddie, and if he wins. Outside of that, this will blow over pretty quickly. It's not substantial news.

Do you even know if he has a management team? He probably has an agent who gets him advertisement deals.

Second, even if he does have a management team, did he even run this by them? If not, then how can you blame his management team?

Also, I bet if he gave the guy 50K, he still would have gotten slammed in social media by someone. It would have looked less bad, but in some instances you can't look good at all.

 

I disagree.  I think this will hang around for awhile.  It is too easy to label someone a cheapskate and even harder to shake that stigma.  I have no idea if he has a mgmt team.  I didn't suggest it.  I simply said that he got some bad advice from someone.  

Personally, I would think his sponsors probably have people employed to handle social media firestorms.  I am sure they would have happily reimbursed Kuchar to avoid this.  Yes, it will hurt him financially on future endorsements as his image is now tarnished.  Part of his ability to obtain endorsement deals was his polished appearance to the public.  That is now gone.  

 

[Vinsk]

15 minutes ago, iacas said:

they work for the client, not the other way around.

Yes, Kuchar. I was suggesting that they heard (or knew) Kuchar low balled the caddie and enter damage control. Tell him to refrain from any comments for now, fix the problem and move on. But it’s true as you said they may not micro manage such issues.

[iacas]

1 minute ago, Vinsk said:

Yes, Kuchar. I was suggesting that they heard (or knew) Kuchar low balled the caddie and enter damage control. Tell him to refrain from any comments for now, fix the problem and move on. But it’s true as you said they may not micro manage such issues.

They were made aware of it, I assume, in late January when the caddie emailed Steinberg.

At which time I think Steinberg suggested the $15k additional.

And had Matt said "Oh my gosh, I had asked someone to take care of this for me, I am so sorry they didn't," the story may not have continued to gather steam, and Matt may have saved himself $30k and some face.

[3jacker]

20 minutes ago, iacas said:

That's a huge stretch.

Lol, for sure. Considering the every other week some player gives his caddy a nice fat cut if he wins a tournament and in those situations nothing ever came up.

[GolfLug]

9 hours ago, DingoZoot said:

Now Kuchar, a man of good repute is losing hysterical emotional male fans losing their composure and being called all sorts of names for holding up his end of the bargain.

 

You must be so glad that all the female fans are home busy cooking dinner and folding laundry...😐. Imagine what would have happened if they got involved in the action as well. 

[Vinsk]

4 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Do you even know if he has a management team?

Yes. He does. 

4 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Second, even if he does have a management team, did he even run this by them?

Their client, who took a local caddy of the area (remember, growing golf internationally is still going on) doesn't speak English, and just won a PGA tournament...and you think he has to ‘run this by them?’ It would be on the list of things to know. 

[saevel25]

5 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

Their client, who took a local caddy of the area (remember, growing golf internationally is still going on) doesn't speak English, and just won a PGA tournament...and you think he has to ‘run this by them?’ It would be on the list of things to know. 

I could see Kuchar showing up at the golf course and requesting a caddie. They brought one, they talked about payment, they agreed upon something.

Kuchar could have thought of this as absolutely non-trivial.

So yes, I totally believe that his management team didn't do anything regarding this.

[turtleback]

17 hours ago, jamo said:

Not "since he's wealthy," but yes, we "get to judge" how generous he should be with his money like we "get to judge" ... basically anything. 

Yes. I don't know if "shame" is the word I'd use, but if Company X brings in profit hand over fist and pays its employees the dead-bare minimum, I have no issue with trying my best to steer clear of them. 

So you would have no problem with someone following you around and calling you out publicly, on a national stage, for every time you had the chance to do something nice for someone and didn't?

Yes, you get to judge anything you like.  And other people get to judge you for the quality of your judging.

 

5 hours ago, Squid_350 said:

It can be "Fair" and still "Not a good look"

This wasn't a good look. Glad Kuch made it right, but shouldn't have let it reach this point. 

The fact that it is not a 'good look' reflects more on the Lookers than it does on him, IMO.

4 hours ago, iacas said:

That's a huge stretch.

Not really, since there are folks out there saying it should be 120,000.  Not you, but lots of folks.

4 hours ago, iacas said:

They were made aware of it, I assume, in late January when the caddie emailed Steinberg.

At which time I think Steinberg suggested the $15k additional.

And had Matt said "Oh my gosh, I had asked someone to take care of this for me, I am so sorry they didn't," the story may not have continued to gather steam, and Matt may have saved himself $30k and some face.

So he should have lied?  It truly has become a 'Say Anything' world, hasn't it.

[Vinsk]

17 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

So yes, I totally believe that his management team didn't do anything regarding this.

I’m referring to immediately after Kuchar wins. You don’t think a lot of people were thinking ‘hey...Kuchar just won ...what a huge day for that local caddy.’ Or something like that? If you’re right...that mgmt. team sucks.

[iacas]

1 hour ago, turtleback said:

So he should have lied?  It truly has become a 'Say Anything' world, hasn't it.

PR-wise? Yes.

[jamo]

4 hours ago, turtleback said:

So you would have no problem with someone following you around and calling you out publicly, on a national stage, for every time you had the chance to do something nice for someone and didn't?

I would have to first be elevated to some sort of national stage. And no, it doesn't exactly sound like fun, but it would probably be the best way to gauge my character, and I'm sure I would discover plenty of blindspots that I could hopefully correct. 

That's also a pretty big exaggeration compared to what actually happened. Matt Kuchar isn't being "followed around" for "every time he had the chance to do something nice for someone and didn't." Next time I win a PGA Tour event feel free to ask my caddy what I paid them. 

 

4 hours ago, turtleback said:

Yes, you get to judge anything you like.  And other people get to judge you for the quality of your judging.

I never said otherwise. 

[Swooshgolf]

On 2/17/2019 at 1:17 PM, turtleback said:

Well, I guess that explains why tour players always want local caddies rather than their own regular touring caddies /sarcasm.

I'm old enough to remember when the Masters did not allow players to use their regular caddies and insisted they use ANGC caddies.  I remember all the glowing stories about how a poor black caddy helped his player win the Masters because of his local knowledge.

And I also remember when they lifted the ban.  And virtually every player who had a regular caddy brought him, eschewing the services of the ANGC caddies.  Thereby proving by the best of all evidence, acting in their own best financial interest, that the whole local knowledge thing and all of the touching stories about ANGC caddies were complete BS.  As is the notion that the caddy in question, or ANY local  would be better than his regular one.

Then why don't they all use local caddies?

 

Honestly I don’t think a caddie matters as much in most cases as people think. As I am sure you noticed  some players switch caddies and still win at a high rate. The players don’t need to switch caddies. They want consistency and someone that knows them and not just the course. I still think good local caddies will know more about their course than someone that comes there 7 days out of the year. That’s literally all I meant by that.