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Morning 9: Kuchar wins Sony, says caddie pay scandal “not a story” | Remembering the missile scare of 2018

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7 years ago

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By Ben Alberstadt (ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com)

January 14, 2019

Good Monday morning, golf fans. Hope you’re greeting the week with a smile wider than Matt Kuchar’s.
1. Kuch captures the Sony
A beautiful back nine secured Matt Kuchar’s second win in three starts.
PGATour.com’s Ben Everill...”Having started Sunday two shots in front of Andrew Putnam, Kuchar made the turn one back of last season’s Barracuda Championship winner following some early stumbles.”
  • “But a 5-under 30 back nine blitz pushed the veteran to 22 under for the week, ultimately four clear of his nearest challenger.”
  • “And he’s ready for more success….While not making any outlandish promises Kuchar was happy to be reminded of Vijay Singh’s early 40s….Singh won 22 times on TOUR after entering his fourth decade of life including the FedExCup in 2008.”
  • “I would certainly like to (do what Singh did),” Kuchar said. “He set a great example. Certainly showed that is possible. A number of guys showed that it is possible. It’s nice to know that.
  • “It’s not like you hit 40 and you have to go away. There are guys that have done great. Certainly I’m off to a way better start than I would’ve expected. Feels good. I hope to continue.”
2. Caddie paygate
In a situation that is either developing or dead, depending on who you believe, an unsavory accusation (in tour pro land, at least) was leveled against one Matt Kuchar.
  • Geoff Shackelford summarizes…”Former PGA Tour player Tom Gillis took to Twitter suggesting Matt Kuchar, 2019 Sony Open leader, former Players Champion and winner of $45 million in his PGA Tour career, might want to pay his caddie this week more than the $3000 he claims Kuchar paid “David” upon winning last fall’s Mayakoba Classic.”
  • “The win garnered Kuchar a $1.3 million winner’s check plus presumed bonuses. You may recall that David was a local caddie Kuchar used when he entered last minute and his normal looper, John Wood, had a previous engagement.”
  • Tom Gillis tweeted…”If Kuchar wins this weekend let’s hope he pays his man more than 3k like the last win. 45 mil in earnings. Could’ve changed the mans life. ??”
  • Kuchar, for his part denied the $3K number has any validity…”Following his third round at the Sony, Kuchar denied the amount quoted and said it was not a story. From Rex Hoggard’s GolfChannel.com story…”That’s not a story,” Kuchar said. “It’s wasn’t 10 percent. It wasn’t $3,000. It’s not a story.”
Golfweek’s Kevin Casey writes…”Kuchar did note in his comment that he didn’t pay “El Tucan” 10 percent of the winnings, but that is justifiable. A local caddie generally doesn’t have the ability to do as much for a player as his longtime professional looper. A local caddie also doesn’t have to deal with the large travel costs that a full-time pro looper must on a week-to-week basis.”
  • “Thus, the 10 percent benchmark more applies to professional caddies rather than all loopers. A local caddie may then expect a smaller percentage.”
  • “Whatever Kuchar paid the man, he disputes it was $3,000 and clearly feels the amount he did dole out was appropriate.”
3. Meanwhile, in the Bahamas…
Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”Through 15 holes, Oda is 8 under and two shots clear of the field at the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay.”
  • “The former UNLV product eagled his opening hole and added seven more birdies before darkness suspended Sunday’s opening round. The first two events of the Web.com Tour season, both played in the Bahamas, will be played Sunday-Wednesday.”
  • “Lee McCoy, Willy Wilcox and Austin Smotherman are tied for second at 6 under. McCoy and Wilcox finished off 66s while Smotherman, like Oda, has three holes to play.”
4. Buddies again
Eamon Lynch with some perspective on the presumed selection of Steve Stricker as the next U.S. Ryder Cup captain.
  • “I reached out to a former European Ryder Cupper, who requested anonymity to speak about a U.S. selection process that seems increasingly reliant on a close-knit buddy system….”We base our decisions on what the players who will be playing want, not on a circle of friendship,” he said dryly…But the European veteran insisted that captains aren’t the issue.”
  • “…The captain doesn’t hit a shot, but he decides who does and who gets on the plane. Furyk reserved a seat to Paris for Mickelson, his task force buddy who was out of form and played poorly. Like his two immediate predecessors, Stricker will be crowdsourced into the captaincy from a select group of pals and invariably will face the same questions about whether his decisions are based on merit or loyalty, on sense or sentiment.”
  • “Regardless of the result in Wisconsin 20 months hence, Stricker’s appointment will be a positive for the U.S. team. It’s a tacit acknowledgement that a playing record is immaterial to efficacy as a captain, that character and all-around decency are just as relevant to leadership, perhaps more so. And that’s as good a standard as any to establish for the time, years from now, when the task force finally exhausts its bench.”
5. Charley!
BBC Report…”England’s Charley Hull earned a wire-to-wire win in the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open in Abu Dhabi to claim her second Ladies European Tour title.”
  • “Hull, 22, took a one-shot lead into the final round and a three-under 69 saw her finish a shot ahead of Norway’s Marianne Skarpnord on eight under.”
  • ‘”I’ve practised really hard over winter and it feels great to win,” said Hull. “Hopefully I can get a few more wins. I’m very happy with my round so it shows that my hard work is paying off.”‘
  • “Hull clinched the victory when she splashed out of a bunker on the 18th and saved par with a solid putt.”
6. It’s a young man’s game
AP Column (presumably Doug Ferguson) quantifying the youth movement on the PGA Tour…
  • A taste…”How many players on the tour now are 25 and under?” Cink asked. “Forty?”
  • “He was close. There are 29 players with full status on tour who are 25 or younger. That includes Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, who already have won majors and reached No. 1 in the world. It includes Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau and Xander Schauffele, all of whom are among the top 10 in the world ranking.”
  • “They play a lot more, against better competition when they’re younger now,” Cink said. “And they’re just more seasoned when they come out here. There is no break-in period anymore like there used to be because you don’t need to learn.”
  • “When he started two decades ago, Cink said most players – Woods is an exception in almost every way – had to reinvent the wheel and learn to play the style of golf required on the PGA Tour.”
  • “Now you just come out here, guns blazing,” he said.
7. The Loves go to Singapore
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard...”Although he plans to play almost exclusively on the PGA Tour in 2019, he will make one exception next week when he will travel to the SMBC Singapore Open. Although his wife, Robin, has always wanted to see Singapore and his son, Dru, will also be in the field, Love’s primary motivation for playing the event, that is co-sanctioned by the Japan Golf Tour and Asian Tour, is to qualify for The Open Championship.”
  • “The Singapore Open is an Open qualifying event, and the top-4 finishers not otherwise exempt earn a spot in the field at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland in July.”
  • “I just want to play in it. I just love playing in it I don’t care where it is,” said Love, who last played The Open in 2012. “It’s just like the U.S. Open or the Masters, I would just like to play them one more time. Especially The Open.”
8. The great missile scare
Excellent stuff from Rex Hoggard, who interviewed some of the Tour pros who reserved the “you’re about to be hit with a missile attack” text message in Hawaii last year.
  • “Because Hawaii is a vacation destination, many players bring friends and family for the week. Charles Howell III, who has played the event 17 times in his career, had his wife and two children with him.”
  • “We were in the back of the hotel having breakfast and I just told the kids let’s just go to the beach and watch it,” Howell recalled. “There’s not much you can do at that point so you might as well get a front-row seat to this thing. We can’t get far enough away from one those big old things (missiles).”
  • “Tourists flooded the streets of Waikiki searching for bomb shelters and answers, but the vast majority of players took a more philosophical approach. Justin Thomas, for example, turned on some music and went to his balcony.”
  • “I just watched,” Thomas said. “If a missile comes in I’m really not going to be able to do anything. At least I can watch it come in. I was going to die if I was in my room or on my balcony. If this is the real thing, I’m going to enjoy my last couple of minutes looking at the ocean.”
9. Fleetwood with prototype Tiger Woods irons?
What’s that you have in your hands there, Tommy Fleetwood? That iron looks strikingly familiar to the “P-7TW” iron we featured in a Forum Thread of the Day last week on GolfWRX
  • What’s going on here? Well, as most WRX Members believe, the TaylorMade P-7TW irons will be Tiger Woods’ gamers in 2019. Woods had been playing a prototype TW-Phase 1 most of last year. TaylorMade hasn’t released any details or given an indication the irons will come to retail.
  • But what does this have to do with England’s finest head of hair? Well, Fleetwood, a former Nike staffer, has been clinging to his final set of Oven-produced Nike VR Pro Blades for dear life since the company exited the hard goods business in August of 2016.
  • Knowing the clubs can’t last forever, and apparently unable to compel Paul Casey to part with his similar weapons, Fleetwood looks to be looking to alternatives ahead of next week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, judging from the pictures below. It’s not surprising, then, given the apparent similarity between the P-7TW iron and Nike VR Pro Blade, that Fleetwood would opt to put the irons to the test early in the year.

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Ben Alberstadt is the Editor-in-Chief at GolfWRX, where he’s led editorial direction and gear coverage since 2018. He first joined the site as a freelance writer in 2012 after years spent working in pro shops and bag rooms at both public and private golf courses, experiences that laid the foundation for his deep knowledge of equipment and all facets of this maddening game. Based in Philadelphia, Ben’s byline has also appeared on PGATour.com, Bleacher Report...and across numerous PGA DFS and fantasy golf platforms. Off the course, Ben is a committed cat rescuer and, of course, a passionate Philadelphia sports fan. Follow him on Instagram @benalberstadt.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Ryan

    Jan 15, 2019 at 4:37 pm

    He offered to pay the caddie 3K or a lifetime supply of Sketchers golf shoes. The caddie made the right choice.

    Reply Report comment

  2. JuannyBravo

    Jan 14, 2019 at 10:51 am

    Kuch might be a cheapskate but I wonder if the local caddy didn’t want the real number getting out because of his own safety. So somewhere, “$3K” was thrown out.

    Reply Report comment

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Tour Rundown: Bend, but don’t break

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3 weeks ago

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Aug 4, 2025

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I’m going to gush in this intro paragraph, to get the emo stuff done early. I’ve not pulled harder for a professional to win, than Cameron Young. I coach golf in New York state, and each spring, my best golfers head to a state championship in Poughkeepsie. I first saw Cameron there as a 9th grade student. I saw him three more times after that. I reconnecected with Coach Haas from Wake Forest, an old interview subject from my days on the Old Gold and Black, the Wake newspaper. He was there to watch Cameron. After four years at Wake Forest, Young won on the Korn Ferry Tour, made it to the big tour, almost won two majors, almost won five other events, and finally got the chalice about 25 minutes from the Wake campus. Congratulations, Cameron. You truly are a glass of the finest. #MotherSoDear

OK, let’s move on to the Tour Rundown. The major championship season closed this week in Wales, with the Women’s Open championship. The PGA Tour bounced through Greensboror, N.C., while the PGA Tour Americas hit TO (aka, Toronto) for a long-winded event. The Korn Ferry lads made a stop in Utah, one of just two events for that tour in August. The many-events, golf season is winding down, as we ease from summer toward fall in the northern hemisphere. Let’s bask in the glory of an August sunrise, and run down a quartet of events from the first weekend of the eighth month.

LET/LPGA @ Women’s Open: Miyu bends, but she doesn’t break

Royal Porthcawl was not a known commodity in the major tournament community. The Welsh links had served as host to men’s senior opens, men’s amateurs, and Curtis and Walker Cups in prior years, but never an Open championship for the women or the men. The last-kept secret in UK golf was revealed once again to the world this week, as the best female golfers took to the sandy stage.

Mao Saigo, Grace Kim, Maja Stark, and Minjee Lee hoped to add a second major title to previous wins this season, but only Lee was able to finish inside the top ten. The 2025 playing of the Women’s Open gave us a new-faces gallery from day one. The Kordas and Thitikulls were nowhere to be found, and it was the Mayashitas, Katsus, and Lim Kims that secured the Cymru spotlight. The first round lead was held at 67 by two golfers. One of them battled to the end, while the other posted 81 on day two, and missed the cut. Sitting one shot behind was Miyu Yamashita.

On day two, Yamashita posted the round of the tournament. Her 65 moved her to the front of the aisle, in just her fourth turn around a women’s Open championship. With the pre-event favorites drifting off pace, followers narrowed into two camps: those on the side of an underdog, and others hoping for a weekend charge from back in the pack. In the end, we had a bit of both.

On Saturday, Yamashita bent with 74 on Saturday, offering rays of hope to her pursuing pack. England’s Charley Hull made a run on Sunday closing within one shot before tailing off to a T2 finish with Minami Katsu. Katsu posted the other 65 of the week, on Saturday, but could not overtake her countrywoman, Yamashita. wunderkind Lottie Woad needed one round in the 60s to find her pace, but could only must close-to’s, ending on 284 and a tie with Minjee for eighth.

On Sunday, Yamashita put away the thoughts of Saturday’s struggles, with three-under 33 on the outward half. She closed in plus-one 37, but still won by two, for a first Major and LPGA title.

PGA Tour @ Wyndham: Young gathers first title near home

Cameron Young grew up along the Hudson river, above metro New York, but he also calls Winston-Salem home. He spent four years as a student and athlete at Wake Forest University, then embarked on tour. This week in Greensboro, after a bit of a break, Young opened with 63-62, and revved the engine of Is this the week once more. Runner-up finishes at the Open, the PGA, and a handful of PGA Tour events had followers wonder when the day would come.

On Saturday, Young continued his torrid pace with 65, giving him a five-shot advantage over his closest pursuer. Sunday saw the Scarborough native open with bogey, then reel off five consecutive birdies to remind folks that his time had, at last, arrived. Pars to the 16th, before two harmless bogeys coming home, made Young the 1000th winner of an official PGA Tour event (dating back to before there was a PGA Tour) throughout history. What’s next? I have a suspicion, but I’m not letting on. Mac Meissner closed with 66 to finish solo 2nd, while Mark Hubbard and Alex Noren tied for third.

Korn Ferry Tour @ Utah Championship: Are you Suri it’s Julian?

Who knows exactly when the flower will bloom? Julian Suri played a solid careet at Duke University, then paid his dues on the world’s minor tours for three years. He won twice on two tours in Europe, in 2017. Since then, the grind has continued for the journeyman from New York city. At age 34, Suri broke through in Beehive state, outlasting another grinder (Spencer Levin) and four others, by two shots.

Taylor Montgomery began the week with 62, then posted 64, then 68, and finally, 70. That final round was his undoing. He finished in that second-place tie, two back of the leader. Trace Crowe, Barend Botha, and Kensei Hirata made up the last of the almost quintet. As for Suri, his Sunday play was sublime. His nines were 32 and 31, with his only radar blip a bogey at ten. He closed in style with one final birdie, to double his winning margin. Hogan bloomed late…might Suri?

PGA Tour Americas @ Osprey Valley Open presented by Votorantim Cimentos – CBM Aggregates

Some tournament names run longer than others. This week in Toronto, at the Heathlands course at TPC Toronto, we might have seen the longest tournament title in recorded history. The OVOPBVCCBMA was a splendid affair. It saw three rounds of 62 on Thursday, but of those early risers, only Drew Goodman would stick around until the end. 64 was the low tally on day two, and two of those legionnaires managed to finish inside the top three at week’s end. Saturday brought a 63 from Patrick Newcomb, and he would follow with 64 on Sunday, to finish solo fourth.

Who, then, ended up winning the acronym of the year? It turns out that Carson Bacha had the right stuff in TeeOhhh. Bacha and Jay Card III posted 63 and 64, respectively, on day four, to tie for medalist honors at 23-under 261. Nathan Franks was one shot adrift, despite also closing with 63. If you didn’t go low on Sunday, it was about the check, not the championship.

Bacha and JC3 returned to the 18th hole twice in overtime. Card nearly chipped in from the thick stuff for birdie, while Bacha peeked and shoved a ten-feet attempt at the win. On the second go-round, Card was long with his approach, into the native grasses once more. He was unable to escape, and a routine par from the fairway was enough to earn the former Auburn golfers a first KFT title.

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Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2025 Wyndham Championship

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4 weeks ago

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Jul 29, 2025

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GolfWRX is live this week from the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season, the Wyndham Championship.

Photos are flowing into the forums from Sedgefield Country Club, where we already have a GolfWRX spirit animal Adam Schenk WITB and plenty of putters for your viewing pleasure.

Check out links to all our photos below, which we’ll continue to update as more arrive.

General Albums

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See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.

 

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BK’s Breakdowns: Kurt Kitayama’s Winning WITB, 3M Open

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4 weeks ago

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Jul 28, 2025

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Kurt Kitayama just won his 2nd PGA Tour event at the 3M Open. Kurt is a Bridgestone staffer but with just the ball and bag. Here are the rest of the clubs he used to secure a win at the 2025 3M Open.

Driver: Titleist GT3 (11 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD VF 7 TX

3-wood: Titleist GT1 3Tour (14.5 degrees, A3 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 8 TX

7-wood: Titleist GT1 (21 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 9 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7MB (5-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (52-12F, 56-14F), Vokey Design WedgeWorks (60-K*)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Scotty Cameron Studio Style Newport 2 Tour Prototype
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy 1.0PT

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Bridgestone Tour B XS (with Mindset)

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