Matt Kuchar Apologizes to Caddy David Ortiz, Agrees to Pay $50,000 He Requested

Caddy David Ortiz will receive the $50,000 payment he felt Matt Kuchar owed him after the golfer's controversial comments earlier this week. 

Kuchar issued a statement Friday announcing he would pay Ortiz the "full total he requested" after the latter caddied for the 40-year old during his win at the Mayakoba Golf Classic last November:

"Listen, I was stubborn, hard-headed," Kuchar told reporters Saturday. "In my mind, I had it as 'a deal is a deal.' But after I won the tournament, a deal wasn't a deal. Not a good deal. ...

"Any transaction, all parties should come out feeling like they've won, and certainly in David's case he did not feel like he won in that situation. I need to make it right. It's as simple as that."

Ortiz told Michael Bamberger of Golf.com he only received a bonus payment of $5,000, despite saying he was told before the tournament he would get "an unspecified percentage of [Kuchar's] winnings."

Speaking to Will Gray of Golf Channel on Wednesday, Kuchar originally defended himself:

"It's done. Listen, I feel like I was fair and good. You can't make everybody happy. You're not going to buy people's ability to be OK with you, and this seems to be a social media issue more than anything. I think it shouldn't be, knowing that there was a complete, agreed-upon deal that not only did I meet but exceeded.

"So I certainly don't lose sleep over this. This is something that I'm quite happy with, and I was really happy for him to have a great week and make a good sum of money. Making $5,000 is a great week." 

Kuchar received $1.296 million for winning the tournament. Per Ralph Ellis of CNN.com, Ortiz also told Golf.com that he was offered an extra $15,000 by Kuchar's camp, and turned it down, because he felt it wasn't a fair valuation of his services. 

Ortiz filled in for Kuchar's regular caddie, John Wood, who couldn't make the trip to Mexico for the event due to a prior commitment.