Mayakoba 'El Tucan' caddie is back, but not alongside Matt Kuchar...

David 'El Tucan' Ortiz is back on a bag at the Mayakoba Golf Classic - let's hope he gets paid correctly this time...

Andy Roberts's picture
Fri, 15 Nov 2019
Mayakoba 'El Tucan' caddie is back, but not alongside Matt Kuchar...

Matt Kuchar's stand-in caddie from last year's Mayakoba Golf Classic will once again be on the bag in this week's PGA Tour event, only this time alongside Rob Oppenheim. 

Jason Dufner, who this week signed a new equipment deal with COBRA Golf, decided to withdraw from the tournament and it meant the door was ajar for first alternate Oppenheim should he wish to make the trip to Cancun, Mexico. 

He did, but his regular caddie Dean Emerson was unable to get a flight from his home in Boston in time for Thursday's opening round (as it turned out, play was suspended on Thursday due to inclement weather and nobody even started their round).

Step forward David 'El Tucan' Ortiz - the man on the bag for Kuchar's victory at last year's Mayakoba Golf Classic. 

Ortiz was controversially paid only $5,000 by Kuchar, who had just earned $1.3 million - some way short of the 10% typically paid to a caddie following a victory on the PGA Tour. 

Kuchar would eventually stump up an additional $45,000 to round it up to $50,000 for Ortiz, but the initial act was something Kuchar had to deal with for much of this season. 

"I needed a caddie," Oppenheim told Golf Digest

"He [David Ortiz] lives here, was available and aside from everything that has gone on, I was looking for the best opportunity to play well.

"He knows the course and has had success here."

It would appear a deal has been made between Ortiz and Oppenheim that has been mutally agreed, too. 

"Where's it's him, or any caddie, you want to discuss what the expectations are and the payments are, and get that out in the open before you go to work," said Oppenheim.

"But I would've done that with any guy."