Kuchar denies rumor of paying local caddie $3K after win in Mexico

Matt Kuchar - the third-round leader of the Sony Open in Hawaii - had his name thrown around the Twitter rumor mill Saturday with suggestions that he paid a local caddie only $3,000 after winning the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico this past November.

Former PGA Tour player Tom Gillis started the frenzy by tweeting: "If Kuchar wins this weekend (at the Sony Open), let's hope he pays his man more than ($3,000) like the last win. ($45 million) in (career) earnings. Could've changed the man's life."

When asked about Gillis' accusation, Kuchar immediately denied it.

"That's not a story," Kuchar said after Round 3 in Honolulu, according to Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard. "It wasn't 10 percent. It wasn't $3,000. It's not a story."

However, soon after he made those comments, Kuchar appeared to walk back the denial.

"We had an agreement to start the week. He was excited to go to work that week," he said, according to Golf Digest's Brian Wacker.

David Giral "El Tucan" Ortiz, the caddie who worked with Kuchar at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, told Golf.com's Michael Bamberger days after the tournament that the two sides hadn't yet discussed payment.

Kuchar's regular looper was unavailable for the event in Mexico, so he hired Ortiz, a local caddie from El Camaleon Golf Club, and won on the PGA Tour for the first time since 2014.

He earned $1.296 million for his victory. The typical caddie rate is 10 percent of a player's paycheck.

Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee defended Kuchar, saying the payment, if it was indeed $3,000, would've been "fair". PGA Tour player Cameron Percy suggested the low payment, if true, wouldn't be out of Kuchar's character.