Matt Kuchar’s return to the Mayakoba Golf Classic this week has prompted an obvious slew of stories regarding his payment of the local caddie who helped him win last year’s event. Kuchar has talked about it. El Tucan has talked about it. And now, the caddie will be back in the spotlight after getting a last-minute gig with alternate Rob Oppenheim. But one particularly funny story regarding “Paygate” also came from an unlikely source: Rich Beem.
The 2002 PGA Championship winner joined Brian Katrek and John Maginnes on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio and revealed he recently underpaid a caddie as well. But before people get out their pitchforks, it was his 16-year-old son Michael, who carried Beem’s bag at the Houston Open last month. Following Beem’s T-55 in his first non-PGA Championship appearance on the PGA Tour in more than five years, Beem told Golfweek Michael would get five percent of his paycheck, which would have come out to about $850. He had a different response when asked on Thursday if he’d paid his son.
“Well, not yet, but Christmas is around the corner, so you never know,” Beem said. “But he still has to earn his keep and all that.”
That led the hosts to draw comparisons to Kuchar due to the timing of this week’s event. And that’s when the funny golf analyst for Sky Sports really got cooking.
“Wow! Listen, if you’re going to go there, let’s at least get the story straight,” Beem says. “One of us isn’t a true major champion. And the fact that, listen, he only stiffed his caddie a little bit. I stiffed my caddie all of it.”
Beem! Boom! Listen to the funny exchange below:
https://twitter.com/SiriusXMPGATOUR/status/1195139407038296064
Good stuff, Beemer. And besides, in missing a few days of school, Michael already got a pretty good reward for helping out his dad.
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