Spuzz
Gillis probably is a shitweasel. Or, at the very least, a moral authority troll on a keyboard whose business is obviously minding everyone else's business, binding and legal be damned.
Even if Kuchar is a cheapskate (which I don't see him as, but just for the sake of argument...) he's on a very long list of even more higher-profiled professional athletes who make Kuchar look like Mother Teresa in comparison. Where was all of his do goodedness when it became common knowledge that Tiger was the world's stingiest athlete despite being the highest paid sports celebrity on the planet? So, Tom - you didn't have access to Twitter 13 years ago? You can't argue that you didn't have time to tweet. You've had a lot of weekends off during this time. The foul odor coming from your Twitter account is quite familiar these days. It's the sickening stench of jealousy that I detect.
In the end, it's not about what I would've done, or anyone else for that matter. The bottom line is that it was an agreed-upon financial arrangement between another player and a caddie-for-hire, who apparently agreed to the terms, otherwise he probably wouldn't have assumed the gig that week.
Here's a better analogy.
I need a ride to the airport, and I know a guy who operates his own limo service and business is slow. The airport is 90 minutes away. I ask him what his rate is, he tells me it's a standard rate of $200. I offer him $40. He laughs, but then thinks to himself, maybe the guy will give me a nice tip. I'm not busy today, got nothing better to do. I could use the money. He tells me he'll do it, but it's his own personal car, not the limo. I tell him that's fine, I just need a ride to the airport and I need to be there by a certain time.
So we get to the airport, I hand him $40, and then I give him another $10 for the tip.
Then I come home a week later, and I've got the local news media camped out at my house. "Sir, is it true that you paid the limo driver a paltry $40 to drive you to an airport 90 minutes away, when his typical rate is $200?"
"Yeah, that's true. I also gave him a $10 tip, which wasn't required."
"You only tipped him $10???!!!! How does that make you feel?"
"His business was slow, he didn't have anything going on that day. So he took my offer. It makes me feel like I would recommend his business to others, except now I'm not sure that I want to, since it sounds like he's been disingenuous about our arrangement that day with you shitweasels who obviously don't have any real news to report today. You're standing on my property, which is private, just like our business arrangement was that day he took me to the airport. Go find something worth putting on the 6 o'clock news and get off my property."
The compensation amount in my scenario doesn't matter, nor does the amount matter to anyone other than Kuchar and the caddie. It was an agreement in principle, a business transaction, between two private parties. No laws were broken, no contractual agreement was breached. Who the f**k is Tom Gillis, besides a wannabe ambulance chaser?
This does cast a negative shadow on Kuchar, and it's not for me to say it should or shouldn't. But it does. And it does because everybody's a victim these days, even if they got more than what they were more than willing to accept.