Kucher won the tournament, earning himself $1,296,000. He and Ortiz had an agreement that Ortiz would be paid $3000 for the week plus an unspecified percentage of any winnings.

Financial arrangements between players and caddies tend to be handshake type deals with no strict regulatory format, but bonus structures would typically be five per cent of winnings, a slightly higher percentage for a top-10 finish and 10 per cent for a win.

Following the win Kuchar apparently gave Ortiz an envelope containing $5000 in cash.

Ortiz assumed that he would be receiving his bonus at some time in the near future. It turned out that Ortiz had assumed wrong; Kuchar considered the extra $2000 in the envelope to be bonus enough.

Having no contact information for Kuchar, Ortiz emailed Kuchar's agent and politely requested more ample compensation.

He said that he wasn't asking for the full percentage that would be expected by a Tour caddie, but that he considered a bonus of $50,000 to be fair. The request was denied. (It should perhaps be kept in mind at this point that Kuchar's career prize-money is something like $46 million ...)

At this point the story started getting out among other Tour players, and then journalists … and next thing Matt Kuchar is being compared fairly unfavourably with Ebenezer Scrooge.

In the ensuing social media flurry Kuchar at first quite vigorously defended himself before eventually succumbing to the weight of public opinion, capitulating, paying Ortiz the fifty large and apologising publicly and profusely.

It's been an interesting situation and made me wonder; what does a caddie actually do?

How integral was Ortiz to Kuchar's victory? At the time Kuchar described him as his "lucky charm" which sounds nice but does hint at a certain lack of practical contribution that would perhaps make Ortiz deserving of the bigger bucks.

Ortiz's humble situation is certainly in quite stark contrast to that of "star" caddie Steve Williams.

Williams was Tiger Woods' caddie during the champion's era of total golfing domination. Williams now has a net worth of $20 million, making him one of New Zealand's highest earning sporting 'figures' ever.

You have to ask: Is Williams really a $20 million font of golfing wisdom? Or do he and Ortiz basically do the same thing?

My favourite bit of caddie advice came from sports writer Rick Reilly who was doing a bit of research based bag carrying for Jack Nicklaus.

Asked by Nicklaus whether he thought a certain approach shot should be "an easy 7 iron or a hard 8?" 

Reilly replied, "Personally, I'd skull a 9".

The saga of the FFA's sacking of coach Alen Stajcic has been very much ongoing with many now, including Robbie Slater and one particularly high profile radio broadcaster, enthusiastically calling for the reinstatement of Stajcic and an alternate sacking being that of FFA head David Gallop.

Stajcic broke his silence last week to report that, somewhat strangely, as far as the reasons for his sacking go he's pretty much as much in the dark as we are. It certainly makes no sense on the surface.

The Matildas have been absolutely thriving under Stajcic's stewardship to the point that they looked to be a genuinely competitive force at this year's World Cup.

Getting rid of Stajcic only months out from the Cup seems like madness.

The really odd thing is the inability of anybody to supply any answers as to the question of why?

Gallop has been, seemingly, deliberately obtuse, using words like "culture" and "welfare" in their vaguest of senses and blaming his reticence on confidentiality agreements, which is interesting because one of the confidentiality agreements he is supposed to be respecting is the one with Stajcic and he's apparently not telling him anything either.

It's made life extremely difficult for Stajcic who, as he noted in a press conference last week, is more than aware that amid such secrecy and lack of clear explanation innuendo is bound to appear with assumptions being made of some sort of impropriety having taken place on his behalf. 

He has been emphatic to make plain that this has in no way been the case.

Stajcic deserves, at the very least, a proper explanation. 

As Robbie Slater said this week, Stajcic is a man who has "given his heart and soul to women's football since long before it was trendy".

And now the plot has thickened with an FFA rabbit-and-hat style announcement flourish that ex-Socceroos assistant coach, Ante Milicic has been appointed to take the Matildas to France, being flown in from Europe this week. 

It has to be asked: Was this the plan all along? Or is this a last minute scramble to save this ridiculous situation? Neither possibility is a particularly good look.

The players have been extremely tight-lipped about everything, but there have been rumours arising of rumblings of discontent from players on either side of the fence. 

Again, an entirely unproductive division.  They'll definitely be under some scrutiny in the Cup of Nations event which is happening in the next couple of weeks.

Winx won again on Saturday, as we all expected. The horse actually seems unbeatable - a horse that will perhaps go on to be as iconic as Phar Lap,, if not moreso.

The horse that has really impressed me though is the sprinter Chautauqua.

Chautauqua has basically just decided that racing life is no longer for him. He's been refusing to jump. 

Trainers have tried everything, to no avail. The 'Grey Flash' just refuses to race. 

It would seem that Chautauqua - career prize-money approaching $9 million - has decided that enough is enough. 'I'm not doing it and you can't make me.'

This canny refusal to budge has earned the horse an early retirement, as announced by the owners recently.

No more getting up at four in the morning and running around in the dark for Chautauqua. No more race-day nonsense. It's greener paddocks from now on for him, which you'd have to assume has been his preferred environment all along.

He was notorious for his 'last-to-first' wins whereby it would seem that, having ambled reluctantly out of the gate he's thought, "Well I'm here now, I may as well get it over with," before storming to victory.

Chautauqua's "conscientious objecting" has now won him, in his early retirement, another form of victory. 

You do have to wonder whether his beautifully achieved leisurely future might be giving other horses a few ideas. I certainly wouldn't be putting Winx in an adjacent spelling yard ...