Chi Chi Rodriguez, an eight-time PGA Tour winner and one of the most charismatic figures in pro golf, has died at age 88, according to a story by noticel.com.
Small in stature, Rodriguez was a big hitter off the tee and was known for his sword routine after making big putts, pretending to skewer the birdie before slamming his putter into his make believe scabbard after wiping it clean with his handkerchief. His comic routine also included placing his hat over holes to keep birdies from flying away.
His death was first announced on Facebook by Carmelo Javier Rios, a member of the Senate in Puerto Rico. The cause of death has not yet been announced. His death was also reported on the Puerto Rico Golf Association website.
Born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, on Oct. 23, 1935, Juan Antonio Rodriguez picked up the nickname Chi Chi as a kid when he played baseball. His PGA Tour bio notes that he worked as a caddie in his native country, pounding a tin can into a kind of ball and hit it with a guava tree limb, hoping it would someday lead him away from plowing cane fields behind an ox for $1 a day. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 19 to fight in the Korean War.
Dad told me I was a man now because I had finally made a decision myself,” Rodriguez once said.
Chi Chi Rodriguez and Jack Nicklaus at the 1994 Diners Club Matches.
His first PGA Tour win came at the 1963 Denver Open Invitational. He was 28. He also won the 1964 Lucky International Open, the 1964 Western Open, the 1967 Texas Open, the 1968 Sahara Invitational, the 1972 Byron Nelson Classic and the 1979 Tallahassee Open. He played in 591 events and made 422 cuts. He later played another 466 times on the PGA Tour Champions, winning 22 times on the senior circuit, including the U.S. Senior Open. His last professional start was in 2016.
Rodriguez was one of golf’s great humanitarians and was proud of his work with the Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation. In 1989, he was awarded the Bob Jones Award by the U.S. Golf Association. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1992 and he remains the lone Puerto Rican in the Hall.
