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Les Nessman, news director of fictional radio station WKRP in Cincinnati, can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The radio newsman (winner of the prestigious Golden Sow Award – in case you had forgotten) likely would have announced last Thursday, “World Golf Hall of Famer Chy-Chy Rod-ri-gweez has passed away at the age of 88.”
All joking aside, the life of Juan Antonio Rodriguez was truly amazing and very inspirational. Who would have guessed that a 5’7” young man weighing just 125 pounds would become the first pro golfer ever from Puerto Rico and become one of the PGA Tour’s most memorable fan favorites?
As his professional golf career ascended, the man who became known as Chi Chi as a youth would spend countless hours giving back to less fortunate youngsters – much like he had been as a child in Puerto Rico.
A baseball wanna-be, Chi Chi fell in love with golf
Born in 1935 on the outskirts of San Juan, Puerto Rico during the middle of the Great Depression, Juan Rodriguez was the second oldest of six children. He struggled as a young boy with a lingering case of rickets (bone deficiencies). Gradually, his health improved, but he remained smaller than most of his boyhood friends.
He loved playing baseball, though. He wanted to grow-up to become a professional baseball player.
The young Juan Rodriguez picked up the nickname of “Chi Chi” in honor of his favorite baseball player, Chi Chi Flores.
The nickname stuck.
“I would go around saying, ‘I’m Chi Chi Flores.’ Pretty soon all the kids were calling me Chi Chi, and I’ve been Chi Chi ever since,” said Rodriguez.
Chi Chi’s family was very poor. He helped his father by joining him to work in the local sugar cane fields when he was only eight years old. Chi Chi earned just $1 per day for working all day in the hot sun.
The youthful Chi Chi Rodriguez observed a nearby golf course and noticed that the golfers utilized another person carrying their clubs around the course. He boldly offered his services at the golf course and became the youngest caddie in Puerto Rico at just nine years of age.
Rodriguez later admitted that the pay for being a caddie working for tips didn’t necessarily mean more pay than a day working in the sugar cane fields. However, any day of working around the golf course was certainly a lot more fun for Chi Chi than the alternative.
After becoming a caddie at the golf course, Chi Chi Rodriguez learned how to play the game of golf. He utilized limbs from the guava trees as clubs to smack either tin cans or any stray golf balls he could locate. He would eventually obtain some used golf clubs and became good enough at golf to shoot even par (or better) by the time he was only 12 years old.
Rodriguez enlisted in the US Army at the age of 19 and served for two years. As he traveled in the Army, he took advantage of any local opportunities to improve his golfing skills by playing the nearby courses.
Upon leaving the Army, Chi Chi Rodriguez accepted a job at Puerto Rico’s famed Dorado Beach Resort. He was tutored by former PGA Tour pro Pete Cooper. With the financial backing of the resort’s founder, Laurence Rockefeller and a few others, Chi Chi had about $20,000. That was enough to travel and enter professional golf tournaments for about one year.
At just 24 years of age, he qualified to play on the PGA Tour beginning in 1960.
The smallest player on the PGA Tour became a big fan favorite
As the first PGA Tour player hailing from Puerto Rico, Chi Chi Rodriguez was quite aware of his relatively small size when compared to the majority of professional golfers. He had something to prove and was very hungry – literally – to find early success on the men’s golf tour.
“They told me I was a hound dreaming about pork chops,” he joked with a national magazine.
Not intimidated by the more established golf names, Chi Chi won $450 at his first PGA event and was on his way. A quick learner, he continued to make enough cuts and earn modest weekly paychecks to remain on tour for his first two seasons.
His big break came in 1963.
Rodriguez won his first PGA title at the 1963 Denver Open. His two-shot victory at Denver Country Club earned about $3000 and opened up the door to playing in bigger tournaments such as The Masters and golf’s other three major events.
As Chi Chi Rodriguez continued to compete against the likes of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, the diminutive golfer from Puerto Rico quickly developed a large following of his own fans as well.
During his early years on the PGA Tour, Chi Chi would toss his hat onto the golf hole whenever he sank a birdie putt.
He would tell the fans that his hat would “keep that birdie from flying away”.
However, a different version of Chi Chi’s famous birdie hat story later emerged.
As a 15-year old golf course caddie, Chi Chi Rodriguez and another staffer sneaked onto the golf course early one morning to play a sunrise match with a few dollars on the line for the winner.
As the 6AM morning sun was still rising and dew covered the greens, Chi Chi sank a long birdie putt on one of the opening holes to take the early lead in the match. However, as the ball entered the cup, the ball immediately popped back out!
Chi Chi said that a frog had been sitting in the bottom of the golf hole and had bumped the ball back out of the hole. His opponent claimed that Chi Chi still needed to sink that short putt to score a par instead of carding a birdie.
Neither player knew whether golf’s rules covered such an odd event. That’s why Rodriguez decided to quickly toss his hat onto the hole on the PGA Tour whenever he sank a birdie putt from that point forward.
Professional golf fans loved Chi Chi’s hat trick whenever he sank a birdie putt.
“You’ve got to be different,” he said during an interview with a golf publication. “You’ve got to be yourself in the world. That’s what I always wanted to be.”
Unfortunately, the other PGA Tour players didn’t like his hat trick nearly as much. They claimed that Chi Chi’s golf spikes (which were metal in the 1960’s) were tearing up the turf near the hole during his birdie celebrations. The PGA Tour Commissioner agreed and asked him to end his famous hat toss.
Ole’! Chi Chi creates a new birdie celebration for golf fans
Undeterred, Chi Chi Rodriguez came up with an even more memorable way to celebrate sinking a putt for birdie.
Remembering his Latin roots, he would utilize his putter as if it drawing a sword to fight a bull after he sank a birdie putt.
His brief celebration made for great fun as he won over the golf fans and fellow PGA Tour players with his fun-loving personality.
“The people come out and pay good money to see golf”, he said. “I think they deserve something extra, and I like to give it to them.”
Chi Chi Rodriguez may have been slight of build, but his shot-making skills were legendary. His ability to hit laser iron shots or scramble out of trouble from around the greens kept him in contention in most weeks.
Chi Chi won a total of eight times on the PGA Tour during the 1960’s and 70’s. He had 87 top ten finishes as well.
“Senor” Chi Chi takes the Senior Tour by storm
Upon turning 50 years of age, Chi Chi Rodriguez captivated golf fans for another 17 years. He won another 22 senior golf tournaments on the Champions Tour. Of course, Chi Chi continued to thrill audiences with his precision iron shots and those exuberant celebrations on the greens.
From 1986 through 1993, Rodriguez won at least one tournament each year during that eight year period. He captured two senior major championships as well. Chi Chi still holds the senior tour record by winning four consecutive events.
In 1992, Chi Chi Rodriguez was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame for his golf accomplishments and his ongoing efforts to help troubled youth.
Chi Chi never forgot his roots
Chi Chi Rodriguez often spoke about his family’s financial struggles while growing up in Puerto Rico.
He became one of the first PGA Tour golfers to start his own foundation and focused on helping underprivileged youth in his community.
The Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation in Sarasota, Florida initially raised more than $4 million to start a home for troubled and abused teenagers. He would annually bring about 600 children from low income families or broken homes to a local 9-hole municipal course to learn responsibility and discipline by working at the various jobs in golf.
He has always remembered his own upbringing and wanted to serve as an inspiration to others.
“I think I can be a good role model for them because they can look at me and say, “Look, he’s a small guy, he was very poor, and he worked hard and made it. If I can help one kid become successful in life because they want to be the way I was, that’s all I ask for.”
We’re really going to miss you, Chi Chi!
“Chi Chi Rodriguez’s passion for charity and outreach was surpassed only by his incredible talent with a golf club in his hand,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
Though WKRP’s Les Nessman may have called him “Chy-Chy Rod-ri-gweez”, the legendary golfer will be forever loved and remembered by millions of fans for one more reason.
He was the first professional golfer who actually looked like he was having more fun on the golf course than every other player.
That’s because he was!