Fondly Remembering Chi Chi! (1935 – 2024)
By: Leigh MacKay
PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida – We have just lost a champion golfer and an incomparable gentleman.
For those of us with long memories and a love for the game, those two words— “Chi Chi” —regale us with images of his professional prowess, his showmanship, his story telling, and his humanity. And those two words bring us smiles. And appreciation for his contributions to our world of golf.
I spent a week with Chi Chi during the Puerto Rico Open in 2012 when I was writing a story about the island’s many golf courses. He was a marvelous host, and I still remember the fervor with which he embraced the allure of his homeland.
“PUERTO RICO DOES GOLF BETTER!”
And Chi Chi Rodriguez, who played golf better than anyone else in his 38 professional victories, knows both his golf and his Puerto Rico. During the recent Golf Channel broadcast of the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open, now in its fifth year, Chi Chi was the spokesman for the Commonwealth’s premier sporting event, where the pros and the tourists enjoyed the amenities, casinos, and hospitality that have made the island a world-class travel/golf destination.
No better ambassador exists for Puerto Rico than Chi Chi, its cultural icon. Chi Chi played five holes, 14-18, before Sunday’s final round to signify his official retirement from competition, and he hit the ball straight but not far—“The older [at 76] I get the longer my drives used to be.” The reception he received at the 18th green was a hero’s welcome. After sinking his four footer for par, Chi Chi sent the huge crowd into wild applause by brandishing his putter in his famous matador’s impression of the “coup de grace.” Ole!
Available all week long to the players, the fans, the media, and especially to his cadre of junior golfers, Chi Chi promoted why Puerto Rico should be on every tourist’s itinerary. At one of his press conferences, he said, “The Open shows the world the beautiful place where I was born, my pride, my Puerto Rico. We have more than 20 golf courses—two that I have designed—set amid luxurious hotels and settings. We have breathtaking views of ocean and mountains; we have the El Yunque National Rain Forest, endless beaches, and all water sports; and we have the history in Old San Juan. We have a rich heritage, the most friendly people, and the most delicious cuisine anywhere. Welcome to my world.”
And what a world for Chi Chi and for all of us who entered it!
Several years later, Chi Chi moved to Palm City, Florida, just north of Palm Beach and Jupiter, where he designed Palm Cove Golf & Yacht Club. He practiced and played golf at Evergreen GC, where I was a member. We renewed our relationship. A master raconteur, Chi Chi delighted me and other members when he would recount his life in professional golf.
I asked Chi Chi if he would give me an interview that I could share with the many readers of the magazine and the website, “New England Golf Monthly.”
Here is the result:
Olé, Chi Chi Rodriguez
Few PGA TOUR members have risen from such humble beginnings to create such a lasting legacy. Just hearing the name Chi Chi brings to mind the ever-present smile, the non-stop patter, the jaunty straw fedora, the toreador’s celebratory dance, and the prodigious drives. His popularity during his prime rivaled those other first-name stars like Arnie, Jack, Gary, Lee, and Billy.
Chi Chi was born in Puerto Rico in 1935 and struggled throughout his childhood to survive the poverty in his family. He turned pro in 1960, and he turned his life around. In 1964, he married his sweetheart Iwalani (their 53rd anniversary is this year) and added the necessary stability to his hectic lifestyle. At 5’ 7” and 117 pounds, Chi Chi was as slender as a greyhound, but he could hit his driver as far as anybody on the TOUR. And not many could match his short game and sand wedge play.
Chi Chi won eight official events in his 20 years on the TOUR, played on the 1973 Ryder Cup, and represented Puerto Rico in 12 World Cups. He joined the Senior Tour (now the Champions Tour) in 1985 and won 22 times in nine years, including two majors (Senior TPC and PGA Seniors). He also lost a U.S. Senior Open playoff to good friend Jack Nicklaus in 1991.
Chi Chi created his Youth Foundation and school in Clearwater, Florida, to assist at-risk children from low-income families or broken homes. His goal has been to improve their lives and their self-esteem through golf. A famous Chi Chi quote is, “A man never stands taller than when he stoops to help a child.”
Always a marvelous ambassador for golf and always concerned with helping others succeed, Chi Chi has received numerous awards. Among them are the Bob Jones Award (1989) from the USGA, their highest honor; the Old Tom Morris Award (1989), the highest honor of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America; and election to the World Humanitarian Sports Hall of Fame (1994). In 1992, Chi Chi became a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, the first Puerto Rican so honored.
What follows is pure Chi Chi. And that’s no bull!
LBM: How did you get your nickname
Chi Chi: CCR: I loved baseball as a kid, and when I was very young, there was a guy named Chi Chi Flores in Puerto Rico. He was a third baseman and ended up in the Hall of Fame in the Puerto Rican League. He was my idol, so I started saying, “I am Chi Chi Rodriguez.” And the name stuck.
LBM: How did you get into golf in the first place?
CCR: There was a golf course close to my house. When I was seven years old, I asked the caddie master for a job, but he said I was too small. But he made me a “forecaddie apprentice.” I made $.10 that day. I got my first caddie job when I was nine. I made $.25 that day. I first played golf with a tin can I mashed into a ball, and I hit it with a guava limb. By the time I was 12, I was a decent player. I came in second in the Puerto Rican open when I was 17. However, I really learned how to play golf in the army and pretty much developed my game during that time period.
LBM: How did you get on the TOUR?
CCR: When I got out of the army, I learned that a man named Laurence Rockefeller had opened a luxury resort called Dorado Beach. Ed Dudley was the head pro during the winter and was also the first head professional at Augusta National. He made me the caddie master, and he also let me hit a lot of balls on the range to work on my game. In 1960, I turned professional because he and several other men, including Mr. Rockefeller, put up the money. In my first event, I finished 16th in the Buick Open and won $460.
LBM: How did you develop such power to become one of the longest hitters on the TOUR?
CCR: Everybody was always telling me how small I was, but the clubs and the ball didn’t know my size. I used to swing broomsticks for the wind resistance and just developed my muscles. I was very flexible. I would coil on the backswing and then just uncoil as quickly as I could. I could hit it with anybody.
LBM: Who were your best friends on Tour and the ones you most enjoyed playing with?
CCR: Bill Casper—a special man, a great family man with his own children and his adopted children. He always showed me respect, always called me Juan, and said I was good for the game because the fans loved me. Al Geiberger—always a gentleman and always smiling. Fuzzy—just a great guy to be around on and off the golf course. Ben Hogan—a lot of the pros were jealous of him, but we got along fine.
LBM: What will you always remember about Jack Nicklaus?
CCR: Jack Nicklaus was always very good to me. I used to feel bad for Jack in the early years because the papers used to call him “Fat Jack” because Arnold was the idol of the writers and much of America at that time. When I wanted to start my Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation and school in Clearwater, Florida, Jack, who believes as I do in the importance of well-run charities, personally helped me raise $1,000,000 in one day to get my Foundation started.
LBM: Why did you first throw your straw fedora over the hole when you made a birdie putt? And then devise your toreador dance?
CCR: I used to throw my hat over the hole when I was a kid to celebrate making the putt. When I got to the TOUR, I did it to emphasize the birdie and because it was fun. But some of the pros complained about me damaging the hole—which was not true at all. Anyway, Commissioner Joe Dey asked me to stop. I wanted to continue to bring some color to the game, so I devised the bullfighter scenario with the putter as the sword. It worked pretty well, didn’t it? And it became my signature.
LBM: What one person in your life has made an everlasting impression on you?
CCR: I think about Mother Theresa all the time, who I met through golf. She was in the Philippines, and I was a close friend of President Marcos. He asked me if I wanted to meet her. Of course, I did. She was something else, a little bitty thing just so full of compassion and caring. She was my inspiration for forming my Youth Foundation. I spent 45 minutes with her—the best 45 minutes of my life.
LBM: What do you remember about winning those first two Skins Games on the Senior Tour in 1988 and 1989?
CCR: What a great experience it was both years! Yes, the money was something else [$300K; $120K], but just to be there with Arnold Palmer and Gary Player both times and with Sam Snead first and then Bill Casper in 1989. That was something special, too. Just the four of us on the whole course. What I remember especially is that I beat Arnold big both years [$20K; $70K]. He used to beat the pants off me when we were young, so I was able to get a little back then.
LBM: Who would be in your Dream Foursome of today? From any time period?
CCR: Fuzzy Zoeller, Jerry Pate and Paula Creamer. Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, and Ben Hogan.
LBM: What are your plans for the future?
CCR: Yesterday is history, and tomorrow is a mystery! But I do know that I must remain busy, even at 81 years old. The future of golf is the children. The future of the country is the children. So, my emphasis will remain on my work at my Foundation and on teaching golf to young people. I want to make them not only good players but also good citizens.
Thanks for the memories Chi Chi! RIP
As a caddie, greenkeeper, and Ouimet Scholar from Marshfield Country Club on Boston’s South Shore, Leigh developed his love for the game at an early age. The BA from Amherst College and MA from Dartmouth prepared him for his 36-year career in education, most of it teaching Advanced Placement English and coaching varsity golf. In 1986, a sabbatical from teaching students to writing stories for “Golf World” magazine prepared him for his second career in golf journalism. Leigh is a low-handicap golfer who has won the Golf Writers Association of America’s championship seven times. He is currently a member of Southers Marsh Golf Club in Plymouth, MA, and PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, FL.
