Chi Chi Rodriguez

Hometown

Rio Piedras

Puerto Rico

Year Inducted

1992

Inducted Category

Competitor

Birthdate

Oct 23,1935

PGA TOUR Wins: 8

1963: Denver Open
1964: Lucky International, Western Open
1967: Texas Open
1968: Sahara Invitational
1972: Byron Nelson Classic
1973: Greater Greensboro Open
1979: Tallahassee Open

Senior Majors: 2

Senior Players Championship: 1986
Senior PGA Championship: 1987

Additional PGA TOUR Champions Wins: 22

1986: Digital Seniors Classic, United Virginia Bank Seniors
1987: Vantage at the Dominion, United Hospitals Classic, Silver Pages Classic, Senior Players Reunion, Digital Seniors Classic, GTE Northwest Classic
1988: Doug Sanders Kingwood Classic, Digital Seniors Classic
1989: Crestar Classic
1990: Las Vegas Senior Classic, Ameritech Senior Open, Sunwest Bank/Charley Pride Senior Golf Classic
1991: GTE West Classic, Vintage Invitational, Las Vegas Senior Classic, Murata Reunion Pro-Am
1992: Ko Olina Senior Invitational
1993: Burnet Senior Classic

Ryder Cup Appearances

Wins in Bold

1973

Awards & Honors:

Charlie Bartlett Award: 1974
Card Walker Award: 1986
Bob Jones Award: 1989
Old Tom Morris Award: 1989
Florida Sports Hall of Fame: 1991
The Graffis Award: 1993

From the time he first fashioned one from the branch of a guava tree, Chi Chi Rodriguez was a magician with a golf club. Yet for all his accomplishments as a player, his contributions as an entertainer and a humanitarian are even greater. From the famous sword dance he breaks into when he makes a putt to the success of his youth foundation, Rodriguez has made the world a better place.

Born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, Oct. 23, 1935, Juan Rodriguez was the frailest of six children and nearly died at age four from rickets and tropical sprue. His father worked long hours cutting sugar cane with a machete but never made more that $18 a week, and the young Rodriguez saw in athletics a chance at a better life. As a teenager, he boxed in the streets for sodas and was a pitcher good enough to play alongside Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda and local legend Chi Chi Flores, who became his namesake.

A caddie since the age of eight, Rodriguez also had a natural aptitude for belting a golf ball when he had one, a rolled-up tin can when he didn’t. After a two-year stint in the Army, he returned to caddie at the Dorado Beach Resort and at age 17 finished second in the Puerto Rican Open. With the help of longtime touring pro Pete Cooper, Rodriguez continued to improve, and in 1960 secured a stake of $12,000 from Laurence Rockefeller, one of the resort’s owners. Rodriguez headed for the PGA TOUR, won $450 in his first event and was on his way.

“A man never stands taller than when he stoops to help a child.”

From 1963 to 1979, Rodriguez won eight official events in the U.S., including the 1964 Western Open, and was a member of the 1973 U.S. Ryder Cup team. A natural showman, he quickly became a fan favorite for his habit of covering the hole with his straw hat after making a birdie, or waving his putter like a swordsman after holing a putt of any length-a routine that has grown into one of the game’s treasured rituals. His flamboyance initially created a stir among his more reserved peers, but Rodriguez toned down and then defused them with his wit.

“I’m a hot dog pro,” he said. “That’s when someone in the gallery looks at his pairing sheet and says, ‘Here comes Joe Baloney, Sam Sausage and Chi Chi Rodriguez. Let’s go get a hot dog.’ ” It was also Rodriguez who invented the line, “Jack Nicklaus has become a legend in his spare time.”

As a player, he was unique. Whippet thin at 5-7 and 117 pounds when he joined the tour, Rodriguez coiled and uncoiled as violently as any top player ever has and in his prime drilled out low, hot-running drives that made him pound-for-pound the longest hitter the professional game had ever seen. He excelled in his ability to improvise shots and possessed legendary talent with the wedges, particularly from sand. Rodriguez surely would have won many more tournaments had he been an outstanding putter.

Fact

Chi Chi Rodriguez’s likeness was once used on a Devo album.

Rodriguez’ career underwent a renaissance when he joined the Champions Tour. After winning three times in 1986, he had the greatest season of his career in 1987. He won seven times and set two Champions Tour records that still stand: most consecutive victories, four; and most consecutive birdies, eight. His 22 Champions Tour wins are tied for seventh most all-time.

Rodriguez has helped raise more than $4 million for his youth foundation in Clearwater, Fla., which annually brings 600 children from low income families or broken homes to a 9-hole municipal course to learn responsibility and discipline by working at the various jobs in golf. “A man never stands taller than when he stoops to help a child,” Rodriguez says. For living his life accordingly, he received the Bob Jones Award from the USGA in 1989 and was elected to the World Humanitarian Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.

Chi Chi Rodriguez was originally inducted in Pinehurst.