As we start the new golf season, let’s take a moment to remember Chi Chi Rodriguez.
Born Juan Rodriguez, he got the nickname “Chi Chi” from Chi Chi Flores, a Puerto Rican baseball player. A laborer’s son who spent his youth in poverty, Chi Chi’s life began to change after he made a makeshift golf club from a guava tree, crafted a metal golf ball, and learned how to play golf.
The first Puerto Rican player to make it to the PGA tour, the 1963 Denver Open was his first of eight wins. Later, he played on the Senior Tour and was the first golfer to win the same tournament in three consecutive years.
Widely known for exuberance on the course, Chi Chi would celebrate a birdie or eagle with a trademark sword dance, which he said was derived from Spanish heritage, bullfighting especially. “Everything revolves around the ring,” he once said. “So I figured the hole was a bull. I’d stab the ‘the bull,’ dry the blood off, and put the sword back in the scabbard.”
It was part of Rodriguez’s attempt to be authentic. “You’ve got to be different; you’ve got to be yourself in the world. That’s what I always wanted to be.”
He was not only a golfer but also a humanitarian. To help vulnerable and at-risk youth, he formed the Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation.
Chi Chi Rodriguez, one of the game’s greats, passed away last year at 88.
