Juan “Chi Chi” Rodriguez, a PGA Tour star and World Golf Hall of Famer, died Thursday, the league announced.
He was 88 years old.
“Chi Chi Rodriguez’s passion for charity and social assistance was only surpassed by his incredible talent with a golf club in hand,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan. said in a statement“A vibrant and colorful personality both on and off the golf course, he will be deeply missed by the PGA Tour and those whose lives he touched in his mission to give back. The PGA Tour sends its deepest condolences to the entire Rodriguez family during this difficult time.”
Rodriguez, who grew up in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, learned to play golf by hitting cans with wooden clubs while growing up on the island. After working as a caddy as a teenager and spending two years in the Army in the 1950s, Rodriguez joined the PGA Tour in 1960. Just three years later, at the 1963 Denver Open Invitational, Rodriguez earned his first win.
Rodriguez won eight times in his Tour career, and won 22 times on the PGA Tour Champions before largely retiring from the game after the 2004 campaign. He was a member of the 1973 Ryder Cup team, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1992. Rodriguez also won the USGA’s Bob Jones Award in 1989, and was inducted into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame in 1994.
Though he won just eight times, Rodriguez was one of the Tour’s most popular players thanks in large part to his on-course antics, which included waving his club like a sword as part of a “matador routine,” dancing after holing a putt and even imitating other players. He frequently dropped his hat on the hole after holing a birdie putt “so the birdie wouldn’t fly away,” though commissioner Joseph Dey put a stop to that.
“People come and pay good money to watch golf,” Rodriguez said. through the PGA Tour“I think they deserve something extra and I like to give it to them.”
After finishing his playing days, Rodriguez spent time running his youth foundation in Florida and then in Puerto Rico, where he was a partner in a community golf project. He is survived by his longtime wife, Iwalani, and stepdaughter, Donnette.