Juan Chi Chi Rodriguez, a Hall of Fame golfer known for his entertaining antics on the course and inspiring life story, passed away on Thursday at the age of 88. The announcement was made by Carmelo Javier Ríos, a senator from Rodriguez’s native Puerto Rico, though a cause of death was not provided.
Chi Chi Rodriguez
“Chi Chi Rodriguez’s passion for charity and outreach was only surpassed by his incredible talent with a golf club in hand,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan in a statement. “A vibrant, colorful personality both on and off the golf course, he will be dearly missed by the PGA Tour and all those whose lives he touched. Our deepest condolences go out to the Rodriguez family during this difficult time.”
Born Juan Antonio Chi Chi Rodriguez in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, he was the second oldest of six children. As a child, he helped his father harvest sugar cane in what was once a rural area but is now part of the urban landscape of San Juan. Rodriguez learned to play golf by hitting tin cans with a stick from a guava tree and later found work as a caddie. By age 12, he claimed to have shot a 67.
Determined to make a mark on the PGA Tour, Rodriguez faced skepticism. “They told me I was a hound dreaming about pork chops,” he recalled in an interview with Sports Illustrated.
After serving in the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957, Rodriguez joined the PGA Tour in 1960, where he won eight times during his 21-year career and played on one Ryder Cup team. His first victory came at the Denver Open in 1963, followed by two more wins the following year, and he continued to compete until 1979, when he won the Tallahassee Open. He also notched 22 victories on the Champions Tour from 1985 to 2002, amassing over $7.6 million in career earnings. He was inducted into the PGA World Golf Hall of Fame in 1992.
Despite his playing record, Rodriguez’s contributions to golf through showmanship, charity work, and youth development were monumental. He established an academy in the Tampa area in the 1970s, focusing on at-risk children. “Why do I love kids so much? Because I was never a kid myself. I was too poor to really have a childhood,” he once shared.
Chi Chi Rodriguez maintained his sense of humor throughout his life. When asked why he gave up baseball during the U.S. Senior Open in 1996, he joked, “I used to steal bases,” prompting laughter from the audience.
In October 1998, he was hospitalized after experiencing chest pains and learned he had suffered a heart attack. “It scared me for the first time,” he recalled in a 1999 interview. He underwent emergency surgery and was told that had he waited just ten more minutes, he would have needed a heart transplant. “They call it the widow-maker,” he explained. “About 50% of the people who get this kind of heart attack die. So I beat the odds pretty good.”
After recovering, Rodriguez continued to compete for a couple more years before transitioning to focus on community and charity work, including the Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation, which he founded in Clearwater, Florida, in 1979.
In his later years, Chi Chi Rodriguez spent most of his time in Puerto Rico, where he partnered in a golf community project and hosted a local radio talk show. He was also a familiar face at various sporting events. At the 2008 Puerto Rico Open, he greeted fans in a black leather coat and dark sunglasses, stating, “I didn’t want to take a spot away from young men trying to make a living.”
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