Legendary Golfer Passes Away At 88

Juan “Chi Chi” Rodriguez, a Hall of Famer who paved the way for generations of golfers, passed away in his native home of Puerto Rico, according to the Daily Caller.

In his youth, Rodriguez, who died at 88, learned to play with a guava tree stick as a club, stitching together a colorful style that defined his style of play alongside his flashy suits on the links. He was often spotted wearing a red fedora and matching island shirts, ostentatious features that went along with his antics, twirling his club like a sword in the middle of play, referred to by commentators as his “matador routine,” or doing a celebration dance resembling a salsa shuffle step. His death was a moment of reflection for leaders in the golf world.

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“Chi Chi Rodriguez’s passion for charity and outreach was surpassed only by his incredible talent with a golf club in his hand,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement to the AP. “A vibrant, colorful personality both on and off the golf course, he will be missed dearly 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.”

Born Juan Antonio Rodriguez, he was the second oldest of six children growing up in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico where he helped his father harvest the sugar cane fields that blanketed his rural town. His passion for golf started in the humblest of circumstances as he swung his guava sticks at tin cans and pictured his dream of one day playing on the PGA circuit. In an earlier biography of his upbringing, Rodriguez claimed he was shooting a 67 by the age of 12. At the time, no player from Puerto Rico had ever made it to the big leagues, but as a boy he was determined to be the trailblazer. “They told me I was a hound dreaming about pork chops,” he once told Sports Illustrated.

He served in the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957 before earning a spot on the PGA tour in 1960, winning eight times during his 21-year career and playing on one Ryder Cup team. Three years after his debut Rodriguez won the Denver Open and two others in 1961. His defining achievement was a win at the Tallahassee Open in 1979. Between 1985 and 2002 he notched 22 victories on the Champions Tour and earned over $7.6 million in prize money during his career. His achievements granted him access to the PGA World Golf Hall of Fame in 1992.

In addition to his showmanship, Rodriguez was an avid philanthropist, devoting a great deal of his time off the green to youth development helping to give up-and-comers the chances he never had. His founding academy in Tampa, Florida offered a route into the States for children of the Caribbean islands during the 1970s, a time when many were pressured to instead take a stake in the region’s burgeoning status as a port for drug traffickers. “Why do I love kids so much? Because I was never a kid myself. I was too poor to really have a childhood,” Rodriguez once said.

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