Entertainment

World Golf Hall of Fame member dies!

Published

4 months ago

August 9, 2024

World Golf Hall of Fame member Juan “Chi Chi” Rodriguez was a giver on and off the golf course. Inside the ropes, Rodriguez was a showman. After great shots, fans would marvel at his signature “sword dance” when Rodriguez would wield a golf club and thrust his “sword” back into its imaginary scabbard along his belt. Outside of golf, Rodriguez was known for his tireless philanthropy.

Rodriguez came from humble roots in Puerto Rico to collect 30 career victories between the PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions. He took as much pride in his Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation in Clearwater, Florida, that helped at-risk youth achieve academic, social and economic success.

“A man never stands taller than when he stoops to help a child,” he said in his World Golf Hall of Fame biography when he was enshrined in 1992.

Few, then, stood taller than Rodriguez – the greatest golfer produced by Puerto Rico – who passed away Thursday, Aug. 8, at age 88.

Rodriguez’s memory will live on at his Youth Foundation, which each year brings in 600 children from low-income families or broken homes to its municipal course to develop skills like responsibility and work ethic. His altruistic nature culminated in 1989 with the USGA’s highest honor, the Bob Jones Award, and later his acceptance into the World Humanitarian Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.

Chi Chi Rodriguez’s passion for charity and outreach was surpassed only by his incredible talent with a golf club in his hand,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “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.”

Rodriguez’s pathway into servitude was shaped by a childhood less fortunate than others. His father worked tirelessly cutting sugar cane with a machete in Rodriguez’s hometown of Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, yet never made more than $18 in a given week. By the time he was 7, Rodriguez joined his father in hard labor, earning money as a water carrier on a plantation. It came just three years after the youngest and frailest of six children nearly died from rickets and tropical sprue.