Chi Chi Rodríguez Biography - Disadvantaged Childhood, Hard Work, The Pga Tour's Leading Comic, Into The Sunset With A Swing
golfer yards pound professional
1935-
American golfer
Professional golfer Chi Chi Rodríguez has entertained generations of golf fans with his powerful drives, his victory dances, and his wisecracks. Rodríguez has been declared the longest-driving golfer ever on a pound-for-pound basis: The five-foot-seven-inch golfer, who weighed 117 pounds when he began playing on the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) Tour in his mid-twenties, has been known to hit drives as far as 350 yards and consistently hit over 250 yards. Although he has not won a tour event since 1993 and suffered a major heart attack in 1998, Rodríguez continues to play on the Senior PGA Tour.
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Life was hard for Rodríguez's family when he was a child. Rodríguez was the one of six children, and he was the sickliest. He suffered from rickets, a disease caused by vitamin deficiencies, and tropical sprue, and he nearly died of them when he was a preschooler. He still has brittle and sensitive bones as a result, but this did not stop him from participating in sports. In f…
Rodríguez started working in the sugarcane fields for a dollar a day when he was seven, but he soon realized that better, easier money could be made working at the country club nearby. He was too small to carry a full bag of clubs, so he became a fore-caddy, a boy who watched where the customers' balls fell so that they did not have to search for them. For this job he earned 35 cents…
In the 25 years that he spent on the PGA tour, Rodríguez won a mere eight tournaments and a little over $1 million, but because of his attitude on the course Rodríguez was better known than his record would indicate. At a time when many golfers' idol was the silent, serious Ben Hogan, Rodríguez wisecracked for his gallery and did victory dances when he sank a putt. His …
In 1985 Rodríguez graduated to the Senior PGA Tour and almost immediately found much more success there than he had on the regular tour. He credits much of this improvement to a putting tip given to him by famed golf teacher Bob Toski, whom he bumped into in an airport in May 1986. Rodríguez has always been an excellent driver, but his putting was never very accurate. Toski told him …
"Chi Chi: On Helping Kids, the Death of Showmanship, and Why He Just Can't Stop the Music." Golf Digest (March 2000): 178. Diaz, Jaime. "Chi Chi Has a Last Laugh." Sports Illustrated (November 23, 1987): 38-42. Friedman, Jack. "At 51, Chi Chi's Still Laughing: Now It's on His Way to the Bank." People Weekly (September 21, 1987): 51-53.…
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