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Juan “Chi Chi” Rodriguez, a Hall of Fame golfer, died on Thursday at age 88.
Rodriguez’s demise was introduced by Carmelo Javier Ríos, a senator in Rodriguez’s native Puerto Rico. No reason behind demise was offered.
No one from Puerto Rico had ever made it to the PGA Tour, and Rodriguez was not solely decided to get there, however to beat one of the best.
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Juan Antonio “Chi-Chi” Rodríguez of Puerto Rico competed within the 1990 Transamerica Senior Golf Championship occasion of the Senior PGA Tour on October 21, 1990, on the Silverado Country Club in Napa, California. (David Madison/Getty Images)
“They told me I was a hound dreaming about pork chops.” He as soon as informed Sports Illustrated.
Rodriguez realized to play golf by hitting tin cans with a guava tree stick and located work as a caddie. According to a biography offered by the Chi Chi Rodriguez Management Group, he claimed he might shoot a 67 by age 12.
Before becoming a member of the PGA Tour in 1960, he served within the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957. Rodriguez received eight instances throughout his 21-year profession and performed on one Ryder Cup staff.
Following his PGA profession, he performed on the Champions Tour from 1985-2002 and received 22 instances on that tour. His whole mixed profession earnings have been greater than $7.6 million.
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Juan Chi Chi Rodriguez (R) and his spouse Iwalani attend Marc Anthony Concert at Coliseo Jose M. Agrelot on September 11, 2015, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (GV Cruz/WireImage)
He was greatest identified for antics that included twirling his membership like a sword, or doing a celebratory dance, typically with a shuffling salsa step after making a birdie putt.
He was inducted into the PGA World Golf Hall of Fame in 1992.
“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 stated in a press release. “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.”
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Juan “Chi Chi” Rodriguez does his patented dance after sinking a putt on the U.S. Senior Open in 1996. (Bob Stowell/Getty Images)
Rodriguez began a youngsters’s academy within the Tampa-area with a deal with children who have been in danger. As he obtained older, he devoted a lot of his time in the direction of group and charity actions, such because the Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation.
He had a near-death expertise slightly over 25 years in the past when he was hospitalized in October 1998 after experiencing chest pains. He reluctantly agreed to see a physician, who informed him he was having a coronary heart assault.
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Golfer Juan Chi Chi Rodriguez swings and watches the flight of his ball throughout event play circa 1988. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
“It scared me for the first time,” Rodriguez recalled in a 1999 interview with The Associated Press. “Jim Anderson (his pilot) drove me to the hospital, and a team of doctors were waiting to operate. If I had waited another 10 minutes, the doctor said I would have needed a heart transplant.
“They name it the widow-maker,” he said. “About 50% of the individuals who get this sort of coronary heart assault die. So, I beat the chances fairly good.”
In recent years, he spent most of his time in Puerto Rico, where he was a partner in a golf community project that struggled amid the recession and housing crisis, and hosted a talk show on a local radio station for several years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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