Chi Chi Rodriguez dead at 88: What was the golf legend’s cause of death?
Chi Chi Rodriguez’s death was announced by Carmelo Javier Rios Santiago, a member of the Puerto Rican Senate and the PGA Tour.
Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour Commissioner paid tribute to Chi Chi Rodriguez in a statement and said: “Chi Chi Rodriguez’s passion for charity and outreach was surpassed only by his incredible talent with a golf club in his hand. He also said that he was a “vibrant, colourful 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.”
Chi Chi Rodriguez was born in Rio Piedras in Puerto Rico, he was the second oldest of six children and his name at birth was Juan Antonio Rodriguez. According to reports, he learnt to play golf by hitting tin cans with a guava tree stick.
Chi Chi Rodriguez became a professional golfer in 1960 and previously served in the US army from 1955 until 1957. In 1961, Chi Chi joined the PGA Tour full time. According to Golf Digest, “Two years later, he won the Denver Open Invitational, the first of his eight PGA Tour victories. He was exceedingly long, by any standard, much less of a man of such small stature. He, too, had a world-class short game”
Away from golf, Chi Chi Rodriguez set up the Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation in 1979 to help disadvantaged youth.
The New York Times reported that “Rodriguez lived in his later years at the El Legado golf resort he built in Guayama, P.R. In May 2010, masked nighttime intruders tied him up along with his wife, Iwalani, and robbed them of cash and jewels valued at $500,000.
Rodriguez is survived by a daughter, Donnette Markham; his brothers Jesus and Julio; and his sisters Juanita, Carmen and Maria. His wife, a native of Hawaii, died in 2021.”
At the time of writing, the cause of Chi Chi Rodriguez’s death had not been revealed.