For youthful Chi Chi, it's all about the kids

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RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico -- With mist rolling off the mountains of Puerto Rico's El Yunque National Forest, local kids decked out in orange tournament polo shirts huddled in the stands around the first tee at Trump International Golf Course during the inaugural event in 2008 and waited for their great golf legend to appear.

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Chi Chi Rodriguez

Inside the Numbers

Chi Chi Rodriguez's PGA TOUR record

Starts 527 Cuts Made 422 Wins 8 Seconds 11 Thirds 9 Top-10s 87 Top-25s 198

Rodriguez on the Champions Tour

Starts 465 Cuts Made 451 Wins 22 Seconds 33 Thirds 19 Top-10s 167 Top-25s 265

Juan A. "Chi Chi" Rodriguez stepped up to the tee to make the ceremonial first shot in the inaugural Puerto Rico Open, fired his ball straight down the middle of the fairway and followed it up with his signature sword move before holstering his driver on his side. But prior to the excitement of this brand new event's opening shot (and show), Rodriguez spent a good 20 minutes talking to those kids -- because for Chi Chi, it's always been about the children.

The introduction of a PGA TOUR event in Puerto Rico not only pleases the island's golf ambassador, it also brings him hope.

"You can see how many young people are out here today, and I think all the young guys are very good role models for the kids to be like they are," he said, motioning to the children he chatted with before his tee shot.

"It means everything to me," he added with a smile. "Through golf I made everything that I have in life ... and [golf] coming to Puerto Rico I think is a very big thing for the island."

Rodriguez won eight times on the PGA TOUR and enhanced his profile on the Champions Tour, as he wowed his fans with 22 victories and swashbuckling antics. His involvement in the unveiling of the Puerto Rico Open is as much a tribute to him as it is to the growth of golf in the Caribbean.

"It's a dream come true," said Iwalani Rodriguez, Chi Chi's Hawaiian-born wife of 45 years. "This will be a big step for Puerto Rico."

While Iwalani did not grow up in Puerto Rico like her husband, she now calls the island home. As the location of the couple's first meeting when Iwalani was a touring Polynesian dancer, Puerto Rico has its own special meaning to the woman whom Chi Chi acknowledged as being the great person behind him.

And though the couple spends most of their time working on their golf resort on the south side of the island -- El Legado, named for Chi Chi's legacy -- they were only happy to come to Rio Grande for the tournament and to celebrate a night in Chi Chi's honor.

"It was wonderful," Iwalani said of the number of people who turned out for her husband's evening of recognition. "Because you work, work, work to get to where you want to be. We've all walked the same weeks (on the course) and care for each other always. We're like a family."

And this week, that family salutes one of its most beloved members with the first Puerto Rico Open, played on a course that will show the world of golf fans the beauty of Chi Chi's homeland.

A tournament that was three years in the making, the Puerto Rico Open was hatched by Sidney Wolf, the tournament director and President of the Puerto Rico Golf Association. "You have to have vision," Wolf said of golf on the island. "We were founded in 1954 [PRGA], but golf starts here today in Puerto Rico."

The New York-born but island-raised Wolf has a passion for the sport that he neither tries nor wishes to hide, having spent the last 13 years attempting to bring a big-time golf event to Puerto Rico. He finally landed the 2004 World Amateur (played at Rio Mar Country Club), and now his efforts have culminated in a PGA TOUR event.

Looking out over the first tee as the opening round got under way Thursday, Wolf set aside the chatter that surrounds this new event and said "the most important thing is that they teed off here today." Because, for Wolf, it's not just about a new tournament. It's not just about golf in Puerto Rico. It's not just about a Trump International Golf Club.

It's about growing the sport and growing the region.

"I know I'm making a difference this week," he said.

He may not have the celebrity of his Panama-hat-clad mentor, Chi Chi, but he certainly has the fervor. Wolf remembers to the day the first call he had with PGA TOUR Headquarters to discuss bringing an event to the island: March 17, 2005. While you might recognize that date's significance as everyone's favorite day to dress in green, it is worth noting that March 17 was also the day this week's festivities in Puerto Rico kicked off.

Wolf recognizes the significance, which brings this journey full circle for him. Acknowledging his sold-out hospitality tents, his Trump course, his 132-man field, his $3.5 million purse and his esteemed guest of honor, Wolf chuckles at the accomplishment and says, "You know, if you build it, they will come."

The sport might not be baseball, and the arena might not be a diamond, but for Wolf, Chi Chi, Iwalani and all those kids in orange shirts, this just might be their field of dreams.