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3030 N. McMullen Booth Rd.
Clearwater, FL 33761 |
Chi Chi´s Comeback is All Heart
Bob Harig
The St. Petersburg Times
February 1999
Months after surgery, senior star is urging others to look for the warning signs.
There were signs, but Chi Chi Rodriguez ignored them. He knew better. For years, golf´s clown prince preached to the anyone who would listen that his life was barely half complete, that he was blessed with the genes of his grandparents who lived well past 100.
A pain persisted in his jaw, but Rodriguez never saw a doctor. He didn´t believe much in medicine. Rodriguez lost power in his swing but never believed it could be anything physical.
Rodriguez expected to do his famous sword dance forever.
Even when he had the worst kind of stomach pain, the kind that had him doubling over, Rodriguez figured it was simply indigestion. After all, he believed he could eat whatever he wanted.
Of course, that is not so, as Rodriguez learned, nearly tragically.
He had a heart attack in October just before he was to play in a Senior PGA Tour event in California.
Only some persistent associates saved Rodriguez. For five hours, he lived with the pain, not wanting to go to the hospital. They finally forced him to go, where he learned he was having a heart attack.
"If I would waited another 10 minutes, the doctor told me it would have damaged my whole heart," Rodriguez said.
Now he is feeling better, and he´s hoping to get the word out. Known nearly as much for his humanitarian efforts and his Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation in Clearwater, Florida as his sword dance when he holes a putt, Rodriguez is hoping others will learn from his mistakes.
He returns to competitive golf for the first time Friday at the American Express Invitational at the TPC-Prestancia in Sarasota.
"I´m doing extremely well," said Rodriguez, 63, the winner of 22 senior titles and eight PGA Tour victories. "The doctor had given me the green light. He doesn't want me to have any stress. My hear is coming right along.
"But I'm asking people around the world, `Don´t be stubborn. If you have pain, go and see your doctor, get a stress test.´ This heart attack, I could have prevented."
Rodriguez has not won since 1993 and some of his troubles on the course have coincided with a loss of power. He fiddled with equipment, worked on his game, tried to find out what was wrong.
He never guessed that something might be the matter with him.
"I had an artery that was blocked by 50 percent," said Rodriguez, who had an angioplasty to clear the artery. "I was exercising one day and that artery turned loose. Fortunately, one percent of the blood was flowing through that artery or I would have died. Fifty percent of the people who have the same heart attack I had die.
"Let me tell you something: when you get sick like I was... those doctors know what they are doing. I always thought I was Carnac. I thought I knew everything. I'm stubborn I don't believe that anybody knows anything about anything, just me. Thank God they decided they were going to take me to the hospital."
Rodriguez said he arrived in Sacramento for the Raley´s Gold Rush Classic feeling better about his game than he had in some time. " I was outdriving Hale Irwin by 30 or 40 yards," he said of the player of the year for the last two seasons.
Early in the morning, Rodriguez awoke to go to a gym, where he rode a stationary bicycle. With his stomach bothering him, he elected to take Maalox and keep pedaling.
The pain became worse, and Rodriguez had difficulty breathing and swallowing. He tried to pass it off, saying all he needed was breakfast. It took some heavy-duty arm twisting to get him to the hospital.
Now, Rodriguez said, he is committed to a changed lifestyle.
"I never knew that eating the right stuff was the right thing to do," he said. "If you have a good car, you need to put good gas in it. It's the same thing. I ate everything. Now I'm on a good diet. I ate meat five or six days a week. Now, I cannot have red meat the rest of my life. I just gave it up altogether. Nothing by chicken and fish and turkey and vegetables.
"I tell people to think of their health, especially if they smoke. You have to quit smoking. Cigarettes really did me in. The doctor says they really shut down the artery. I had quit smoking in November of 1997. I don't miss them."
Rodriguez won't overdo it. He is not allowed to play two events in a row, so he'll skip next week's GTE Classic in Tampa, then return the following week in Naples.
The idea is to play fewer tournaments, travel less, enjoy life.
And if there is anyone who can overcome, it's Rodriguez, who endured a poor upbringing in Puerto Rico to become one of the game's most successful and enduring figures.
"The doctor says it will take between four and six months to get me strength back," Rodriguez said. "But I feel stronger by the minute." |
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