With his Panama hat and wacky matador antics after sinking a putt, Rodriguez gained renown as a great showman. After all, what other golfer can say his face graced a classic New Wave album cover—Devo’s Are We Not Men?

What fans may forget is that this son of a poor farm worker was also a terrific golfer who didn’t reach his peak until he was over 50. Rodriguez also made his mark as one of its first Hispanic pros, along with his old buddy Lee Trevino.

His career really flourished after he turned 50, when he joined the Senior (now Champions) Tour

“Chi Chi’s real charm is not just what he represents and where he came from, but the joy with which he played the game,” says David Normoyle, coordinator of education and outreach for the U.S. Golf Association Museum.

Rodriguez, 69, wanted to be a baseball player when he was growing up, and got his nickname from a ballplayer called Chi Chi Flores. He started caddying when he was six, and soon started drawing attention for his long-distance drives.

He joined the professional tour in 1960, the same year as Trevino, who is of Mexican descent and, like Rodriguez, has a reputation for flamboyance. Rodriguez’s first pro win came at the Denver Open Invitational in 1963, when he was 28. Rodriguez was an underdog and had to come from behind on the back nine to take his first winner’s purse—$5,300.

That first victory is still the sweetest—he has rated it as his biggest thrill as an athlete.

Rodriguez is slight, but known as a powerful hitter—driving the ball over 250 yards consistently, and up to 350 yards in his younger days. His erratic putting probably kept him from becoming one of the all-time great golfers.

He won eight times on the PGA Tour, but his career really flourished after he turned 50, when he joined the Senior (now Champions) Tour. He hasn’t won in more than a decade, but his lifetime earnings top $7 million.

Rodriguez’s playful attitude on the links has always been what set him apart, however. Today’s golfers can be deadly serious, but Rodriguez has always remembered that golf is, first and foremost, entertainment. Not that it hasn’t occasionally gotten him into trouble—Arnold Palmer warned him to tone down his antics at the 1964 Masters.

In 1998, he suffered a serious heart attack. He was back on the course in four months, cracking jokes as always.

“He’s one of the game’s great ambassadors,” says Phil Stambaugh, a PGA Tour spokesman, citing Rodriguez’s charity work and his mentoring of up-and-coming players. “His record wasn’t what got him in the (World Golf) Hall of Fame, it was his ability to spread goodwill. Here’s a guy that came from nothing, and look at all he’s done to help others.”