Chi Chi Is Counting the Candles

It started out to be a routine day on the job. I got into the car, drove to La Costa and interviewed Chi Chi Rodriguez. Of course, interviewing Chi Chi is a chore like watching Bill Cosby is a chore.

But the experience took a startling twist.

It turns out that my birthday is important to Chi Chi Rodriguez. I was amazed. I had just met the man.

My birthday, I was informed, will be one of the biggest days in the history of the PGA’s senior tour.

Frankly, I was a little confused. I don’t imagine that my golf will be in much better shape when I hit The Big Five Oh than it is today, and I get pretty excited if I score in the low 90s with a minimum of mulligans.

How, then, could my birthday be of any consequence?

As you might have suspected, Rodriguez wasn’t talking about my birth day. He was talking about my birth date.

You see, Rodriguez is concerned about Jan. 21, 1990. I will celebrate a birthday on that date . . . and Rodriguez couldn’t care less what number . . . but it just so happens that I share this with Jack Nicklaus. He will hit The Big Five Oh on that date and therefore will be eligible for the senior tour.

Another date on Rodriguez’s calendar is Dec. 1, 1989. That is when Lee Trevino turns 50.

“Dale Douglass (another senior player) knows to the minute when everybody turns 50,” Rodriguez said. “I only know when Nicklaus and Trevino are coming.”

You see, Jack Nicklaus on the senior tour will be a little bit like a bear walking into a campsite in the middle of a barbecued fish dinner. He will take what he wants and leave the scraps behind. The same with Trevino.

Thus, Chi Chi Rodriguez will concentrate on fattening his bankroll in ’88 and ’89.

Indeed, if the next couple of years are anything like the last one, Rodriguez will be in position to step aside and say, “Go at it, gents. I have mine.”

In 1987, the senior tour belonged to Chi Chi Rodriguez. They should have called it The Senor Tour.

Rodriguez won seven tournaments and $509,145, and he finished in the top five in 19 of 27 tournaments he entered. In one, he made eight consecutive birdies.

“I think I set about 12 records last year,” he said. “When I was making those eight straight birdies, I was feeling like Clark Kent instead of Chi Chi . . . or maybe Arnie Palmer in his prime. Arnie was Clark Kent.”

In two years on the senior tour, Rodriguez has amassed $916,017. Consider that it took him 26 years to make a million dollars on the regular tour.

Golfers, it would seem, may be the only people in the world who eagerly await their 50th birthdays. Al Geiberger, for example, turned 50 last Sept. 1 and won three tournaments before the year ended. Dave Hill also was a winner his first year as a senior.

Geiberger and Hill, in fact, will be in a pack of 11 chasing Chi Chi in the seniors’ segment of the Tournament of Champions beginning Thursday at La Costa.

And Rodriguez is quite aware that these most junior seniors are threats to the dominance he enjoyed in 1987.

“You have to watch Geiberger,” he said. “He’s always had a million-dollar swing and a $10-million attitude. And Dave will give him a run for his money.”

His money? Geiberger’s? Geiberger and Hill are after Chi Chi’s money. They’ll be cutting into his pie. A senior tournament to him was a bit like an automatic teller set on unlimited withdrawal. Now these kids are standing in the same line at the same machine, waiting for their share.

Last year was last year, in other words, and Rodriguez may no longer be able to run off with such a disproportionate share of the loot.

“It was the kind of year I worked hard for, prayed hard for and was very lucky to have,” Rodriguez said. “But when you start talking too much about yesterday, it means you haven’t done too much today.”

On this particular day, Rodriguez did not really plan to do too much. He went out to the driving range to pose for some photographers but did not have his clubs or his shoes.

“I don’t practice,” he said, “except for chipping and putting. When I’m playing, I’ll take a few swings to limber up. It’s not like when I was a young guy, and I used to hit balls for four hours.”

It would seem that Rodriguez is semiretired, if playing in 27 tournaments a year can be called semiretired.

“I’m still in fantastic shape,” he said. “I sleep 10 to 12 hours a night. I never go to the bar. I keep a good diet. I stay between 130 and 135 pounds.”

And he stopped smoking Dec. 20. He just set the date and stopped.

“I don’t know what to expect in this tournament,” he said. “I haven’t touched a club since Dec. 20, and I don’t know how my nerves will hold up.”

Chances are that Chi Chi Rodriguez will keep rolling along, trying to keep The Senor Tour his own private piggy bank.

At least until my birthday in 1990.