Rodriguez Gets Out of the Hole, Into the Money : Chi Chi Makes 3 1/2-Foot Putt to Earn $120,000, and Repeat as Senior Winner

Chi Chi Rodriguez didn’t make as much as last year, but with one strategically placed 3 1/2-foot putt Sunday he repeated as Senior Skins champion on the Mountain Course of the La Quinta Hotel Golf Club.

Rodriguez, who won $300,000 in the first senior skins game last year at Hawaii, won only 1 hole of the 18 in the 2-day event. The short birdie putt on the 16th hole was worth $120,000. Gary Player earned $90,000, Billy Casper $80,000 and Arnold Palmer, the first-day leader, failed to win a skin Sunday and finished with $70,000.

Probably never has a golfer won so much money with so few good shots as Rodriguez made in the final round. Except for some torrid drives made with a metal Palmer Peerless with a glass shaft, Rodriguez made only two good iron shots and three good putts.

“This is really a strange game,” Rodriguez said. “(Saturday), I played very well and didn’t make a cent. Today I didn’t play well and won the money.”

This was such an even match that until Casper made a 30-foot putt on the second extra hole and Palmer missed a 12-footer, everyone but Casper had a chance to win. Chi Chi was only a spectator when Casper’s second consecutive birdie on 18 made Rodriguez a repeat champion.

After Rodriguez won the $120,000 on the fourth carryover when they started playing for $30,000, nobody won the 17th or 18th. Under the format it was sudden death for the last $60,000. The 4 returned to No. 10, the first hole Sunday, and Player and Rodriguez were eliminated when Casper sank a 25-footer for a birdie 3. Palmer stayed in the battle when he sank an 8-footer for birdie. But he couldn’t prolong it again when they went to the par 5 18th and Casper rolled in another long one.

Casper, 57, a rookie in Skins competition, also birdied 10 to start the final round and earned his first skin worth $20,000. Player sank a 20-footer on No. 12 to add $40,000.

It appeared that Player, who won the first skins game on the regular tour, appeared to be ready to wrap up this one when he hit his third shot on the par 5 No. 15 to within 8 feet of the pin. Everyone else was in trouble.

But then Rodriquez’s fortunes changed dramatically. He hadn’t earned a cent and another poor shot left him in a trap. He had to stand on grass and barely had room to hit the ball, but he hit a magnificent shot to within 4 feet of the cup. Player sank his for the birdie, and Rodriguez made his to keep Player from gaining $90,000.

Until his shot from the trap it was obvious the usually irrepressible Rodriguez was down. His one-liners were few and far between.

“That trap shot did it,” Rodriguez said. “I hadn’t won a thing, but I felt good all of a sudden.”

The 16th is a 158-yard par 3. The tee is carved out of rock in the side of a mountain. The green is small and well trapped. Unless you make the green or the trap, you most likely will lose your ball in the rocks and rough. A sign on the path leading to the tee reads, “Beware of rattlesnakes and falling rocks.”

Rodriguez dropped an 8-iron within 42 inches of the cup. When nobody else birdied, it was Rodriquez’s to win.

“I was really nervous,” he said. “That looked like the longest 3 1/2-foot putt I ever saw.

“You can’t really call that a tense situation. A tense situation is when you walk through Central Park alone.”

Palmer has always been Rodriguez’s idol, and in both skins victories Palmer had a hand.

“Last year I wasn’t playing well and Arnie gave me 6 golf balls,” Rodriguez said. For this one Palmer gave him the metal driver.

Kidding Palmer, Rodriguez said, “It was really a Jack Nicklaus driver. Arnie just put his name on top. I asked Arnie why he didn’t try one.”

Last year after winning the skins, Rodriguez had an off year. He doesn’t expect that to happen this year, though.

“I have given up cigarettes for good,” he said. “I usually quit Dec. 19, but by late spring I’m smoking again. Not this time. The nicotine is out of my system. I feel strong. I enjoy getting up in the morning. I’m going to have a big year.”

Player, who called this the best ever skins game, said it was a great format for golf.

“It was the most enjoyable and most exciting event I ever was a part of,” he said.