Off the Fringe
The $1.5 million Turtle Bay Championship is right around the corner and the list of players that have signed up for the Senior PGA Tour event on the North Shore from Oct. 1-7 is impressive, to say the least. The best of the Senior
Tour coming to isleAllen Doyle, second only to Bruce Fleisher on the money list, tops the star-studded field.
He will be joined by, among others, Kaanapali Classic winners George Archer (1993), Bob Charles ('90, '95, '96), Bob Murphy ('94), and Jay Siegel ('98). Also on the list are Chi Chi Rodriguez, Ed Dougherty, Dale Douglass, Dave Eichelberger, Allen Doyle, Hubert Green, Jim Thorpe and Gary Player.
Hilo's Steve Veriato, who captured his first Senior PGA Tour event when he won the Novell Utah Showdown last month, and Lance Suzuki from Kahuku will represent Hawaii.
The one name on the list that caught my eye was Chi Chi's.
I got an upclose and personal view of Rodriguez a few years ago at the Waialae Country Club during the Hawaiian Open. He was giving a pre-tournament clinic and I, like so many in the crowd of about 200 or so, found out he was just as zany and funny as TV networks made him out to be.
He joked, was witty and quick to adapt with the local crowd.
Sure Chi Chi was married to a local girl, the former Iwalani Lum-King of Waimanalo, but I'm sure he could have adapted to a crowd anywhere.
And did I say he could swing a mean stick?
You had to be there, but Rodriguez pulled off a trick that I never saw before and haven't seen since. What he did was hit two balls in succession -- the first one hooked, the second sliced. And just like Chi Chi called it, the two balls collided in mid-air 150 yards away.
And he attempted the trick once. Just one time.
Amazing.
Chi Chi might need more than trick shots to beat the field for next month's inaugural Turtle Bay Championships. But there's one thing he won't need to get the crowd's support -- and that's charisma.
Admission to the tournament, Oct. 5-7, at the Arnold Palmer course at the Turtle Bay Resort will be $10. A Senior Pro Tour Challenge set for Oct. 2 is free.
Star-Bulletin assistant sports editor Randy Cadiente is a once-a-week hacker who carries a 15-handicap. He can be reached at 529-4785 or: rcadiente@starbulletin.com