Apr 7, 2002 By Hal Bock Associated Press 4 min read

Chi Chi Rodriguez has always approached golf with a grin, a sensible policy given the frustrations of the game. He celebrates good shots with a trademark swashbuckling wave of his club, looking like a pirate after making a putt. These days, though, Rodriguez isn’t quite so happy-go-lucky. Not when he sees the way organizers lay out courses as soon as the older players arrive in town.

“The senior tour is not as competitive as it used to be,” said Rodriguez, who is playing this weekend in the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf tournament at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla. “Now, the way the courses are, maybe 10 or 12 players can win.

“I’m not one of them.”

This is distressing for any player. It’s what caused Fred Couples to start talking about a tour for 30-something golfers, who are learning that they simply can’t challenge younger, stronger guys on a regular basis.

Rodriguez understands. He’s in the same situation.

Curiosity spiced with a healthy dose of nostalgia was the formula that made the Social Security tour successful in the first place. Now, though, Rodriguez has genuine concerns about it.

“We are a show tour,” he said. “We put on a show for the fans. When you do that, you’ve got to smile. But when you shoot 75 or 77, well, it’s hard to make a monkey grin without giving him a banana.

“We play courses longer than the ones they play on the regular tour and greens that are harder. I like to see scores between 70 and 78. That’s OK. But 79-82, that’s not.”

The over-50 senior tour seemed an intriguing idea when it was first developed, a way to keep the game’s familiar names playing.

Rodriguez admits he had his doubts about its prospects.

“I didn’t think it would be this big,” he said. “It has been phenomenal. In America, anything is possible.”

The seniors got a major boost when Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus retired from the weekly tour and moved on to the graybeard division, leaving a week-to-week list of mostly anonymous younger players to win the regular tournaments.

And the seniors supplied some magical moments.

In the 1979 Legends event, Roberto DeVicenzo and Julius Boros strung eight straight birdies to beat Tommy Bolt and Art Wall in a captivating display of give-and-take golf shotmaking.

It was a bold statement that these old guys still could play.

Rodriguez won 22 tournaments, almost three times as many as he did on the regular PGA Tour. But his last victory came nine years ago. He blames the courses and believes the tour has to step back and take a good, long look at itself.

“It has grown in money, but we have lost a lot of fans and ratings,” he said. “We need to act. We have to move to ease up on the courses.

“When you run a business and it goes bad, you go back to basics. We’ve got to learn that lesson.”

Further complicating the situation for the seniors is the best shotmaker of them all – Tiger Woods.

“When Tiger came along, the regular tour became the main show again,” Rodriguez said. “We’re a show tour. The other is the competitive tour.”

The show tour still has its fan base. The $2.5 million Legends is an appetizer for next week’s Masters, and ABC, airing this weekend’s action, hopes that results in solid ratings. Rodriguez would settle for a solid score.

“I shoot in the 60s,” he said. “I’m still strong. I can pop it 265, 270 yards.”

Rodriguez remains among the top 10 in driving average but not among the top 75 in earnings.

He expressed genuine concern about the way the senior tour evolved.

“I worry about it,” he said. “I did a little to make the tour what it is. I worry about what will happen in the future.

“I’m looking at what’s good for the tour, not for me. I’ll be gone in one or two years. I’m 66 now and I’ll play until I’m maybe 70. I’ll always play a few. That will be enough.”

And while he’s still at it, he’d just like a chance to win one now and then.