Chi Chi Rodriguez Golf Club

Few golfers become iconic enough to have a course named after them in their adopted home state, but Juan "Chi Chi" Rodriguez — the Puerto Rican-born showman who turned professional golf into performance art with his trademark sword dance — earned that distinction in the Tampa Bay area he long called home. The course bearing his name in Clearwater carries the spirit of the man himself: approachable, lively, and built for the kind of golfer who just wants to enjoy the game.

Clearwater sits on Florida's Pinellas Peninsula, where the Gulf Coast light is flat and bright, the air carries salt even miles inland, and the vegetation runs to palms, saw palmetto, and the occasional water hazard that seems to materialize from nowhere. It's a market dense with public golf options, which means a course here has to earn its regulars.

The par-69 layout signals a design that favors shot-making and scoring over raw power — shorter par 4s and a layout that rewards placement and imagination over the driver, which feels entirely fitting for a course honoring golf's greatest entertainer.