James A. Ragan Memorial Set for October 11-12

The Legends Junior Tour heads to Corpus Christi Country Club on October 11-12 for the 2026 James A. Ragan Memorial. It is the tour’s first event of October and the second-to-last chance for players to earn points in the Player of the Year Points Race, presented by Huntington Bank.

“We are excited to return to Corpus Christi Country Club for another edition of the James A. Ragan Memorial,” said tournament manager Preston Vinzant. “This is always a special event that means a lot to the players and to the Legends Junior Tour.”

Some spots on the Jackie Burke Cup roster are already secured, but several players still need points to earn a place representing the North or South Region.

“You see the best come out of these players in the last few events of the season,” Vinzant said. “They know the season is coming to a close, and every point is crucial in the race for Player of the Year and a spot on the Jackie Burke Cup.”

Ragan, a Corpus Christi native, began competing on the Legends Junior Tour in 2008 and recorded three top-25 finishes. In 2010, he won the Jimmy Demaret Junior Classic and earned a spot on the Jackie Burke Cup. He also received the tour’s inaugural Sportsmanship Award, which was renamed in his honor the following year.

Diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer at 13, Ragan founded the Triumph Over Kid Cancer Foundation, which has raised more than $3 million for cancer research. James would pass away in February 2014.

The tournament was played at Corpus Christi Country Club, Ragan’s home course, from 2017 to 2021. It moved temporarily to Lozano Golf Center in 2022 while the club renovated its course. That project, championed by member Ham Rogers, followed a 2021 membership vote to modernize the layout.

Corpus Christi Country Club has been a cornerstone of golf and community life in South Texas for more than a century. Its first course, a nine-hole layout designed by Fred McLeod, opened on North Beach in 1909, with President William Howard Taft hitting the ceremonial first tee shot. After a 1919 hurricane destroyed the course, the club reopened in 1922 on Up River Road with a nine-hole John Bredemus design that later expanded to 18 holes.

The club moved to its current site on Everhart Road in 1965, where Robert Trent Jones Sr. designed the layout still in play today. Over the years, it has hosted events on the Texas PGA, LPGA, Ben Hogan and Tight Lies tours, along with the July 4 Invitational, which ran from 1934 to 1987.

In 2022, architect Chet Williams led a renovation that modernized the course while preserving its coastal character, with updated greens, bunkers and fairways featuring TifEagle and TifTuf Bermudagrass.

“Corpus Christi is a phenomenal member club of the Texas Golf Association,” Vinzant said. “They have produced multiple state champions and have been home to the James A. Ragan Memorial for some time. The course offers plenty of risk-reward situations, and the green complexes always make for challenging conditions.”

Brayden Verret of Farmers Branch won the Boys Division with rounds of 70-69 to finish at 5 under. It was his second win of the 2025 season after moving up to the Boys Division following the Texas Junior Amateur.

Coppell’s Alicia Bellendir, a Mississippi State commit, won the Girls Division at 4 under after rounds of 73-67.

Isiah Diaz of Del Rio won the Boys 14 & Under Division on the first playoff hole over Lincoln Rubis. It was his fourth of five wins in the 2025 season.

The 2026 James A. Ragan Memorial is a 36-hole stroke-play event with a limited field of 84 players. The first round begins Sunday, Oct. 11, at 8 a.m. off Nos. 1 and 10.

To learn more about the James A. Ragan Memorial, click here. To learn more about Triumph over Kids Cancer, click here. To view Player of the Year Points Race, presented by Huntington Bank, click here.