CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Oso Beach Golf Course is home to the Wall of Champions for the Corpus Christi City Championship. The first golf tournament champion was won by Carroll Weaver in 1950, but the last champion for medal play was Stephen Litz in 2019. Now after a six year hiatus, a group of locals are bringing it back to Corpus Christi.
"I think for one it's nostalgic for all of the past champions prior to myself," said Carroll 2016 grad Troy Lopez. "I'm lucky to win both championships a couple of different times."
Lopez is a 2-time Medal Play Open Tournament Champion (2016, 2018) and the 2019 Match Play winner. The Texas A&M Kingsville golf coach is very familiar with these greens.
"You know playing here at Oso the show doesn't start until after you get on the back nine where you have no more par 5's to play and you have par 3's and par 4's and all types of different types of wind directions," Lopez said. "Being able to be a past Champion here is amazing because you look at the long illustrious list of winners."
A list that has not added a winner in six years. 23-year-old Riley Riethman from near Fort Worth moved to Corpus Christi in February. He was eager to swing on the links, but instead landed in a bunker.
"Figured there was a City Championship that I could play in and there wasn't and I was shocked. He said we could put it on if I worked out all of the details for him and everything."
That's when Riethman had his work cut out for him. He needed support, which he found from Flour Bluff 2004 grad Mario Martucci the owner of S2G Golf.
"I was all on board because we wanted to support the event and the mission. Be part of the team that brought back the Corpus Christi City Championship."
This year's City Championship is a 36-hole 2-day Medal Play style tournament split into four divisions, Open, Senior which is 55-plus, and newly added Junior Boys and Junior Girls ages 18-and-under.
"We have about 20-plus signed up right now in the junior division, so we're really excited to see because that's the future of the game."
So far 3 former champions have signed up to test their skills off the tee, but registration is open to all who crave to compete.
"I know golf is a huge thing here that just unfortunately the Championship got shut down after COVID, and sounds like that was a real shame to a lot of guys. We're just glad to be able to bring that back."
The Corpus Christi City Championship, which is a 2-day event begins on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Oso Beach Golf Course. We'll find out who will be crowned the Champion.
