From Rare Disease to Pro-Am: Reagan Fields of Manvel HS Is Headed to Prairie View

At six years old, Reagan Fields could barely walk. A diagnosis of hereditary spastic paraplegia — a rare condition that attacks small blood vessels and inflames joints — left the young Manvel student unable to move through a shopping trip at Pearland Town Center without her mother carrying her out of the store. A second opinion at Texas Children's Hospital confirmed what doctors suspected, and the road to recovery began.

Years later, Fields is not only walking — she's driving the ball down the fairway with enough power to impress a PGA Tour veteran. The Manvel High School senior won an individual district golf title in the spring of 2026 and earned a spot in the Texas Children's Hospital Houston Open Pro-Am, where she was paired with Rickie Fowler. Fowler, one of the golfers Fields follows closely, helped her with alignment and course management throughout the round. At one point, the group played her ball. His assessment afterward: she just hits it too good.

Fields credits her distance and putting as her strongest assets on the course — tools she's developed since first picking up a club around age seven. She made the Manvel golf team and built a game that now has her headed to Prairie View A&M University, her mother's alma mater and a program that recently claimed a conference title.

Off the course, Fields volunteers weekly at Hermann Park through the Journey Through 18 Foundation, mentoring younger girls in the program. Her story — from a rare childhood diagnosis to a collegiate golf scholarship — has made her something of an ambassador for the community that helped her heal.