David Ragaini

David Ragaini (b. May 14th, 1942 in New Haven, CT) is a singer, golfer, and the subject of a feature in Ripley's Believe It Or Not.
During a long career in New York City, Ragaini sang over 4,000 radio and tv jingles, and provided background vocals in concerts, and on tv and recordings for such stars as Judy Garland, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and a host of others.(1) In 1998, Ragaini and his wife Nicole (nee Gagnon), a popular French-Canadian singer whom he met 24 years earlier on a session in Montreal, recorded a well-received cd of their favorite love songs from the Golden Age of Popular Music entitled "Love Looks So Well On You".(2)
A golfer from the age of 11, Ragaini has won numerous events, the biggest being the 1971 Westchester Open, where he defeated 150 of the Metropolitan New York area's best professionals and amateurs, including former Masters and PGA Champion Doug Ford, PGA Tour stars Bill Collins, Don Massengale and Larry Laoretti, and Dick Siderowf, twice a British Amateur Champion.(3) His other wins include the 1992 National Senior-Junior Championship.(4) He was also runner-up in the 1997 American Seniors Stroke Play Championship.(5)
Ragaini was featured in Ripley's Believe It Or Not in 1972 when, playing golf on his knees to win a bet, he scored a hole-in-one on the 207-yard 13th hole at Wykagyl Country Club in New Rochelle, New York.(6)
Notes: (1): AFTRA member: 1967-present, SAG member 1968-present. (2): Disc # RAG-0001-2. (3): Golf at Yale, by John A. Godley and William W. Kelly, Marvelwood Press, 2009; : Westchester Open Champions; N.Y. Times: June 23rd, 1971. (4): Golf World, February 27th, 1992. (5): American Seniors Golf Association archives. (6): King Features Syndicate, Inc., 1972; Sports illustrated, May 1st, 1972.

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