PALM DESERT — Turlock High senior-to-be Christian Maggard shot a par 72 on Thursday during the final round of the three-day Callaway World Championships, finishing the Future Champions Golf Tour event at 4-under-par and tied for 17th place.
“I didn’t have my best game,” said Maggard. “I had my C game out there. Considering that, I didn’t think par was too bad. Obviously, I wanted to go a little bit lower. That would’ve been nice. But, sometimes, you have to take them as they come.”
Playing the same Mountain View course at the Desert Willow Golf Resort on which he shot 2-under 70 in the opening round, Maggard started with a birdie on the 398-yard par-4 first hole. Still, he said he didn’t feel like he was off to a hot start.
“It was a bit of a struggle birdie,” said Maggard. “I duck-hooked my tee shot into a bunker and I had about 115 left. I hit a sand wedge to within about 3 feet and I was lucky to make the putt because it wasn’t an ideal look.”
He gave it right back with a bogey on No. 2, then bogeyed the fifth before getting back to even with a birdie on No. 7.
On the back nine, Maggard carded a birdie on the par-5 12th, followed by a bogey on the par-3 13th. He finished the round with five consecutive pars.
Maggard won the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters championship as a sophomore at The Reserve in Stockton. Last season, as a junior, he took the section’s Division 2 individual title, but finished tied for 18th a week later a the Masters.
Like teammate Clark Van Gaalen, who drew interest from college scouts across the country and will now play for the University of Oklahoma, Maggard is also on the scouts’ radar
“I do have one offer on the table right now,” said Maggard, who indicated that it’s from a Division I university. “But right now I’m just trying to figure out some things.”
Up next for Maggard is an American Junior Golf Association tournament in Charlotte, N.C. in mid-August.
The FCG Tour is the player development tour for some of the game’s best young players. Major champions Colin Morikawa (2020 PGA; 2021 British) and Xander Schauffele (2024 PGA) are FCG alums.
More than 3,500 FCG Tour players have gone on to play collegiate golf, according to the FCG Tour website.