PALM DESERT, Calif. — Palm Desert High School junior Max Margolis put his name in the record book of a local country club Sunday and erased the name of a PGA Tour major champion at the same time.
Propelled by a rare albatross on the 17th hole, Margolis fired an 8-under 63 from the back tees at Stone Eagle Golf Club in Palm Desert. That broke the record from those tees set by former PGA Championship winner Jason Day in 2022.
“From the tips. I was playing with three members there, one of them I know pretty well,” said Margolis, who turned 17 just two days earlier. “I was lucky to be invited up there. But from the tips all the way around. I putted everything out. It’s validated by the pro shop, by all the pros there.”
The round on the hilly Stone Eagle Course started with a stumble when Margolis had a three-putt bogey on the first hole. He actually had two bogeys in the round, but was still 5 under when he stepped on the tee of the par-5 17th.
“It was 565 yards. A good driver. I had it 260 yards and playing 15 yards uphill, so it was 275,” Margolis said. “I couldn’t see where the pin was really, and you had to carry a bunker. And I hit the best 3-wood of my life.
“We got up there and we couldn’t see my ball,” Margolis added. “We went and checked the hole and that little thing was in there. It was pretty cool.”
The 7,012-yard back tees at Stone Eagle were added just six years ago, when original architect Tom Doak and his team added 172 yards to the course with six new back tee boxes and stretching out some other holes. There had been a 60 shot on the course from the shorter back tees, but from the current back tees, Margolis now owns the record alone.