Maldonados get tournament two-fer

CLOVIS - For David Maldonado Sr., golf is a serious hobby.

"It's just something you love to do," he said. "Some people like to fish, I like to play golf."

A two-time winner of the Clovis city championship, Maldonado admitted frustration after shooting a 4-over-par 76 in the opening round of the two-day event, played Sept. 12-13 at Colonial Park Golf Course.

The saving grace was that his son, David Jr., was playing lights out. The younger Maldonado shot 69-68 - 137 and posted a 10-stroke victory. David Sr. tied for second with Jake Adkins, who had won the last two championships himself.

It was the first time in 20 years both a father and son have won the event. Maldonado Sr., a 1997 Clovis High graduate, first won in 2007, when it was played at the old Municipal Golf Course, and again in 2016 at Colonial Park.

"I just thought it was kind of cool," he said. "(Longtime local golfer) Daniel Tapia said he'd never heard of any father and son winning the tournament before."

The last father-son pair to win the city championship was John Wright (first title, 1996) and son Joe (first title, 2000).

Maldonado Jr. graduated from CHS in 2018, where he played varsity golf from the time he was a freshman.

Of the city championship, he said he was simply focused on playing up to his abilities.

"I was just trying to play some golf, and that's what happened," he said of winning the event. "I was just trying to treat it like another tournament."

The elder Maldonado said his son has had golf clubs in his hands since he was about 2 years old.

"I've always had him around the game," he said. "Ever since he was little, he always had his plastic clubs and was hitting the ball around."

The younger Maldonado, who spent a semester at Texas Tech and is currently taking classes online at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, hadn't played in the city championship for a couple of years, admitting that he wanted to get away from the game for a while.

This year, though, he started playing more again, and came back with a vengeance in the city championships.

"I'd been playing good this summer," he said. "I'd shot like 70 (at Colonial), but I hadn't shot in the 60s yet.

"It was kind of cool (in the tournament) because I hadn't shot that well on the front nines, but on the back nines I shot 32 both days."

The city championship moved to Colonial from Muni in 2011. Keaton Aucutt, who has been the course manager since last year, said he's looking to expand the event.

There were 53 participants this year, he noted, up from 29 in 2019. He said most of the participants are either local or have previous ties to the community.

"This year, we had a good turnout," Aucutt said. "We're hoping to get this thing bigger. We'd like to have a seniors flight and a ladies flight."