J unior S PortSPerSon of tHe y ear Matthew Lafond –––––––––––––––––––––––– –––––––––––––––––––––––– BY TONY REGINA BLUE BELL COUNTRY CLUB school or self. Lafond certainly won’t mind scribing his latest assignment: an acceptance speech. He is the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior Sportsperson of the Year. “It’s an honor to know that the people around me like playing golf with me,” Lafond, 16, of Blue Bell, Pa., said. “Obviously, when I’m on the golf course, I’m trying to stay fo-cused. But I also want to be nice to everyone. I feel like it’s very important for my game and others’ games: to be very positive and nice to everyone. If you’re being negative toward people, then it’s going to show in your score.” “It has been a privilege to watch Matthew mature as both a golfer and a young man since he first participated in our Pre-Junior Event back in 2012,” Chris Roselle, the Association’s Tournament Director, added. “Whether it’s stepping in to caddie for his younger brother Kevin or thanking the nearest GAP volunteer, Mat-thew’s respect for the game and his fellow competitors is always on full display.” Caddying isn’t the sole method through which Lafond supports Kevin, 14, on the golf course. Sure, the motiva-tion is there as the two nudge each other to improve as players. But Matthew acts as a model of good sportsmanship for his sibling, too. “I just feel that if I show him the wrong way to act on the course, then he’s going to do it to other people. They’re going to think bad things about him,” Matthew, a Blue Bell Country Club member, said. “I always want to show Kevin the right way. It’s not that I’m telling him what to do or he’s telling me what to do. We challenge each other. We make each other better.” W riting is what makes English Matthew Lafond’s favorite subject. He enjoys putting pen to paper, whether sufficing Connecting the conduct code of dots is Mark Lafond, who introduced his sons to the game. “He’s always very positive on the course. He taught me that from a young age,” Mat-thew, a junior at La Salle College High School, said. “My dad is a big role model for Kevin and for me.” Outside of family, Matthew is surrounded by positivity among his peers at Blue Bell. That support system spurred success this summer. Lafond, Anthony Barr and Buddy Hansen, IV brought home Blue Bell’s first GAP Junior Team Championship title. “We’re always pushing each other to do better,” Lafond said. “We have a group of 12 Juniors that get together and plays on any given day in the summer. [The Junior golf program] at Blue Bell is awesome.” The Junior Team Championship runs concur-rently with the qualifying round of the Junior Boys’ Championship. Lafond carded a 3-over-par 74 to gain a match play berth in the First Flight. He fell in the quarterfinals to St. Davids Golf Club’s Sam Walker, 2-up. A subsequent Top-15 finish in the Christman Cup at Whitford Country Club is also noteworthy. Although he reflects fondly on the afore-mentioned, Lafond cites his experience in the Jock MacKenzie Memorial as a summer stand-out. A score of 9 on a par 5 may not sound like a highlight, but it surprisingly set the stage for one. “I was in the middle of the No. 8 fairway and hit two balls out-of-bounds,” Lafond said. “I was 6 over thru eight holes. I tried to stay pos-itive and not lose my head out there. I talked to the kids in my group. I was just thinking to myself that I can always come in at 6 over or better. I stayed positive, had a good mindset and came in with a (5-over-par) 77.” Accepting one’s mistake, adhering to one’s attitudes. Perhaps that will suffice as a line in Lafond’s speech, should he incur writer’s block. 30
GAP Magazine 2018 Winter: Page 30
