As a kid, freshman Joseph Elkhal was inspired by his dad and uncle to play golf, a sport that has been part of his family since he was young. Early on, he improved his skills by going to golf camps and learning from the two of them.

After around a year or two, he started playing more seriously. With the support of his dad, he played competitively in tournaments, where he said he was determined to win. 

When he played casually, golf helped him relax. Now, he plays for the La Salle boys golf team, which he said has helped him find a close community at La Salle.

To Elkhal, consistency is an important factor in golf despite how difficult it is to achieve when playing.

“Some days, you’d be doing great,” he said. “But then other days, you cannot hit a ball … One small mistake could cause you to hit your ball out of bounds or not even get it off the ground.”

Something he found supported his performance was patience. Because of golf, he learned not only the importance of patience with others, but with himself and his performance.

This year, he started playing on the varsity team, and he has been competing against more skilled players. 

“It shows you how good some people can be if they put the work into it,” he said. “That just motivates me to put more work into it.”

Elkhal explained that his golf practices require him to improve how he manages time and balance his academic workload. He said that he usually has to get his work done early in the morning or later in the afternoon because practices take up a significant portion of his day.

Outside of golf, the classes he puts the most effort in are English and Spanish — with the latter being his third language — so he sometimes struggles to understand and process the class’s content. He finds that the process of writing in English often takes him a significant amount of time.

Science and math are subjects that he prefers, explaining that he always had an affinity towards STEM subjects. 

These subjects make up a lot of his ambitions for the future, as he aspires to become an engineer, currently leaning toward structural engineering in particular. His love for Legos at a young age is what he attributes his fascination for engineering to, as he often constructed creations with his father and uncle. 

While he tried other hobbies and sports, such as snowboarding, he ultimately decided that golf was the one he was most called to.

Elkhal has two sisters, including junior Zayna Elkhal, who currently plays on the girls golf team at La Salle.

Elkhal intends to attend a college that is local or that has a reputable engineering program. In college, he hopes to play golf and plans to continue it throughout the rest of his life, as to him, it is a sport without age restrictions.

The advice he’d give to younger athletes is to stay determined.

“Don’t give up,” he said. “Keep working through it. I know it’s gonna be difficult, but once you get to a certain point, you’ll be glad you kept going.”