Jon Mason and his dad, Brad, play golf with one ball. In Level 2 golf at Special Olympics Virginia, an athlete and a Unified partner play alternate shot, trading swings until the ball is in the hole. Jon’s partner is Brad.
“It gives me a way to connect with him outside of being a parent,” Brad said. “Golf is truly a lifelong sport.”
Jon found Special Olympics as a freshman at Paul VI Catholic High School, where he played soccer, basketball and track. Golf started earlier, at the driving range with Brad in middle school. When the family found the golf program on the Special Olympics Virginia website, Jon started with the program’s practices at Topgolf and went on to compete in Special Olympics golf.
“Golf is his main thing,” Brad said.
Jon has Williams syndrome, a rare genetic condition that affects about 1 in 10,000 people. It slowed his physical development. “Everything on him is delayed by a couple of years,” Brad said.
It also tends to make people very social, and Jon is no exception. “Jon is sort of more boisterous than most,” Brad said. “But just by a smidge.”
When Jon was younger, the end of a game was hard for him, win or lose. Golf, where “nothing ever goes according to plan,” gave him room to work through it.
“Special Olympics gave him the opportunity and the grace to mature through that process,” Brad said. “This is something we didn’t know until we started playing.”
For Brad, that’s the point of the competition. “It gives [athletes] a chance to develop without pressure, and develop the competitive spirit,” he said. “Just like everybody else, they want to win.”
Off the course, Jon plays drums. He’s played percussion since fifth grade, performed with Paul VI’s fife and drum corps and played the drum kit at the Marine Corps Marathon. He’s now in the Mason LIFE program at George Mason University, where he plans to study music.
He also collects things. Right now it’s rocks, kept in cups, in bags and all over the place.
Then there are the hats. “He actively collects hats on a daily basis,” Brad said. “That is really his guilty pleasure.”
Jon has been competing all fall season.
Wherever Jon goes, people know him. Brad is fine being known as Jon’s dad.
“That’s who I am,” he said. “That’s my title.”
