Beyond just playing the same sport, professional golfer Scottie Scheffler and W&L golfer Jonathan McEwen, ’27, are strikingly similar.
Scheffler was the 2024 PGA Tour Player of the Year. He had a scoring average of 68.6 last year and is currently the No. 1 golfer in the world. This year, Scheffler’s sights are set on winning tour events and other major championships.
McEwen was the 2024 Division III Phil Mickelson Freshman of the Year. He has a scoring average of 68.5 this year and is currently the No. 1 golfer in Division III. This year, McEwen hopes to win both the individual and team NCAA Championships.
While the similarity of these accolades is uncanny, only one of the two golfers doesn’t have a win in 2025. This golfer has also been arrested. Hint: It’s not McEwen.
Jokes aside, McEwen is on a tear this year. He has won three out of four events this spring and has not finished lower than third place.
While McEwen said he is playing the best golf of his life, he has still faced adversity during his career.
After finding success as a young junior golfer, he struggled to adjust to the longer and more difficult courses that came with playing high school golf.
McEwen addressed this struggle by making a swing change and quitting baseball to focus solely on golf.
“By my junior year in high school, I turned it around,” he said. “I realized that [golf] could be something that I could do in college and do potentially after college.”
During a solid senior season, McEwen explored his options for playing golf in college. He received an offer to play golf at Longwood University, but he said after a visit to Washington and Lee, he knew where he wanted to play.
“I looked at my dad and said, ‘That’s where I want to be,’” McEwen said. “I put all my eggs in the W&L basket.”
While McEwen felt he was good enough to play on the team, he thought that getting in would be more of a challenge due to Washington and Lee’s high academic standards.
Fortunately for both him and the W&L golf program, McEwen was accepted during the early decision round in 2022.
During the fall of 2023, McEwen arrived on campus, but he said he struggled on the golf course by his standards. He had an average finish of 30th in the fall tournaments, which included some of the worst finishes of his career.
“I had a difficult time adjusting during my freshman fall. I think that impacted my game,” he said.
While some would have gotten discouraged, McEwen didn’t. “I knew that I could play better,” he said.
During the off-season, McEwen made a small swing change in his posture. He said the improvement in his ball striking made all the difference. He came out firing in the spring and finished second in the Savannah Invitational, the first spring tournament.
Soon enough, McEwen became the team’s top player, averaging 70.7 for the year. He ended the season as the 16th-ranked golfer in Division III. At NCAA DIII Nationals, he shot a 65 in one round, his best collegiate score at the time.
These accomplishments were enough to earn him the Division III Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award.
McEwen also said the award gave him the chance for an exciting opportunity: to meet the greatest left-handed golfer of all time, Phil Mickelson.
“I reached out to Phil’s PR team, and they contacted me back saying that Phil would love to meet me and take a picture with the award,” McEwen said.
When he returned to campus in the fall, McEwen knew the 2024-2025 team was special.
“It was really nice that the freshmen came in, and the seniors came back playing well,” he said.
During the fall, the team caught fire and vaulted to No. 1 in the polls. In the process, they also broke the school records for single-day and 54-hole scoring.
In the off-season, the team continued to work. McEwen said he saw his teammates working much harder in the simulator than they had during the previous winter.
When asked if the team has a chance to win a national championship, McEwen didn’t hesitate: “100%.”
“I think the potential to win a national championship is at an all-time high for the program,” he said.
The Generals were the No. 1 team in Division III, but they have since been overtaken by Methodist University. Although the team fell in the ranks, McEwen has become the No. 1 golfer in Division III.
The best part of McEwen’s game is his driving ability. “The thing that keeps me in every tournament is getting off the tee,” he said.
McEwen said his drives carry around 285 yards. He says that while this is only slightly above average for Division III, he rarely misses fairways and almost never hits balls out of play.
“I haven’t had to take a penalty shot this spring,” McEwen said.
Given McEwen’s astounding individual success, it is only natural to wonder how he would fare at a higher level.
When asked about how his game compares with that of the average Division I golfer, McEwen said, “I think if I played DI and played well, I could compete. I think my ceiling is good enough to compete with them.”
Fortunately for W&L, McEwen’s ceiling is definitely high enough to compete against Division III golfers. He has won more tournaments than he has lost this spring, and he said he hopes to ride this momentum to nationals.
The Old Dominion Athletic Conference championships will begin on April 28. In May, McEwen will look to lead the Generals to their first national championship, something even Scottie Scheffler never did.
