As a kid growing up in Coquitlam, A.J. Ewart never struggled when it came to figuring out what he was going to do for a living. Almost from the moment his dad, Brad, first took him to Westwood Plateau, the course not far from his childhood home, A.J. knew that golf was in his future.
He would be a professional golfer and one day, he hoped, would play on the PGA TOUR. Fast forward about 20 years and Ewart has not only made it to the PGA TOUR, he is proving that he belongs. Ewart’s rookie season on the PGA TOUR has been rock solid. The 26-year-old has made seven of his first 10 cuts and settled in nicely on professional golf’s biggest stage.
Ewart’s positive start to his rookie season has helped calm any nerves he was feeling about beginning his journey on the PGA TOUR. “It’s kind of reassured me that this is where I belong,” Ewart, a graduate of Gleneagle High School, said in a recent interview with British Columbia Golf. “It’s been so much fun to be out here.”
Ewart began his season in Hawaii at the Sony Open. He described his welcome to the PGA TOUR moment as sitting in the locker-room and seeing so many guys he had previously watched compete on television. Now he was one of them. “I was like, okay, this is the show,” Ewart said. “This is my reality now.”
Ewart is enjoying a two-week break after playing lots of golf the past three months. “I just played six straight weeks and was feeling pretty tired, but you know, you are just pumped up with so much adrenaline every week.” At his most recent event, the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio, play was interrupted by some heavy rain. Being a Coquitlam guy, Ewart had played in far worse conditions.
Ewart Accepts The 2022 NCAA Div. II Jack Nicklaus Award From The 'Golden Bear' Himself
“So you gotta go out there again,” one of the tournament volunteers joked to Ewart as he was heading back out after a rain delay. Ewart said he remembers thinking, “Actually, I don’t mind doing this at all. It’s pretty cool. I could be at home in Coquitlam and sitting in my basement. So actually, it’s nice to be out here and playing.”
And playing well. Ewart has already made $593,701 in official money this year and stood 69th on the PGA TOUR’s points list as Masters week began. His biggest payday came at the Valspar Championship in March, where he tied for 11th and made $211,575. He earned that finish the hard way. After double-bogeying his 17th hole in the second round that week, Ewart birdied his final hole to make the 36-hole cut on the number. He followed that up with weekend rounds of 68 and 67 to narrowly miss his first top 10.
“I made kind of a silly double, so I was a little angry about that,” Ewart said. “I knew I had to make that 15- or 20-footer for birdie on 18 to make the cut. Obviously, it was great to be able to go out the next two days and play well and climb the leaderboard.”
Ewart’s other highlight this season came at another Florida event, the Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, where he fired a seven-under 64 in the second en route to a T13 finish.
Ewart’s impressive start to his rookie season had fellow British Columbian Dick Zokol thinking about his rookie year on the PGA TOUR many years ago. Zokol struggled mightily in his early days on tour and that has given him an appreciation for the way Ewart and fellow Canadian rookie Sudarshan Yellamaraju have started their PGA TOUR careers.
“We have not seen two (Canadian) players come out of the blocks so fast like Sudarshan and A.J.,” Zokol said. Zokol had a hunch Ewart would perform well on the PGA TOUR when he watched him win PGA TOUR qualifying school this past December.
“When I watched A.J. play the final round of the qualifying school I was so impressed,” said Zokol, who went to Q-school more times than he cares to remember. “That’s as much pressure as you can face and I was amazed at how well he was able to stay so present in the moment and execute the shots to the high level that he did.”
That impressive Q-school performance came after Ewart experienced some profound disappointment late last summer at the PGA Tour Americas’ season-ending Tour Championship at Morgan Creek Golf Course in Surrey. Ewart entered that event 12th on the points list and had a real opportunity to move up into the top 10 and claim a Korn Ferry Tour card for 2026.
While disappointed after missing the cut at Morgan Creek, Ewart stated that day that he’d just have to get to the Korn Ferry Tour the hard way, via Q-school. It turns out he got to skip the Korn Ferry Tour altogether after winning Q-school and gaining one of those five prized PGA TOUR cards that were up for grabs.
It’s a big jump from the PGA Tour Americas to the PGA TOUR, one that Ewart seems to be making seamlessly. The courses and course set-ups are much more challenging than most the tracks he faced on the PGA Tour Americas circuit.
“They reward quality golf shots and penalize bad ones,” Ewart said. “It’s a birdie-fest a lot of the time on the PGA Tour Americas. Some weeks are like that here as well, but there’s a higher demand to hit quality golf shots into the right areas and leaving yourself in the right spots or missing in the right spots.”
The biggest difference, however, is the money. That 211 grand that Ewart earned for his tie for 11th finish at the Valspar was more than five times the amount he made for winning an event on the PGA Tour Americas circuit. And of course, there are plenty of other perks that come with being a PGA TOUR member. Like courtesy cars at every event. No more Ubers or rental cars.
A.J. Ewart Holds His Card After Shooting 59 At Uplands GC In Victoria In The PGA Tour Americas Times Colonist Open. On The Left Is A.J. With The BC Golf Bantam Boys Trophy & On The Right He Holds The Juvenile Boys Trophy
“We got BMWs at the American Express (in La Quinta), which was nice,” said Ewart, who got some advice from fellow Canadian player Taylor Pendrith on courtesy cars. “He was like, ‘what you gotta do is when you finally win a tournament, you buy that car that you had that week.’”
Despite some nice paydays to start the season, Ewart hasn’t made any really big purchases. “I’m not really a big spender,” he said. “And I really haven’t had much time to buy anything. I would say my next big purchase will probably be an apartment in Scottsdale.”
Ewart heads back out on Tour in late April at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. He does not yet know who is partner will be for that two-man team event, but Tyler Bakich will continue to walk alongside him as his caddie.
Bakich is a former teammate of Ewart’s at Barry University in Florida, where Ewart broke many of the records set by fellow PGA TOUR member Adam Svensson of Surrey. “A lot of people were advising me to get a veteran caddie and I understand that,” Ewart said. “But there’s the comfortability aspect to it. It’s important to have someone you can stand when you spend five or six hours a day together. Just having a friend out there I can trust and talk to in the heat in the moment is important.Tyler has been a great help to me.”
Now that he’s had the start he had hoped for, Ewart hopes to continue to build momentum as the long season progresses. He knows that nothing is a given on the PGA TOUR and with only 100 fully exempt spots it is tougher than ever to keep your card.
“I’m not a huge goal-setter,” he said. “But I want to get into contention as much as I can. I love being in those situations and I want to do that as much as I can. Beyond that, I just want to continue to learn and improve and just keep having fun. That’s the main thing.”
In other words, keep living the dream.