Women's Golf
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- lewellkb@wfu.edu
- Phone:
- 336-758-5858
Lewellen earned a spot on the WGCA Coach of the Year watchlist this past May, while senior Carolina Chacarra, alongside Kovelesky, were both tabbed with All-American. honors; Chacarra first-team and Kovelesky honorable mention. Chacarra has been on the watchlist every year of her career, making her the fourth Deacon in program history to do so.
Wake Forest secured three team wins during the 2024-25 season, including a regional victory at the NCAA Lubbock Regional. The Demon Deacons continued to dominate as a match-play team after a semifinal victory over the No. 1 Stanford Cardinal during the semifinal round of the ACC Championship. Since the 2023 NCAA Championship year, Wake Forest is 18-3 in match play.
Coming off another championship season, coach Lewellen led the Demon Deacons to their third ACC title in six years and advanced to the NCAA Championship for the sixth consecutive season. The Deacs won four titles during the 2023-24 season, including the program’s eighth ACC title, which they won against Clemson at Porters Neck Country Club in Wilmington in April. One of Lewellen’s top recruits, freshman Mact Pate, earned the 2024 ACC Freshman of the Year and Lewellen was named the ACC Coach of the Year for the third time in six seasons and the sixth time in her career.Along with Pate, Rachel Kuehn, Carolina Chacarra and Mimi Rhodes all earned spots on the All-ACC Team. 2023-24 marked the third-consecutive year Wake Forest had four or more players earn All-League honors. Kuehn became a four-time All-ACC selection, and Chacarra and Rhodes are three-time selections.
Pate and Lewellen were also named to the respective watch lists for the Women’s Golf Coaches Association for Freshman of the Year and Coach of the Year. Pate, Kuehn and Chacarra all earned WGCA All-America honors at the conclusion of the championship while Rhodes earned NCAA All-America honors by finishing inside the top 15 at the Championships.
In her fifth season at the helm of the Demon Deacons, the 2023 WGCA National Coach of the Year Kim Lewellen led Wake Forest to the first national title in women's golf program history. En Route to becoming the 2023 champs, the Deacs also won a program-record five regular-season titles and had a program-record five All-ACC selections. Lewellen also coached four All-Americans and three Arnold Palmer Cup selections on the 2022-23 squad, along with the program's first-ever back-to-back ACC Player of the Year in Rachel Kuehn.
During the 2021-22 season, the ACC Coach of the Year led the Deacs’ to their second ACC title in four years and made an appearance at the NCAA Championships for the fourth year in a row. Including the ACC title, Wake Forest won a program-record five team titles this season and remained in the top-five of the Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll for the entirety of the spring season. At the conclusion of the 2021-22 season, Coach Lewellen was named the Southeast Regional Coach of the Year by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA).
Lewellen coached ACC Player of the Year Rachel Kuehn and ACC Freshman of the Year Carolina Chacarra, both of which earned WGCA All-America accolades. Wake Forest also had a program-record four players earn All-ACC recognition.
After fall golf was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Coach Lewellen was named the head coach of Team USA for the Summer 2021 Arnold Palmer Cup and had the Deacs ready to get back on the course. During the 2021 spring season, the Deacs finished inside the top 4 of every tournament they played, including wins at the Palmetto Intercollegiate and the Big Four Challenge. At ACC Championships, they finished second in stroke play before falling in the semifinals of match play to Florida State. They went on to finish second at the Stanford Regional in May to qualify for the program's third appearance in four years at the NCAA Championships. The Deacs made the cut for the final stroke play round of 15 but did not make match play and went home with a 12th place finish. Senior Siyun Liu and sophomores Rachel Kuehn and Lauren Walsh all earned All-ACC honors ahead of postseason play and Kuehn and Walsh were both named to the WGCA All-America Second Team after Championships.
Even though her second season was cut short, Kim Lewellen was still able to continue her successful reign leading the Wake Forest women's golf team. The team finished the 2019-20 season in March ranked No. 1 in Golfstat and No. 2 in Golfweek. Their final tournament appearance of the short season was a 26-stroke victory and individual title at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate. They had tallied three individual titles and four team titles before the season was canceled. She was also named the National Coach of the Year by the WGCA.
In her first season in Winston-Salem in 2018-19, she led the Demon Deacons to the best season in program history while earning ACC Coach of the Year honors for the fourth time in her career. The 2018-19 season was a memorable one for the Demon Deacons, who won three times, including the 2019 ACC Championship. Wake Forest reached match play at the NCAA Championship for the first time in program history, downing host Arkansas in the quarterfinals and Auburn in the semifinals before being edged by Duke, 3-2, in the championship match. The Deacs set the ACC 54-hole team scoring record with a 34-under performance to win the 2019 Bryan National Collegiate by 32 strokes. The team was led by a pair of first-team All-Americans, Jennifer Kupcho and Emilia Migliaccio. Kupcho won the inaugural Augusta National Women's Amateur and Migliaccio won the 2019 ACC individual title.
Lewellen came to Wake Forest after 11 seasons as the head coach at the University of Virginia. The fifth head coach in Demon Deacon women's golf history, she took over the program after Dianne Dailey retired following a 30-year tenure.
At Virginia, Lewellen led the Cavaliers to the 2015 and 2016 ACC Championships among nine overall team titles. In nine of her 11 seasons, Virginia advanced to the NCAA Championship, including back-to-back 4th place finishes in 2011 and 2012 and reaching the match play quarterfinals in 2016. Her Virginia teams featured 12 WGCA All-Americans, 18 All-ACC selections and 11 tournament medalists, including 2012 ACC Player of the Year Brittany Altomare and 2016 ACC Player of the Year Lauren Coughlin. In 2011, Lewellen was named the National College Coach of the Year by the LPGA.
Prior to arriving at Virginia, Lewellen was the head coach at East Carolina for two seasons. She led the Pirates to the program's first ever Conference USA Championship in 2006 and a runner-up finish in 2007. She began her collegiate coaching career in 2003-04 when she spent one season as the head coach of the men's and women's teams at The Citadel.
A 1993 graduate of the University of North Carolina with a degree in speech communications and psychology, Lewellen was a two-time All-ACC performer for the Tar Heels under her maiden name of Byham. She earned first-team All-America honors in 1993 as she won the NCAA East Regional during her senior season. In 2003 she was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference's 50th Anniversary Team.
Following her graduation, Lewellen played on the Women's European Professional Golf Tour in 1994-95 and on the Future's Professional Golf Tour from 1997 to 1999. She also competed in events on the LPGA Tour from 1993 to 1997.
Born in Salisbury, Md., Lewellen grew up in Raleigh, N.C., where she won back-to-back North Carolina state girls junior championships. She graduated from Broughton High School, earning all-conference honors while competing on the boys team.
She and her husband John, an Episcopal minister, have two sons, Jack and Simon.
| Lewellen's Year-by-Year Coaching Record | |||||||||
| Season/School | Titles | Conf. | All-Conf. | NCAA Reg. | NCAA | All-Americans | |||
| 2003-04/The Citadel | -- | T-8th | -- | -- | -- | -- | |||
| 2005-06/East Carolina | 1 | 1st | 2 | 19th | -- | -- | |||
| 2006-07/East Carolina | 1 | 2nd | 2 | -- | -- | -- | |||
| 2007-08/Virginia | -- | 2nd | 2 | 5th | 12th | -- | |||
| 2008-09/Virginia | 1 | 5th | 3 | 4th | 13th | 2 | |||
| 2009-10/Virginia | 1 | 2nd | 2 | 5th | 13th | 2 | |||
| 2010-11/Virginia | -- | 2nd | 2 | 3rd | 4th | 2 | |||
| 2011-12/Virginia | -- | 5th | 1 | 5th | 4th | 2 | |||
| 2012-13/Virginia | 1 | 3rd | 2 | 11th | -- | 1 | |||
| 2013-14/Virginia | -- | 2nd | -- | 6th | 14th | --- | |||
| 2014-15/Virginia | 3 | 1st | 3 | 5th | 20th | 1 | |||
| 2015-16/Virginia | 2 | 1st | 1 | 6th | 5th/QF | 2 | |||
| 2016-17/Virginia | -- | 8th | -- | -- | -- | -- | |||
| 2017-18/Virginia | -- | 4th | 2 | 2nd | 22nd | -- | |||
| 2018-19/Wake Forest | 3 | 1st | 3 | 2nd | 2nd | 3 | |||
| 2019-20/Wake Forest | 4 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 4 | |||
| 2020-21/Wake Forest | 2 | 3rd | 3 | 2nd | 12th | 2 | |||
| 2021-22/Wake Forest | 5 | 1st | 4 | 3rd | 16th | 2 | |||
| 2022-23/Wake Forest | 6 | 3rd | 5 | 3rd | 1 | 4 | |||
| 2023-24/Wake Forest | 4 | 1st | 4 | 3rd | 9th | 4 | |||
| 2024/25/Wake Forest | 3 | 2nd | 3 | 1st | 19th | 2 | |||
| Totals | 37 | 6 titles | 44 | 17 app. | 15 app. | 33 | |||
