LA QUINTA – Aaron Wise said that he turned professional with no expectations. Which is good.
The eight months since Wise won the NCAA individual golf title and helped Oregon to the team national championship, on the Ducks’ home course in Eugene, have gone by quickly. Wise played in the U.S. Open last June, he spent most of the rest of the summer on the Canadian tour, and while he’s technically a member of the Web.com feeder tour, the former star of Corona Santiago High is showing he can hang with the big boys.
He had back-to-back 68s in the first two rounds of the CareerBuilder Challenge this week. Saturday, playing the PGA West Stadium Course, he didn’t hit the ball up to his standards but still shot a 71. That left him 9 under, well under the cut line and eight shots off the lead going into today’s scheduled final round, weather permitting.
At this stage, individual rounds or individual tournaments are only a sidebar to the professional development of Wise, who turned 20 last June.
He missed the cut in the Open but played one other PGA Tour event in 2016, tying for 16th at the John Deere Classic and earning his first PGA Tour check, $69,600. He also played seven events last summer on Canada’s Mackenzie Tour, finishing fourth in winnings ($65,313 Canadian) and earning a spot on the Web.com tour, the PGA’s official feeder tour.
But will he actually play the Web.com, or will he outgrow it before he gets there?
He played in four PGA Tour events last fall, missing the cut in the first two but finishing tied for 10th at the Shriners in Las Vegas and tied for 55th at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Mexico.
He’s in the desert on a sponsor’s exemption, he got one for Torrey Pines next week, and he hopes to get one for the Waste Management Open in Phoenix in two weeks. If not, he’ll go through the Monday qualifier.
After that, he said, he’ll reevaluate.
“We’ll kind of see where I stand in the FedEx Cup points,” he said. “If it makes sense for me to stay out here I’ll stay out here. If it doesn’t, I’ll go to the Web for the full year after that.
“The last thing I want to be doing is bouncing back from tour to tour, because at least if I stay in one I’ll have a place to play next year.”
It’s sort of a high-wire act, exciting and terrifying at the same time as long as the future destination is uncertain.
But Wise seems to understand that going back to the feeder tour isn’t the worst thing that could happen to his career, though playing on big-time courses with big-time prize money and big-time galleries can be awfully seductive.
He got a good taste of it Saturday. His pro-am foursome included former pitcher Roger Clemens, and the atmosphere was reminiscent of the old days of the Bob Hope Classic, when fans were lured as much by celebrities as by the pros. Fans chanted “Ro-ger … Ro-ger …” and roared when he chipped in from the fringe on 17 for par, after hitting his first shot over the green and his second across and off the green.
“I’m like, ‘Man, you really like pleasing the crowd, hitting it way over that green,’ ” said Wise, whose own performance at 17, the notorious island par-3, was a quiet par. “But he’s good. A lot of people love him, and it was awesome being in that atmosphere, too.”
The adjustment from college to pro, where the player is responsible for paying his way from place to place, can be a jolt. Sponsorships with Callaway and Nike – a natural, given Wise’s Oregon ties – have helped make this a relatively comfortable launch.
“I’ve got a banking company helping me, and I’ve got an agent who plans everything,” he said. “I’ve tried to stay away from the money side. I don’t even look at it. I don’t go spend anything crazy; I just live within my means, and hopefully I’ve got enough money in the bank to do it.”
What’s the best advice he’s received?
“I wouldn’t say I got one piece of advice that stood out more than the rest,” he said. “But if I was to give somebody advice, I would just say to learn yourself. Learn what makes you feel good, learn what you have to do to play good, and when things go off, learn what you need to do to correct it. That’s kind of the most important part to being out here.”
Where is he in that learning process?
“I mean, it’s golf,” he said. “It’s always a work in progress.
“One thing I’ve always prided myself on is that working hard and getting better kind of go hand in hand. You can’t take the easy route and get the result you want.”
That, as it turns out, may be even better advice.
Contact the writer: jalexander@scng.com
