Aaron Wise Picks Up First PGA TOUR Win in Just His 26th Start

The Byron Nelson Invitational was expected to be a dead heat between some of the best players in golf this past weekend. When the dust settled, however, an unlikely player came out on top.

Aaron Wise is a 21-year old out of South Africa that was only making his 26th career start on the PGA TOUR. He didn’t seem like a player that was prime to take home one of the PGA TOUR’s headline events but he played at a dominant level the whole week, leading after all four rounds. Looking in retrospect, however, maybe we should have seen this coming.

It’s not like Wise has been completely irrelevant this PGA TOUR season. Just a few weeks ago, Wise was tied for the lead at the Wells Fargo Championship with Jason Day and ended up finishing T-2nd, only two shots behind Day. This time, however, Wise was able to take home the title, and the cool $1.3 million that goes with it.

Aaron Wise celebrates with his mother Karla Kane after winning the…

Aaron Wise celebrates with his mother Karla Kane after winning the AT&T Byron Nelson at Trinity Forest Golf Club on May 20, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

Even though he was able to emerge victorious, Wise admitted that he was thinking about the tournament a lot leading up to the final round, causing him to lose sleep. Normally, we would turn to family to help but Wise’s mother made the problem worse, causing him to send her away! “I kind of made her leave the room,” Wise said. “She went and did her own thing for a little bit. I was able to kind of stop thinking about it, get back into the zone … it was kind of business for me after that.”

Wise’s mother was making some good points about how important of a win this ended up being for Wise. Not only did he make over a million dollars as a 21-year old, he was also able to guarantee his spot on the PGA TOUR for the next two years, as the win gave him a two-year exemption. Without having to worry about if he’ll be on the PGA TOUR in the coming years, Wise will be free to continue working on his game, far before he hits his prime.

It’s hard to overstate how big of a win this is for Wise. If he keeps up this type of performance, Wise will be the newest name to join the the young phenoms taking the PGA TOUR by storm.

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