Aaron

Wise

Wise traded four birdies with two bogeys before the turn then stormed home with a five-birdie 32 on his inward nine. “I hit the ball pretty well. I feel like I putted pretty well. Nothing was kind of like exceptional, but everything was pretty good and that’s all I can ask to start the year.” Wise walked off the course ranked top 10 in fairways hit (13), strokes gained approach (+1.1), GIR (16), and strokes gained putting (+1.3). Fast starts are becoming a trend for Wise who has now been T5 or better after round one in four of his last six starts.

Wise took on tough scoring conditions at Memorial Park and walked away with five birdies without dropping a single shot. He gained 4.1 strokes tee-to-green and another 1.7 strokes putting. Despite the low round, he wasn’t particularly thrilled with the showing, “Today, it was bogey free on the card, but it didn’t feel stress free. Hopefully play a little better tomorrow, but overall great score today and really proud of the way I fought and shot that score.” Wise arrives with top 15s in four of his last five starts so it’s easy to see how his expectations would be high. If this early co-lead holds then it’d be his first time posting a first-round lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR (2nd or 3rd after R1 on 10 instances).

Wise split 10-of-14 fairways today and landed just 10 GIR which continued his trend for the week which saw him rank just 52nd in driving accuracy and 48th in GIR. Those aren’t the ranks you’d expect to find from a solo-sixth finisher but Wise caught fire with the flat stick to gain 5.3 strokes putting over the course of the week at Congaree GC. It’s the third time in his career that he’s gained more than 5 strokes putting in a single week, and second time he’s accomplished the feat in the last two months (+6.5 SGP at the TOUR Championship). wise ranked 25th in strokes gained tee-to-green last season so he’ll be a regular weekly contender if he can maintain this current level of putting.

Wise made six birdies against one bogey on the par-71 layout, including four birdies on the back nine. At 10 under, he’s tied for third and one shot behind co-leaders Jon Rahm and Kurt Kitayama as he looks to win on Tour for the second time (2018 AT&T Byron Nelson). Wise has been fueled by stellar iron play, as the former Oregon standout leads the 78-man field in SG: Approach while gaining 5.925 strokes on the field. Wise had a strong 2021-22 that included a spot at the Tour Championship, but his lone start of the new wraparound season ended with a middling T-64 result in Las Vegas.

Wise was first out of the gate on a chilly morning and he got his day started by stuffing a wedge inside of three feet for a kick-in birdie. That would be the story of his day ta Congaree Golf Club as he would give himself seven more scoring chances from inside of 12 feet before his day was done. He gained strokes on approach on 13 holes en route to gaining a career-best 5.5 strokes in that approach category (+4.5 in R1 of the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational). Wise’s score of ’66' was just 3.8 shots better than the field today so there is some obvious room for improvement with his short game.

Wise opened his day with a 16'7" putt to save par and that would be the theme of the day. He rolled in seven more putts from outside of seven feet before his day was over, walking off the course ranked 1st in strokes gained putting. “I don’t think I’ve ever played as a single in a tournament. It was different. It was interesting to start. I felt a little weird starting off the round, but once I settled in there walking to 3 tee or so, felt pretty normal, honestly felt kind of nice because I could go at my own pace and do what I wanted. But definitely pros and cons to it because you don’t get to see anyone else’s shots, you don’t get to see anyone else’s putts or anything like that. Luckily I was having a good day, and just kind of stayed in my groove and stayed to myself, and it worked out well.” Wise is still seven shots off the pace at press time but he’s eaten into the lead a little and currently T10 on the live leaderboard.

Wise opened his morning with a wedge to four feet for a kick-in birdie. He would remain locked in with three of his next four circles also converted from inside of five feet. The Oregon product warmed up the flat stick on his way into the clubhouse, pouring home a 30'5" eagle bomb at the 15th and following that up with a 41-footer for birdie at the par-3 16th. He walked off the course ranked 13th in strokes gained off-the-tee and 6th in putting. “I feel like I’ve played once in the last five weeks competitively and had a little bit of rust out there, but there was also a lot of good to it... That’s why I came here, to kind of knock some rust off for the Playoffs and if I find myself in contention, that’s even better.” Wise entered the week at 33rd in the FedExCup race and could be on his way back to East Lake for the first time since his 2018 rookie campaign.

The Oregon product chases an up-and-down 68 (1 eagle-3, 4 birdies, 4 bogeys) with a somewhat less volatile 68 (4 birdies, 2 bogeys) to improve to 2-for-4 in the championship, posting a T35 on last visit in 2019 at Pebble Beach GL (66-71-79-69). Overall, this is his 10th major, has now made his last seven cuts in a row, and is in prime position to better a pair of T17’s, most recently two major starts ago at last season’s 103rd PGA (Kiawah), where he was T50 at halftime (69-79-72-68). The 2018 TOUR Rookie of the Year, who arrived off a solo 2nd two weeks ago at the Memorial, gained 0.50 strokes off-the-tee on Friday, 1.56 on approach, 0.93 around, and 1.02 on-the-green with 28 total putts. See link below to post-round comments.

Wise opened his day on the back nine with bogey-par breaker-bogey and that is also how he finished his round. The Oregon alum leaned heavily on the short game today as he walked off the course ranked 2nd in strokes gained short game and 35th in putting. “I felt like I was scrambling all day, to be honest. I think I hit it pretty good off the tee. I haven’t looked at the numbers, but my iron play wasn’t very good, and I had to get it up and down a bunch and made a couple of good putts from outside of seven, eight feet, which was nice, a bonus.” Wise is playing in his fourth U.S. Open but first since the 2019 edition where he was T2 after day one and T4 at the midpoint. He faded to T35 over the weekend but will try to keep his foot on the gas all week in Brookline. The youngster arrived fresh off a runner-up finish at Jack’s Place just two weeks ago.