Aaron Wise is pulling out of The Masters this week to focus on his mental health. Wise finished 17th in his one trip to Augusta in 2019.
It’s the first week of April, which means that for a certain subset of the sporting world, it might as well be Christmas morning.
It’s Masters week, and in a few days, one of the greatest and most prestigious golf tournaments in the world will get underway at Augusta Country Club in Augusta, Georgia. In one of the most popular weeks of golf across the calendar year, all eyes will be tuned in to see who add a green jacket to their closet.
Unfortunately for golf fans in the Pacific Northwest, notable Oregon Ducks alumni Aaron Wise will not be participating. Wise qualified for the first major of the year but announced over the weekend that he would be withdrawing in order to focus on his mental health, noting that the game of golf had become “a struggle” for him recently.
🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING 🚨🚨🚨
Aaron has WITHDRAWN from the 2023 Masters Tournament.
Shocking news. Aaron says the “mental piece” of the game has been “a struggle” for him recently. Appears like he’ll be taking a significant amount of time away from the game. pic.twitter.com/ucVzlj0QhO
Wise currently ranks 45th in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), and he has four top-25 finishes on tour this season. However, Wise has missed the cut in four of the last six events that he’s played while failing to crack the top-25 in the two events where he did make the cut.
“I need to take some time away to focus on my mental health so I can get back to competing at a level I’m proud of,” Wise wrote on Instagram.
Wise has not played the Masters since his only trip in 2019, when he qualified by winning the AT&T Byron Nelson the year before. Wise finished 17th in 2019, shooting 281 (-7).
On his story, he typed a note: “This hurts, but it’s needed. See you all soon.”
Aaron Wise’s second Masters appearance will have to wait.
The 26-year-old announced Friday on his Instagram page he was withdrawing from the 2023 Masters to focus on his mental health. On his story, he typed a note to describe his decision with the caption ‘This hurts, but it’s needed. See you all soon.’
“Regretfully I am withdrawing from The Masters. Golf is just as much a mental game as it is one of physical skill, and the mental piece of it has been a struggle for me recently. I don’t take the significance of playing at Augusta lightly, but know that I need to take some time away to focus on my mental health so I can get back to competing at a level I am proud of.”
A post from Aaron Wise’s instagram story describing why he’s withdrawing from the Masters.
Wise has made the cut in seven of his 11 starts this year, but he has missed the cut in four of his last six starts. He finished sixth at the CJ Cup in October.
He has one PGA Tour win, coming at the 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson.
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Three balls into the water and a 10 on the hole. WELP.
Oof. Poor Aaron Wise.
The golfer was having a pretty decent day in the first round of the 2023 Players Championship when he stepped up to the tee at No. 18, known for the large body of water on the left.
And when he finished the hole, he ended up with a sextuple bogey. GAH! That would be a 10 on the hole, six strokes over par.
The reason? He hit three — THREE — balls in the water off the tee (Hideki Matsuyama can relate) and then finally went very right before eventually putting and carding the 10. On the day he ended up with an 80. Welp.
— Jump The Sharp Podcast (@jumpthesharp) March 9, 2023
Aaron Wise made a sextuple-bogey 10 on the 18th at TPC Sawgrass today. The final numbers.
• 3 balls in the water • Hit his 7th shot from the tee box • Resulted in -6 SG (!) off the tee • Second highest score ever on 18 • Up and down from 70 yds for 10 • Shot 80 • 😬 pic.twitter.com/A9c1O1WK0z
Both Noren and Wise have plenty they want to improve on after the first round.
HOUSTON – Based off Aaron Wise’s attitude following his opening 18 holes, one would’ve thought he performed poorly during the first round of the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open.
He was less than enthralled after his round at Memorial Park Golf Course on Thursday, which was a brilliant bogey-free 5-under 65 to take the lead following the morning wave. Wise, whose lone PGA Tour win came in the state of Texas at the AT&T Byron Nelson in 2017, is tied with Alex Noren, Tony Finau and Tyson Alexander at the top.
“I’ve just been in a weird place with my game where I’m obviously playing well enough to shoot good scores, but there’s just a couple shots a round that are frustrating me,” Wise said. “Maybe it’s also just because it’s late in the season and I played too much golf, and that’s just kind of how golf gets.
“I have time to go clean some stuff up before the round tomorrow and hopefully play a little more solid, even though I would take the score again if you would give it to me.”
The first round was suspended because of darkness at 5:36 p.m. local time. The groups who didn’t finish will complete their rounds early Friday morning.
The highlight for Wise came on holes No. 3-6, when he recorded four straight birdies to move to 5 under. He started on No. 10, making seven pars before a birdie on the par-3 17th.
“I had a couple great saves to shoot bogey-free,” Wise said. “Sometimes you shoot bogey-free and you hit 18 greens, and it was just an easy round. Today, it was bogey-free on the card, but it didn’t feel stress-free.”
For Noren, his round started and ended the same way: with a birdie. He also started on the 10th hole, where he stuffed his approach shot inside six feet for a circle on the scorecard. He then had four birdies in five holes to begin his second nine after a bogey on the first, and Noren capitalized his day with a great tee shot on the par-3 ninth, drilling an eight-foot birdie to get to 5 under.
Alex Noren lines up a putt on the 13th green during the first round of the Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course on November 10, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images)
Noren, who has 11 international victories but none on the PGA Tour, also wasn’t feeling his best coming into the week.
“A little bit nervous coming into today,” Noren said. “Didn’t feel great in practice but found something and got the irons a lot better. So yeah, good.”
Finau teed off in the afternoon wave, and he did most of his damage on his final nine holes. He had five birdies on the front nine, but the exclamation point came on the par-3 ninth, when he sank a 35-foot, 5-inch putt for birdie to tie Noren and Wise.
Coming off a missed cut in his first event of the fall slate last week, the closing birdie was a great finish to Finau’s first round.
“I know I played well just to put myself near the top of the leaderboard. and it’s kind of just icing on the cake on a day that’s hard fought and well played,” Finau said.
Tony Finau plays his shot from the ninth tee during the first round of the Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course on November 10, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
Alexander is a part of the group tied for the lead, though he hasn’t finished his first round. He will start from the rough left of the 18th fairway with a 197-yard shot left for his second on the par-4 closing hole.
The group on top has a one-shot lead over David Lipsky and seven others, including Mackenzie Hughes, who won earlier this season at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Lipsky had five birdies and no bogeys to go out in 30, but he proceeded to bogey the 10th hole before making eight straight pars to finish his round. He also hasn’t won on Tour.
“Took advantage of the birdie holes on the front nine and hung in there pretty well on the back nine,” Lipsky said. “I think there was a stretch where I missed like three greens in a row, got them all up and down.”
There’s a large group at 3 under, including Justin Rose and Zecheng Dou, who finished on top of the Korn Ferry Tour standings to earn his PGA Tour card this summer.
Scottie Scheffler, the No. 2 golfer in the world and favorite coming in, birdied three of his final eight holes to finish at even-par 70. Amateur Travis Vick, a senior at Texas who missed the cut last week in Mexico, shot 2-under 68 and is T-21.
However, the packed leaderboard is chasing Finau, Noren and Wise. And on a course where the winning 72-hole scores have been 13 under and 10 under since returning to Memorial Park, getting off to a fast start is pivotal for success come the weekend.
“I’m anxious to get that next win,” Wise said. “I got one, but it feels like forever ago now. It’s one of those things where you’ve just got to stay patient. Like, I can’t control if I’m going to go out and win this tournament, right? I can only control how good a shot I’m going to hit, how good a putt I’m going to hit. So I’m just going to focus on that and then at the end of the week just tally them up and see where it ends up.”
If Jason Day can get it going on the greens in Mexico, watch out.
After a week on the beautiful island of Bermuda, the PGA Tour heads to another breathtaking part of the world, Riviera Maya, Mexico.
Several of the best players in the world, including world No. 2 Scottie Scheffler and two-time defending champion Viktor Hovland, headline yet another strong field.
After his 2020 triumph, Hovland came back to Mayakoba last season and out dueled Carlos Ortiz and Justin Thomas, winning by four strokes.
Five players who finished inside the top 10 last season now play on the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Series.
Scheffler, who grabbed a solo fourth here a year ago, is the betting favorite at +900.
Golf course
El Camaleón Golf Course at Mayakoba | Par 71 | 7,017 yards
The 15th hole during the final round of the 2021 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba on El Camaleon golf course in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. (Photo: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Data Golf Information
Course Fit (compares golf courses based on the degree to which different golfer attributes — such as driving distance — to predict who performs well at each course – DataGolf): 1. Sedgefield Country Club, 2. TPC Sawgrass, 3. TPC Potomac
Percent chance to win (based on course history, fit, trending, etc.): 1. Scottie Scheffler (10.6 percent), 2. Collin Morikawa (5.2 percent), 3. Billy Horschel (4.6 percent)
Ever wonder which professional golfers cheer for which college football teams?
College football season is officially here!
The long wait is over. The next 19 weeks will feature some sort of college football on your television and it will be glorious.
Our friends at USA Today undertake one of the most important facets of college football – the Coaches Poll. Every week coaches across the country take time to vote among their peers as to who is the best in the country.
Ever wonder where some of the best golfers in the world spent their collegiate years? Or maybe you want to know if you’ll ever run into your favorite Saturday superhero at your alma mater’s university course. Look below to find out!
Scheffler now leads by five heading into the second round in Atlanta.
ATLANTA – Scottie Scheffler started with a two-stroke lead in the staggered-start leaderboard at the Tour Championship. By day’s end, it had more than doubled to five strokes over Xander Schauffele.
Scheffler birdied the final three holes to shoot 5-under 65 at East Lake Golf Club and improved to 15 under after the opening round of the FedEx Cup finale.
“It’s a bit strange,” Scheffler said of starting the round at 10 under with a two-stroke lead. “That’s why I talk a lot about not looking at the leaderboards and stuff like that because if I try and go out and do my best and pretend like I’m trying to win a regular stroke-play event for four days, I think I’m going to be in a good position come Sunday afternoon, so that’s going to be my plan going forward.”
Scheffler made his first birdie of the day at the third hole and drilled a 3-iron from 230 yards at the par-5 sixth hole and poured in a 17-foot eagle putt. His lead grew to as many as six strokes at one point as Patrick Cantlay, the defending FedEx Cup champion and winner of last week’s BMW Championship, managed to only shoot even-par 70.
What would it mean to Scheffler to cap off his season with the FedEx Cup trophy on Sunday? “It would definitely be the icing on the cake for the year,” he said.
Four players who started the week outside the top 30 moved in.
WILMINGTON, Del. – When Sahith Theegala finished his final round at the BMW Championship, he was projected to qualify as one of the top 30 in the FedEx Cup points standings. But there were too many players still on the course for him to celebrate.
“It would mean the world to make the Tour Championship and stand along 29 of the other best golfers in the world,” he said.
“A dream season,” is how Theegala, who a year ago was sweating out getting into the Korn Ferry Tour Finals when he boarded a plane for Boise not knowing whether he was in the field.
He entered Sunday sitting on the bubble and knowing what he had to do. That sort of pressure can do funny things to some golfers.
“I was like, I’m in 30th place out of 70 people, and I’m as nervous as if I were near the lead,” he said. “I had a little bit of the shakes warming up. I couldn’t hold my hands still.”
Theegala made birdie at the first hole to settle the nerves temporarily, but as he put it, his round was “a wild ride.”
He was one over for the day through 11 holes when strung together three straight birdies and then drained a 37-foot birdie at 17. Still, he’d hit only 1 of 14 fairways all day, dead last in the field, and tried something different, anything to find a fairway.
“I don’t know why I tried to hit a draw. My natural shot is a cut. Tried to draw a 5-wood, and it started 20 yards right of my target and then cut, so I hit it 50 right,” Theegala said.
He caught a good lie in order to slice one up near the green, but left himself a 7-foot par putt that was worth at least $500,000 – last place money next week where the rich get richer.
“That was such a grind,” he said after drilling the putt to shoot 3-under 68 and finish T-15.
His “dream season” continues another week as he improved to No. 28 in the FedEx Cup points standings, one of two rookies along with Cameron Young to make it to Atlanta and East Lake Golf Club for the Tour Championship.
“It’s another step for me to feel like I really belong because I still don’t feel like I’m really there at the top of the game,” he said.
Next week, he’ll be alongside 29 of the best in the world.
Here’s a look at others who are in the field at the Tour Championship and those who aren’t:
Plenty of players are looking to punch their tickets to East Lake Golf Club.
The second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs begins Thursday at Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware, at the BMW Championship. That means only the top-70 players from the PGA Tour FedEx Cup standings qualified and are shooting for the season-long prize, the FedEx Cup.
Only 68 players will tee it up, and from there, only the top 30 in the standings advance to the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. The winner of the FedEx Cup Playoffs will take home $18 million and the FedEx Cup.
Cameron Smith, No. 3 in the FedEx Cup standings and into next week’s field, won’t tee it up at the BMW Championship, withdrawing Monday.
Here’s a closer look at some names in the FedEx Cup points standings, including those who are on the bubble and others who need a big week to make the Tour Championship.
The game’s best golfers eat up TPC River Highlands, but big numbers can quickly appear on a player’s scorecard.
CROMWELL, Conn. — No one who is involved with the Travelers Championship or who goes to TPC River Highlands will deny that the game’s best golfers eat it up every year.
It is less than 6,900 yards in length, and this year after about a half-inch of rain fell on the course Wednesday, so conditions have been soft.
Xander Schauffele, Kevin Kisner, Patrick Cantlay and other players at the top of the leaderboard have looked comfortable most of the week, but as Rory McIlroy proved on the 12th and 15th holes Friday, big numbers can quickly appear on a player’s scorecard if he is not careful.
With 36 holes of the 2022 Travelers Championship now complete, here are some of the well-known golfers who failed to make the cut—which wound up being 2 under (138)—and who will not be playing this weekend.
