Aaron Wise

Wise had a bit of an up-and-down season in 2020-21. His ball-striking was strong, finishing top-35 in SG: tee-to-green, but the putter ranked outside the top 185 on tour. That makes three consecutive years in which Wise has lost strokes with the flat stick. The positive is that Wise did bounce back from a terrible season in 2019-20 that saw him make just six of 18 cuts. At 25, there is still plenty of upside with how solid he strikes the ball.

Wise found the winners circle and posted 10 top-25s in his rookie season back in 2017-18, but things were not as easy this season. The Oregon product missed six cuts in 18 starts and only had two top-25s. Wise did finish the season fourth in GIR percentage, but was way down at 182nd in SG: Putting. At 24, there is still hope he can turn things around soon.

Wise came onto the PGA Tour guns a blazin' last season as he picked up a win and a runner-up on his way to over $3.4 million in earnings. Wise certainly looked the part of the "next big thing", but his follow-up season left a lot to be desired. It's not unheard of for a golfer to have a strong rookie season and then fall into a slump the following year, so there's no reason to panic here. In fact, there's opportunity for salary cap purposes and Wise's earnings number is more than reasonable for the upcoming season.

Wise wasn't among the top of his Web.com Tour class prior to his entrance to PGA Tour, so expectations weren't exactly high for him, and there was nothing on the course that Wise did early last season to catch much attention, but that changed at the Wells Fargo Championship in May. Wise finished runner-up at the Wells Fargo and in case anyone thought that effort was a fluke, he put all questions to bed the following week when he won the At&T Byron Nelson. He did miss five cuts directly following that win, but he recovered with a pair of top-10s later in the season. If Wise had a long track record of success, he might be in-play in salary cap formats this season, but since we only have one year to go no, he simply carries too much risk.

The former NCAA champion from the University of Oregon has already enjoyed several levels of success as a professional, securing both his first Web.com victory and PGA Tour top-10 during his 2016-2017 campaign. He first gained momentum with a T10 finish at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open back in November, but the highlight of his summer came at the Air Capital Classic in June where he fired back-to-back 62s in his first two rounds and led wire-to-wire. Despite ranking just 72nd in terms of ball striking on the Web.com Tour, Wise could be in line for one of the more successful PGA Tour careers out of this year's class of rookies.