Aaron Wise has been voted Rookie of the Year for the 2017-18 season by the PGA Tour membership, it was announced in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
The 22-year-old Wise, born in South Africa and raised in Lake Elsinore in Southern California, claimed his first PGA Tour victory in the AT&T Byron Nelson by three strokes in May, a week after he tied for second in the Wells Fargo Championship.
Wise joined Mackenzie Hughes as the only players to win on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour, the Web.com Tour and PGA Tour.
“On behalf of the PGA Tour, our congratulations to Aaron Wise on being voted PGA Tour Rookie of the Year,” Commissioner Jay Monahan said. “For Aaron to have won on the PGA Tour, the Web.com Tour and Mackenzie Tour before the age of 22 is remarkable, and qualifying for the Tour Championship as a rookie proved there is no stage too big for him.”
Wise was one of eight rookies to qualify for the 2018 FedEx Cup Playoffs and the only one to advance to the season-ending Tour Championship, finishing 24th in the FedEx Cup standings.
Wise, who played college golf at Oregon, finished in the top 10 in four of his 29 PGA Tour starts as a rookie, also tying for fifth in the Northern Trust and tying for sixth in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
He became the first player from a Pacific 12 Conference school to win the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year award since Tiger Woods of Stanford in 1996.
As a sophomore in 2016, Wise won the NCAA individual title and helped the Ducks capture the team championship before turning pro.
