Judd Spicer

Special to The Desert Sun

Sometimes, the beauty of youth is watching bedlam usurp wisdom.

But that's not the vibe with this Wise one.

At just 20-years-old, Lake Elsinore-raised Aaron Wise owns a maturity – and a mantle place -- which belie his years.

The reigning NCAA individual champion after leading his Oregon Ducks to a national team title this past spring, Wise makes his CareerBuilder Challenge debut this week in the wake of an ensuing summer and autumn which never stopped sizzling.

Having declared his pro intentions prior to the NCAA twin victories, Wise went on to qualify for the U.S. Open in June before authoring his first professional win at the Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada's Syncrude Oil Country Championship the month following. Having all but cemented his Web.com Tour card for the season to be, Wise continued to make the most of his opportunities in 2016.

The CareerBuilder will be Wise's sixth PGA TOUR event playing on a sponsor's exemption. Next week at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego will mark his seventh.

His work in the previous five tour events? Back in August, Wise authored a T-16 at the John Deere Classic and, in early November, finished tied for 10th at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open held at his new home course in Las Vegas.

Not too shabby for a kid who is still less than three years removed from graduating Corona Santiago High.

"I think you get more and more comfortable each time out here," said Wise after his round in Wednesday's Bob Hope Legacy Pro-Am on PGA West's Stadium Course. "The more you see yourself out here doing well, the more comfortable you start to feel dealing with crowds and all that. You can't practice that – all the things that come with a PGA Tour event."

Readying to tee-up at courses just 90 miles from his hometown, Wise does have some small degree of comfort with the CareerBuilder's trio of tests.

"I played the Stadium Course back in junior golf, the Nicklaus when I was in college, and then La Quinta Country Club for the first time last weekend," he said. "So, there's a little familiarity there, but it's still kinda' new to me now that I'm older and hitting the ball farther."

Wise is hoping such distance will usurp a few ill-fated PGA WEST memories.

"It was a Future Champions Tour event, and I remember it because I lost in a playoff," Wise remembers of playing the Stadium once in junior golf, "and we played the Nicklaus in the Prestige Tournament in my freshman year college -- and we did not do well as a team, so we didn’t come back last year. But it was just different because, coming from Eugene, Oregon where it rains a bunch and coming down here to desert golf, we didn’t adjust enough."

Righting wrongs of yore would appear to motivate the well-spoken Wise.

"But I like coming back to courses I haven't played a while ago, because I can see how much better I've gotten," he said. "So it will be a good test come competition time to see what I can shoot on the Nicklaus, and compare that to what I did almost three years ago."

Growing up playing the Inland Empire's Eagle Glen GC and Glen Ivy GC, Wise finds comparison in I.E. and C.V. grasses ("Chipping out of the rough, for example, plays very similar," he said), before further assessing the PGA West host courses:

"I like hitting a high cut and, obviously Jack (Nicklaus) hit a high cut, so that course fits me really well, I think," said Wise. "The Stadium is a little more of a plodder's course, and I can do that too."

To date, there appears little that Aaron Wise can't do. What the rising star will be forced to eventually do, however, is play a particular path this season.

"We've looked at the schedule and the last thing I want to be doing is bouncing from tour to tour," Wise concluded. "So I've got this week, a sponsor's exemption next week at Torrey Pines and then I'm not in the Waste Management yet – we're still hoping to hear back – but, if not, I'm going to go to the Monday qualifier for that one. For me, it's now or never if I want to be out here for the rest of this year. And, if not, it's not the end of the world, I'll go down to the Web and hopefully be back here next year."

WATCH HIM PLAY

Pro playing partner: Wesley Bryan

Thursday: 9:20 a.m. at La Quinta Country Club (1st tee)

Friday: 8:50 a.m. at Nicklaus Tournament (1st tee)

Saturday: 10:30 a.m. at Stadium Course (1st tee)