Aaron Wise returned to the PGA Tour after a long battle with depression, only to discover the battle never ended. After a successful five-year run, he suddenly stepped away from the golf course for almost two years. The journey was arduous, but he is back now; he remains open about his struggles to promote mental health among golfers. At the 3M pre-tournament press conference, he spoke to reporters about his mental health and what he is doing about it to make his comeback work.
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“Yeah, no, it’s a constant daily battle out here. What we do is very stressful. To have to be on for as long as we are, for five, six, seven hours out here every day. Then, especially when you start stacking weeks and weeks. Like this is my fourth week in a row now and I’m going to play all the way through, so I’ve got six.
“It’s just a matter of like how do you—the days are stressful, so how do you then calm yourself down, how do you even deal with the stress as the day’s going on. Keeping your mind in a good frame to where you feel like you can go keep hitting good shots and keep playing well, and on top of it, enjoying it.”
In 2023, Wise withdrew days before the Masters to focus on his mental health.
“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 I 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. This hurts, but it’s needed. See you all soon,” he wrote on his Instagram.
During that time, he met sports neuroscientist Dr. Izzy Justice, who helped him understand his feelings.
The last event he played in 2023 was the U.S. Open, after which he was away for 22 months before returning in May 2025 to play the Myrtle Beach Classic. He played only one tournament during his hiatus: the 2024 Puerto Rico Open, where he missed the cut.
During a media interaction at the ISCO Championship 2026, he revealed that he didn’t feel like himself and didn’t even want to go out to dinner with friends. He was in a “really, really bad place.”
But he isn’t the only one to feel this way. At the Travelers Championship 2026, Scottie Scheffler has said the same things about the constant grind.
“From the moment I step out onto the driving range—if we’re playing at a four-hour pace—that’s over five hours. Five and a half hours if you include this part of my day [the media interaction], where we’re in front of people. And doing that four days in a row in a mental sport can take a toll on you.”
Scheffler gave the example of Tiger Woods and said that even a veteran like him takes a break from golf now and then because playing four to five weeks continuously is not possible.
While Wise faced these struggles firsthand, things are changing now. “Slowly kind of got that fire back,” he said at the ISCO Championship.
That’s reflected in his performances, too. His early-year struggles seemed to ease at the 2026 John Deere Classic, where he finished T39. Then, he tied for third at the ISCO Championship and tied for 15th at the Corales Puntacana Championship.
At the John Deere Classic, Wise reflected on his past struggles with depression: “I wasn’t myself. I wasn’t enjoying it anymore and took a step back and met some great people along the way who helped me with my journey.”
The bigger question here is whether he can return to his peak form. Only time will tell.
