Karl Vilips with his Southern Amateur trophy earlier in his career – file photo
The victory by US-based Perth golfer, Karl Vilips in last week’s Korn Ferry Tour event in Utah could well spell the start of a significant professional career for yet another Australian golfer.
With the victory, Vilips, who was born in Indonesia before being raised in Perth through the formative stages of his life, moves to 15th in the Korn Ferry Tour standings and with the top 30 at season’s end securing status for the PGA Tour in 2025, he is well on his way to almost immediate graduation to golf’s highest level
Vilips who attended Stanford University during a collegiate career, earned the right to play the Korn Ferry Tour via the PGA Tour University Ranking system and took full advantage by finishing 13th, 15th, 2nd and now 1st in his four starts in the last month.
With only six more events on this year’s Korn Ferry Tour schedule it is all but a lock for Vilips to be playing in the big league next season.
Vilips has already had a stellar amateur career highlighted by winning World Golf Junior Championships at the ages of 7, 9, 10 and 12 and was a Gold Medal winner at the 2018 Boy’s Olympics in addition to joining the great Bobby Jones as the youngest ever winner of the Southern Amateur.
Vilips also played in the 2019 Junior Presidents Cup side.
Vilips is still coming to terms with his immediate success.
“I mean, it’s just kind of what you dream of when you qualify in. Four weeks ago you step in, you try to keep playing and in your wildest dreams you imagine winning and shooting up the rankings. Suddenly a lot of stress is relieved and I’m just so happy to see today that all of that is now kind of solved.”
Vilips made mention of the assistance he has had from coach Colin Swanton, who guided Jason Day through much of his success on the PGA Tour as both a coach and caddie.
“Really, my coach, Colin Swanton, and my mental coach, Rick Sessinghaus, have just played a huge role in being able to close out tournaments like this because that’s something I struggled with in the past historically.”
