Karl Vilips becomes latest Australia to win on PGA Tour less than a year after turning professional
Tiger Woods recognised the talent in Aussie prodigy Karl Vilips and a message from the 15-time major winner was waiting after his PGA Tour breakthrough in just his fourth start.
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A voicemail from Tiger Woods was waiting for former child-prodigy Karl Vilips who in just his fourth PGA Tour start and less than a year after turning professional joined the elite list of Australians to taste success with a nerveless win at the Puerto Rico Open franking the hype that has surrounded his journey to the top.
Adopted by Woods as the first player to wear his Sun Day Red clothing label on tour, Vilips, 23, briefly lost the lead he took into the final round at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande as the chasers came at him before seizing control on the run to the clubhouse to win by three shots and collect $1.1m.
He’s also secured his played card for the next two seasons and will tee it up in next week’s Players Championship in Florida, an event considered, by players to be the fifth major in what looms as the biggest event of his career.
Vilips played the final round like a veteran despite what was at stake and after a sleepless night.
He peeled off three birdies and an eagle in his opening holes, and he walked down the 18th fairway with a two-shot lead before making one more birdie on the final hole in a closing eight-under 65 for the win.
“It’s a dream come true for me and my dad, doing it, going at it for a long time, and this is what we dreamt of when I was a kid, so it’s pretty surreal,” Vilips said.
“Last night that was about the only thing on my mind was everything that comes with a victory here. I had a hard time getting to sleep.
“But on the course it was just staying in the present, doing what I can do and I think I did a really good job of that because it is tough to not think about everything.
The message from Woods was one of the many Vilips said he’d get to as the enormity of his win soaked in.
“I got on my phone after the round and I was just scrolling, like who was texting me? I think I got one from a random number that called me as well,” he said.
“Then there was a voicemail saying it’s Tiger and I couldn’t like process it in the moment, I was just trying to -- I’ll get back to that later. That’s pretty cool.”
Raised in Melbourne and Perth before moving to the US, Vilips, only turned professional in June last year after a brilliant college career at Stanford, Woods’ alma mater.
Vilips’ entire junior career, which included victories as a six-year-old, has been chronicled on a YouTube page curated by his father.
He was an almost immediate winner on the Korn Ferry Tour after finishing college, winning in Utah last year that helped him secure a PGA Tour playing card for 2025.
A bulging disc discovered after he felt sore at least year’s Australian Open delayed his start to his 2025 campaign, which only began in Mexico last month.
“I wasn’t doing anything for a month probably, just sitting in a room housekeeping,” Vilips said.
“Then once I start getting back into it, it was a pretty light load, functional movements. Then I think probably two weeks before Mexico I started lifting weights again,
swinging driver, and I think probably five days before Mexico was back to full speed.”
Vilips has hit his stride immediately but declared was a little surprised his success had come so quickly.
“I mean, if you told me less than a year ago when I was at Stanford that I would be a PGA Tour winner at this point in my career, I think I would be a little surprised,” he said. “But I think I’ve just been so true to the process and everything that my team has me doing that it shouldn’t be a surprise when I make the putt on the last hole. But we’ve got to keep moving forward and try to win at an even higher level.
Vilips took the lead in the third round despite battling a stomach bug and said he had to “just battle through it”.
He will also get a rankings bump on the back of his win, which also secured Vilips a start at the PGA Championship.
“Just so proud of my team for giving me the right advice, for pushing me to work through this, keeping me in a good mental state throughout this whole thing has been huge,” he said.
“You take two months off, you all of a sudden think you’re going to go out and shoot 85, like that’s not a joke.
“So it’s nice to see that third start out, plenty of reps under the belt, just continuously learning week in, week out, it’s big. And to see the reward of that, it’s great.”
Originally published as Karl Vilips becomes latest Australia to win on PGA Tour less than a year after turning professional
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