Former prodigy Vilips seals rapid rise on the PGA Tour

Australian Karl Vilips has turned his great promise and years of youth work into a rapid rise to golf’s biggest stage, the US PGA Tour.

Vilips, a 23-year-old Stanford University graduate, has played just 10 events on the secondary Korn Ferry Tour since turning professional in June.

Still, he emerged from Sunday’s season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship ranked No. 19 on the PGA Tour cards awarded to the top 30 on the season’s points list.

Most of the work was long done, with Vilips finishing second in just his third Tour event and winning the Utah Championship the next week after shooting 25 under.

Vilips’ rounds of 75, 70, 71 and 70 gave him a 20th-place finish in the Tour Championship at French Lick Resort in Indiana and now he is preparing for his rookie season on the PGA Tour in 2025.

While his rise from the Korn Ferry Tour was meteoric, Vilips’ rise to the PGA Tour dates back to his days as a child prodigy, winning the US Kids World Championship twice at ages seven and nine and the Callaway Junior Worlds at age seven , long in sight 10.

He studied on scholarships in the USA from the age of 11 and developed his golf game there. In his successful junior career, he won the 2017 Southern Amateur Championship at age 15 and the gold medal at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics.

He capped his strong college golf career by winning the Pac-12 Championship in May, a result that partially earned him Korn Ferry Tour status.

Vilips’ Australian coach for the past four years has been Col Swatton, the mentor who helped Jason Day rise to world No. 1.