Aussies on Tour: Vilips’ wild ride to pro debut

Karl Vilips’ journey to his professional debut took an unexpected twist this week as he launches the next phase of his career at The Beachlands Victoria Open in Canada.

A recent graduate of Stanford University, Vilips closed out his college career with victory at the 2024 Pac-12 Men’s Golf Championship in May.

That result helped Vilips to finish 10th in the PGA TOUR University ranking and earn conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour and fully exempt status on the PGA TOUR of Americas.

A member of the Australian team that won silver at the World Amateur Teams Championship last October, Vilips had hoped to use his conditional Korn Ferry Tour status to qualify for this week’s Compliance Solutions Championship in Oklahoma.

As fellow Victorian Aiden Didone played his way into the field with a round of 4-under 68 at the Monday qualifier, Vilips set course for Canada after his round of 1-over 73.

The 22-year-old would soon discover, however, that the best laid plans are not guaranteed in the world of pro golf.

“I played the Monday qualifier for the Compliance tournament in Oklahoma, the Korn Ferry event,” Vilips told PGA TOUR of Americas.

“Didn’t close well, so I didn’t make it.

“Booked a flight out of Dallas, yesterday, mid-morning. So we drove the three hours from Norman to Dallas and got to the airport for an 11:30am flight. Didn’t end up taking off until about 7 so we had to change my flight to Victoria to a later one, which we barely made.

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“Ended up getting to the hotel at about 11:35 to midnight and obviously didn’t get to sleep for a little bit.

“My bags didn’t come in, which was just another bonus to the travel day we had.

“I had to pick those up this morning. Was fortunate enough to get tournament organisers to shift my pro-am tee time around to the afternoon so I will be able to play the course and take a look at it.

“It’s been a hectic first week as a pro I would say.”

Vilips was Australia’s highest ranked player on the World Amateur Golf Ranking when he turned professional a fortnight ago.

A strong finish to his four-year stint at Stanford saw Vilips graduate from the amateur ranks No.12 in the world and ready to realise the promise he has displayed since his junior days.

The youngest competitor in Victorian pennant matches at just nine years of age for Southern Golf Club in 2011, Vilips was the gold medal winner at the 2018 Youth Olympics, a two-time Junior Presidents Cup representative and qualified for last year’s US Open.

He is among a host of star amateurs to recently move into the pro ranks including Maddison Hinson-Tolchard, Jye Pickin, Connor McDade, Jordan Doull and Blaike Perkins.

As Vilips makes his pro debut in Canada the eyes of the golf world will be largely trained on Sahalee Country Club in Washington for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

There are a total of eight Aussies in the field including 2019 champion Hannah Green, this week marking the end to the two-year Olympic qualification period for the women’s competition in Paris.

Photo: Martin Dokoupil/Getty Images

Round 1 tee times AEST

LPGA Tour
KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
Sahalee Country Club, Sammamish, Washington
12:05am*         Robyn Choi
12:22am          Stephanie Kyriacou
12:27am*         Gabriela Ruffels
12:33am          Grace Kim
1:11am*           Hannah Green
6:17am            Minjee Lee
6:39am            Lydia Ko (NZ)
6:56am*           Hira Naveed
7:12am            Sarah Kemp

Defending champion: Ruoning Yin
Past Aussie winners: Jan Stephenson (1982), Karrie Webb (2001), Hannah Green (2019)
Prize money: $US10.4 million
TV times: Live 6am-8am Friday on Fox Sports 505; Live 8am-12pm Friday on Fox Sports 503; Live 6am-8am Saturday on Fox Sports 505; Live 8am-12pm Saturday on Fox Sports 503; Live 5am-8am Sunday on Fox Sports 505; Live 8am-10am Sunday on Fox Sports 503; Live 4am-9am Monday on Fox Sports 505 and Kayo.

PGA TOUR
Travelers Championship
TPC River Highlands, Cromwell, Connecticut
12am               Jason Day
1am                 Adam Scott
3:10am            Cam Davis

Defending champion: Keegan Bradley
Past Aussie winners: Greg Norman (1995), Marc Leishman (2012)
Prize money: $US20 million
TV times: Live 10pm-8am Thursday, Friday; Live 9:30pm-8am Saturday, Sunday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.

DP World Tour
KLM Open
The International, Amsterdam, Netherlands
4pm                 Sam Jones (NZ)
5pm                 David Micheluzzi
5:10pm             Haydn Barron
8:30pm             Tom Power Horan
10pm               Andrew Martin

Defending champion: Pablo Larrazabal
Past Aussie winners: Jack Newton (1972), Graham Marsh (1979, 1985), Stephen Leaney (2000)
Prize money: $US2.5 million
TV times: Live 9pm-2am Thursday, Friday; Live 9:15pm-1:30am Saturday; Live 8:30pm-1:30am Sunday on Fox Sports 505 and Kayo.

Asian Tour
Kolon Korea Open
Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, Korea
7:52am            Jack Thompson
9:20am*           Wonjoon Lee
12:30pm*         Kevin Yuan
12:52pm          Junseok Lee
1:03pm            Travis Smyth
1:25pm*          Kevin Chun (NZ)
1:58pm            Brendan Jones
2:20pm            Todd Sinnott

Defending champion: Seungsu Han
Past Aussie winners: Junseok Lee (2021)
Prize money: KRW1.4 billion
TV times: Live 2pm-6pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.

LIV Golf
LIV Golf Nashville
The Grove, College Grove, Tennessee
Australasians in the field: Cameron Smith, Matt Jones, Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert, Danny Lee (NZ)

Defending champion: Inaugural event
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Prize money: $US20 million
TV times: Live from 3:15am Saturday, Sunday, Monday on 7 Plus.

PGA TOUR Champions
DICK’S Open
En-Joie GC, Endicott, New York
Australasians in the field: Steve Allan, David Bransdon, Greg Chalmers, Richard Green, Mark Hensby, Rod Pampling, Cameron Percy, John Senden, Vijay Singh, Michael Wright.

Defending champion: Padraig Harrington
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Prize money: $US2.1 million
TV times: Live 2am-4am Saturday on Fox Sports 505; 10am-12pm Sunday on Fox Sports 503; 9am-11am Monday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.

Ladies European Tour
Tipsport Czech Ladies Open
Royal Beroun Golf Club, Czech Republic
3:56pm            Kirsten Rudgeley
5:24pm            Amy Walsh
5:24pm*          Kelsey Bennett
8:41pm*          Momoka Kobori (NZ)
8:52pm*          Whitney Hillier

Defending champion: Diksha Dagar
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Prize money: €300,000

Korn Ferry Tour
Compliance Solutions Championship
Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club, Norman, Oklahoma
10:11pm*         Brett Drewitt
10:33pm          Steven Bowditch
10:55pm          Rhein Gibson
12:12am*         Aiden Didone
3:35am            Tim Wilkinson (NZ)
3:46am            Dimi Papadatos

Defending champion: Jimmy Stanger
Past Aussie winners:
Prize money: $US1 million

Challenge Tour
Blot Open de Bretagne
Golf Bluegreen de Pléneuf Val André, Pléneuf, France
10:20pm          Hayden Hopewell
10:30pm          Connor McKinney
10:30pm*         Blake Windred
10:40pm*         Jeffrey Guan

Defending champion: Stuart Manley
Past Aussie winners: Scott Arnold (2015)
Prize money: €270,000

Epson Tour
Island Resort Championship
Sweetgrass Golf Club, Harris, Michigan
11:36pm          Fiona Xu (NZ)
11:36pm*         Amelia Garvey (NZ)
11:58pm          Maddison Hinson-Tolchard
4:46am            Cassie Porter

Defending champion: Tsai Ching Tseng
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Prize money: $US262,500

PGA TOUR Americas
The Beachlands Victoria Open
Uplands Golf Club, Victoria, British Columbia
1:20am            Charlie Hillier (NZ)
1:30am            Karl Vilips
1:40am*           Harry Hillier (NZ)
6am*               Grant Booth