Karl Vilips has not played in an Australian Open since 2017, when he received an invitation at The Australian via Golf Australia as one of the best young golfers in the national. He missed the cut; feeling the nerves of the occasion unsurprisingly for a 16-year-old.

But today not even a dank Melbourne ‘pea souper’ of a day, nor the unrelenting flies, could contain his excitement at teeing up in another Open.

Vilips played the 2019 Junior Presidents Cup representing the International team at Royal Melbourne, but in truth most of the past 10 years of his life have been spent in the USA, both at high school and Stanford University.

Now he’s back and trying first and foremost to get his hands on the Stonehaven Cup but also to get his game together for the PGA Tour in 2025.

As soon as next month in Hawaii, Vilips will debut as a full member of the tour, having graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024. It’s a task about which he’s talked a lot with his coach Colin Swatton of Jason Day fame.

He’s only a year older than Elvis Smylie the Queenslander who jumped up to win the BMW Australian PGA Championship on Sunday. Vilips said he was “really proud of Smylie’s achievement at such a tender age, and he is using it as motivation. “The ascension can be quick and he’s a good example.”

His appearance at Kingston Heath and Victoria this week will come with some expectations, but he is cool with that. “That’s what comes with it, so I’m just looking forward to embracing that and just trying to do my best.”

Vilips grew up in Perth but spent three years in Melbourne as a boy around 2010. It was the time that he came to notice as a world junior champion and a wunderkind, reeling off records and titles with a Tiger Woods-ish relentlessness.

Fortunately like Woods, he did not turn out to be a child prodigy who fell away like many do. His first pro win, on the Korn Ferry Tour in Utah this year, helped him qualify 19th of the top 30 who graduated from the KFT to the PGA Tour for 2025.

“It’s great to be back home,” he said today. “I haven’t been back in a while, but I’m also very grateful to Golf Australia for giving me the invite this year. Nothing really beats the sandbelt, so excited that I get to show everyone that (I’ve) gotten a lot better since the last time I was here and I’m really excited to show my game in front of the crowds here.”

Photo: Rob Prezioso