Named recently as the first signing to Tiger Woods’ apparel company Sun Day Red and last month as a new member of the Golf Australia Rookie Squad, Vilips entered the final round with the outright lead in Puerto Rico having graduated Stanford University less than 12 months ago.

A winner on the secondary Korn Ferry Tour last year, Vilips was challenged out of the gate on Sunday by Dane Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen as he sought to join the likes of Seve Ballesteros in the four-tournament start winners club on the PGA TOUR.

Birdieing the par-4 third, Vilips then found some magic at the par-5 sixth when holing out his pitch for eagle before two more birdies to close out the front nine in 5-under.

The Australian, who spent parts of his childhood in Melbourne and Perth before completing his schooling in America, truly having to earn his victory on the back nine when he made his only bogey of the final day at the par-4 12^th.

As Neergaard-Petersen was in the middle of making six straight birdies from the 10^th hole, Vilips first dropped shot, and loss of the lead, seemed to kick the former child prodigy and now Colin Swatton coached player into gear.

“Bogey was pretty careless,” Vilips told Australian media after his win.

“I was pretty frustrated about that with a wedge in the fairway. I was thinking kind of just give myself a bit of a cushion on the leaderboard and then had to just forget about it. It’s already happened, can’t do anything about it and did a good job putting me back in the present.”

Making three consecutive birdies from the 13^th, Vilips added another at the 72^nd and final hole to reach 26-under and claim a three shot victory over Neergaard-Petersen.

“It’s a dream come true for me and my dad,” Vilips said paying tribute to his father, Paul, immediately after holing his winning putt.

“This is what we dreamed of as a kid.”

Vilips, whose maiden season on the PGA TOUR has been slightly hampered following the discovery of a bulging disk in his back around the time he returned home for a share of 46^th at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open, has now secured his playing rights for the next two years.

Setting a tournament scoring record with his 26-under-par total, Vilips will now also receive a start at the PGA TOUR’s showpiece event, next week’s The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, as well as the US PGA Championship in May.

Recently moving to Florida and making TPC Sawgrass his base, the Australian will not be as ill-prepared as many might think for his sudden start next week alongside some of the biggest names in the game.

“I just moved there, been at TPC for five months or four months now,” Vilips said.

“I’m going to be getting in late Monday night, so it’s going to be a bit of a short prep, but thankfully it’s my home course so I don’t really need to do too much. Just see how the greens are rolling, how the rough is. I just kind of get in the right mindset for it.”

Mindset has rarely been an issue for Vilips, who has worked relentlessly to become a PGA TOUR winner, with his calm and mostly mild mannered demeanour only cracking occasionally on Sunday. Firstly, when yelling “Come on” as he celebrated his final birdie, and again when speaking of his genuine excitement and realising a dream

“Even just like being in the final group is something I always wanted to do. Being in the final group of PGA TOUR events and then winning, it’s just everything,” he said.

“It makes me incredibly happy to hoist that trophy on the 18th green … It’s everything that I’ve dreamed of and in the moment, you have to kind of just put all that aside and focus on winning. But I’m sure when I’m back in my hotel I’ll just be smiling and calling my friends.”

Part of the phone attention no doubt going to a potential voice message from the icon that created his clothing sponsor, with Tiger one of the names to pop up during the whirlwind post round commitments.

“I caught a glimpse of it saying something and I’ll have to get back to it. I’ve been bombarded with texts and I’m so grateful for the support, but I’ll have to look back at it after this.”