Rookie professional Vilips, 22, said today he was keen to play the BMW Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland and the ISPS HANDA Australian Open in Melbourne if he can fit them into his schedule.

By then, he might well be a PGA Tour player, such is the speed of his elevation.

And he will expect to hear the usual chants from the bleachers, the same ones he heard when he was walking up to the 18^th green at Oakridge Country Club last Sunday as he secured his first professional win on the Korn Ferry Tour.

That’s the Koala Karl chant, which channels the nickname applied to Vilips since he emerged as a phenomenal child talent in Australia, and more recently his Instagram handle.

“I don’t see that changing anytime soon,” he said of the label. “It’s kind of who I’ve been my whole life. Walking up the 18^th last week they’re announcing your name and I heard the Koala Karl chants. I couldn’t help but smile and laugh. It also helps that I could make a bogey and win!”

Vilips has lived in the US for some years having shifted there for high school, and his last competitive start in his home country was five years ago at the Junior Presidents Cup in Melbourne. But he hopes to change all that over the next few months.

“I’ve been looking into playing the Australian Open and the PGA, speaking with the Golf Australia team about that and I should have spots in those,” he said today. “I don’t know how a schedule looks for the PGA Tour. I hope that I have time to come back home.”

The BMW Australian PGA Championship is from 21-24 November this year in Brisbane, with Min Woo Lee one of the first big names to commit. It is followed from 28 November-1 December by the ISPS HANDA Australian Open at Kingston Heath and Victoria golf clubs in Melbourne.

Vilips, a golfing prodigy who grew up in Melbourne and Perth, is back on the Korn Ferry Tour this weekend having secured his first win at just his sixth start as a professional.

Having finished runner-up on the KFT the week before, he is now primed to pick up a PGA Tour card for 2025 by finishing inside the top 30 on the points list for that tour.

His Australian coach for the past four years is Col Swatton, for so long Jason Day’s mentor.

“He’s been able to teach me so much about the game and what it takes to improve on your own because obviously I don’t get to see him too much,” said Vilips.

He’s playing again this week on the Korn Ferry Tour, having won at his fourth start on the tour and just his sixth as a pro. He’s 15^th on the points list, with the top 30 at season’s end in October picking up PGA Tour cards.

“The last two weeks have been a little bit surprising, being able to win so quickly,” he said.

PHOTO: Karl Vilips is a star of the future … and the now. Image: Getty