The Stanford golf lineage is a long and imposing one, but contemporaneously begins with Tiger Woods and his inescapable shadow.
So it was that another former Stanford star, Karl Vilips, wearing Woods’ new signature clothing line, Sun Day Red, stepped out from that shadow and delivered a Tiger-like Sunday performance in the final round to win the Puerto Rico Open.
Vilips, an Australian playing only his fourth PGA Tour event, began the final round leading by a stroke over another former Stanford golfer, Joseph Bramlett, then closed with an eight-under par 64 at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, to win by three.
“Dream come true for me and my dad,” Vilips said. “Going at it for a long time. This is what we dreamed of when I was a kid. It’s pretty surreal.
“Last night that was about the only thing on my mind was everything that comes with a victory here. I had a hard time getting to sleep. But on the course it was just staying in the present, doing what I can do and I think I did a really good job of that because it is tough to not think about everything. Once I hit that wedge close on 18, those thoughts definitely started flowing in my head.”
Vilips, 23, briefly lost his lead when Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen of Denmark, playing his first PGA Tour event, birdied the first six holes on the back nine. But he never flinched, posting three consecutive birdies to regain a lead that he did not again relinquish. He completed 72 holes in 26-under-par 262.
https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/1898844165112246490
It no doubt is risky to project stardom in a fickle business on a neophyte professional, but his victory on Sunday, in concert with his amateur pedigree, suggests that Vilips at least is worth watching as he upgrades his schedule to include the Players Championship via this victory, a home game in that he now lives in Jacksonville.
Vilips has both Bobby Jones and Tiger Woods on his amateur resume. One-hundred years after Bobby Jones, at 15 in 1917, won the prestigious Southern Amateur, Vilips, at 15 in 2017, won the same tournament. Moreover, Vilips twice won the Callaway Junior World in his age group, four fewer times than Tiger won the Junior World is his age groups.
Golf Channel put Vilips’ Stanford golf coach Conrad Ray, Woods’ teammate at Stanford, incidentally, on the air in the midst of the back nine. Ray, in fact, first took notice of Vilips in the same Junior World.
“I watched him play at the Junior World at 14,” Ray said. “An awesome athlete, really fierce competitor. Pays attention to detail. You match that with some hard work and wanting to win is a great combination.”
Vilips has since turned to Aussie coach Col Swatton, famous for his work with and recently reuniting with Jason Day.
When Vilips had a moment to ponder what he had done, he checked his phone and discovered that Tiger himself had contacted him.
“I got on my phone after the round and I was just scrolling to see who was texting me” he said. “Then there was a voicemail saying it’s Tiger and I couldn’t like process it in the moment, I was just trying to – I’ll get back to that later. That’s pretty cool.”
So, in only his fourth start on tour, when will ‘PGA Tour winner’ sink in for Vilips?
“Probably tonight when I’m going through all my messages,” he said. “Been a little overwhelmed by the support that I’ve been getting, it’s just so special that I have so many friends that are reaching out. I think once I start responding to those, call a couple of friends, I think that’s when it will start kicking in.”
Meanwhile, South African Kieron Van Wyk, also 23, but still an amateur, began the final round trailing Vilips by a shot, posted a 70 and finished in a tie for fourth in his PGA Tour debut.
In an off-Broadway PGA Tour played alongside the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Puerto Rico Open, with Vilips and Van Wyk, nonetheless delivered an entertaining window into the future of the game.
