Karl Vilips (born 16 August 2001) is an Australian professional golfer and PGA Tour player. He won the 2025 Puerto Rico Open.
Amateur career Vilips played for the international team at the 2017 Junior Presidents Cup. He represented Australia at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires together with Grace Kim, and won the boy's individual gold.
Individually, he won the 2017 Southern Amateur and was runner-up at the 2019 Rolex Tournament of Champions, the 2020 Junior Players Championship and the 2023 North and South Amateur.
Vilips attended Stanford University between 2021 and 2024, and played with the Stanford Cardinal men's golf team. He was named to the 2021 All-Pac-12 Newcomer Team and 2023 All-America honorable mention. He won the Pac-12 Championship as a senior.
Professional career Vilips turned professional after graduating in 2024 and joined the Korn Ferry Tour, where he was runner-up at the NV5 Invitational and won the Utah Championship. He was named as the Korn Ferry Tour Rookie of the Year for the 2024 season.
Vilips finished 19th in the rankings to graduate to the 2025 PGA Tour. In his rookie PGA Tour season he won the Puerto Rico Open, three strokes ahead of Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, in only his fourth start.
Personal life Vilips' father, Paul, has a YouTube channel which documented Karl's journey as a golfer since he was age 7. Hence Vilips is known as the "original YouTube golfer". Vilips gave credit to the YouTube channel for his success, as it helped fundraise him to participate in many junior golf tournaments as a kid, which resulted in him getting golf scholarships which propelled him to success in professional golf.
Amateur wins 2016 Junior Orange Bowl International 2017 Polo Golf Junior Classic, Southern Amateur 2018 Wyndham Invitational 2024 Pac-12 Championship
Source:
Professional wins (2) PGA Tour wins (1) No.DateTournamentWinning scoreTo parMargin ofvictoryRunner-up19 Mar 2025Puerto Rico Open65-67-66-64=262−263 strokes Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
Korn Ferry Tour wins (1) No.DateTournamentWinning scoreTo parMargin ofvictoryRunners-up127 May 2024Utah Championship67-62-64-66=259−252 strokes Matt McCarty, Joe Weiler
Results in major championships Tournament202320242025Masters TournamentPGA ChampionshipCUTU.S. OpenCUTThe Open Championship
CUT = missed the half-way cut
Results in The Players Championship Tournament20252026The Players ChampionshipCUTCUT
CUT = missed the half-way cut
Team appearances Amateur Junior Presidents Cup (representing the International team): 2017 Summer Youth Olympics mixed team (representing Australia): 2018
See also 2024 Korn Ferry Tour graduates
References
External links