It would appear that another Australian golfing star has arrived. Australian Karl Vilips was born in Indonesia and raised in Perth and subsequently spent most of his teenage years in the United States. Vilips finished 19th on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024 to join the graduating class - the top 30 players on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List earned PGA TOUR cards for the 2025 season (Read more about Karl is BELOW.)

His win at the PGA Tour Puerto Rico Open was at his fourth career start at the age of 23 years, 6 months, recording a final-round 8-under 64 including seven birdies and one eagle against one bogey.

With the win, Vilips becomes the:

• 12th player to win in one of his first four starts on TOUR since 1970
• 37th Australian to win on TOUR and the first since Cam Davis (2024 Rocket Classic)
• Fifth international winner of the Puerto Rico Open and first from Australia
• Only rookie to win on TOUR this season and the first since Matt McCarty (2024 Black Desert Championship)
• Youngest winner on TOUR this season (23 years, 6 months, 21 days)
• Fourth first-time winner this season (Thomas Detry/WM Phoenix Open, Brian Campbell/Mexico Open at VidantaWorld, Joe Highsmith/Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, Karl Vilips/Puerto Rico Open)

His victory marks new 72-hole tournament scoring record of 262 (previous 267: Nico Echavarria/2023, Chesson Hadley/2014). Vilips also earns 300 FedExCup points and is projected to move from No. 161 to No. 41 in the FedExCup standings.

With the win, Vilips fully exempt on TOUR through the 2027 season and he also earns starts in the 2025 PLAYERS Championship and 2025 PGA Championship.

Final Leaderboard

Karl Vilips BIO

Finished No. 10 in the 2024 PGA TOUR University Ranking after four seasons at Stanford University (2021-24) and posted top-15 finishes in each of his first four Korn Ferry Tour starts, culminating in a victory at the Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank and Intermountain Health. Also finished solo second at the NV5 Invitational presented by Old National Bank the week prior to his win. Earned his first Korn Ferry Tour start at The Ascendant presented by Blue via a sponsor exemption qualifying tournament; he played two PGA TOUR Americas events as a fully exempt member prior to his run of top-15s on the Korn Ferry Tour. While at Stanford, lived with teammate and close friend Michael Thorbjornsen, and the two have since relocated to the same residential complex in Jacksonville, Florida. The two met for the first time around age 7 or 8, and later attended prep academies roughly an hour apart in Florida, with Vilips at Saddlebrook Preparatory School north of Tampa, Florida and Thorbjornsen at IMG Academy south of Tampa in Bradenton. Decorated junior career included wins at the 2017 Southern Amateur Championship (a little under a month before his 16th birthday) and 2018 Summer Youth Olympics, runner-up finishes at the 2017 and 2018 Western Junior Championships, and five consecutive top-10s at the Junior PLAYERS Championship (2016-20). Fantasy football enthusiast. Lone PGA TOUR start to date was the 2023 U.S. Open (missed cut).