(Reuters) – Karl Vilips celebrated his breakthrough win on the U.S. PGA tour with a couple of hours playing Super Smash Bros. but it was back to business on Wednesday as he started his preparations for the Players Championship.
The 23-year-old Australian earned a last-minute invite to the “fifth major” at TPC Sawgrass with last weekend’s victory at the Puerto Rico Open in only his fourth start on the tour.
A couple of congratulatory messages from Tiger Woods, whose apparel brand he promotes, confirmed Vilips had arrived among golf’s elite and he was still getting his head around it.
“Pretty surreal,” he said. “I mean, it’s something you can only dream about as a kid. I got that voicemail, and then the message, which for him to say that he was very proud of me was just an awesome feeling.”
Although only ninth months into his professional career, Vilips’ long-standing social media presence means he has been well-known as “Koala Karl” to golf fans on the internet for nearly a decade.
The Australian nickname is no longer reflected in his accent after 12 years in America, including four playing golf at Stanford University, but Vilips is proud of his country’s heritage in the sport.
Jakarta-born Vilips, who won gold for Australia at the 2018 Youth Olympics, said major winners like Adam Scott and Jason Day had been a big influence on him growing up.
“They were the best in the country, representing Australia well,” he added.
“And I want to fill their shoes someday. I’ve been able to keep in touch with Jason a little bit and it’s been great. So definitely guys I look up to and people that I want to be like.”
Both Scott (2004) and Day (2016) won the Players Championship but Vilips thinks it unlikely he will join them this week, with a top-20 finish his “realistic goal”.
He was not entirely ruling out a victory at a course close to his Jacksonville home, though.
“I would be pretty surprised,” he said. “I’ve got to beat a lot of great players, I’ve got to play unbelievable golf. I think I would need to play much better golf than I did last week, just because this course is a little bit harder.
“But I’ve obviously thought about it, winning the Players here. That would be unbelievable.”
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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