FARMINGTON — Four weeks ago, Karl Vilips Monday-qualified to play in a Korn Ferry Tour event over the mountains in Berthoud, Colorado.
What the 22 year-old rookie pro from Perth, Australia, has accomplished since then is nothing short of amazing.
With apologies to Olympic gold medal winner Scottie Scheffler, there might not be a golfer on the planet hotter than Vilips, who turned pro a few months ago after finishing his senior season at Stanford with the only tournament win of his college career, the Pac-12 individual championship.
Sunday, Vilips capped the remarkable stretch by cruising to a two-shot win over Americans Joe Weiler and Matt McCarty in the Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship at Oakridge Country Club.
He tied for 13th in Colorado on July 14, tied for 15th the following week in Missouri, placed second alone last week in the Chicago area and then fired a closing-round 5-under 66 amid 96-degree temperatures in Utah.
Now that is some sizzling hot golf.
“It is just kind of what you dream of when you qualify in,” Vilips said. “Four weeks ago, you step in, you try to keep playing. In your wildest dreams, you imagine winning and shooting up the rankings. … Just happy to see today all that stress solve itself.”
Vilips cashes the $180,000 first-place check and becomes the 15th first-time winner in 20 events on the Korn Ferry Tour this year. He zoomed up to 15th on the points list and is excellent shape to be in the top 30 at season’s end and earn a PGA Tour card.
“My really ambitious goal is to get No. 1 on the points list, but that would take a few more wins,” he said, while contemplating playing at the KFT stop in Omaha, Nebraska, next week because he’s played in tournaments for six straight weeks.
“So we are just going to try to win every time we step up on the first tee of a tournament. I think the expectations here are to get that PGA Tour card.”
He’s well on his way. It has been a while since a win in the 33-year-old Utah Championship has catapulted a golfer to PGA Tour stardom, but Vilips seems like an ideal candidate. Before his third round last week in Chicago, a Utah Sports Commission official called and offered him an exemption into this week’s event, which he accepted.
Turns out he didn’t need it, as those without status on the KFT can play the next week if they finish in the top 25. Still, the exemption gave him some peace of mind.
“That just freed me up to go out and play aggressive,” he said. “Him calling and giving me that spot was huge because it allowed me to go play my game.”
Summerhays finishes T13, seven Utahns in top 75
It was another good week on the KFT for 40 year-old Daniel Summerhays, the father of four from Farmington who came out of retirement a few years ago and is inching closer to getting his PGA Tour card back.
Summerhays made a 6-foot birdie putt on No. 18 in front of a large crowd — by KFT crowd standards — to finish at -4 for the day, -19 for the tournament.
He tied for 13th and was easily the highest Utah-connected finisher.
“Any time you get to play in front of your fans, your friends, your family, you are thrilled,” said Summerhays, who made a longer, more difficult birdie putt on No. 18 Saturday to also elicit a huge roar from the home crowd.
“I am tired, though. It is a long week. It is an exhausting week, but it was definitely a lot of fun.”
Summerhays started the week at No. 41 on the points list and moved to No. 38 with the top-20 showing. He said he has already qualified for the Tour Championship but will play all the remaining events on the KFT calendar in hopes of moving into the top 30 on the points list.
“I got a lot of good golf ahead of me this year, so I will keep grinding,” he said.
BYU’s Cooper Jones just misses top 25, chance to play next week
A top-25 finish so he could play in Omaha next week was the goal for BYU golfer Cooper Jones when Sunday began and the 20-year-old from Alpine was tied for 18th. But Jones could never get on the birdie train and shot a 1-under 70 to tie for 36th.
“Definitely disappointing final round, but overall a pretty good week,” Jones said. “One under (par) isn’t too good out here. Four or five under is what I was looking for today, but I didn’t really have my game.”
Jones said he will play in the Utah Open at Riverside Country Club in Provo in a couple weeks, then put his clubs away for two years as he will serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Peru.
“I think the main takeaway is I can compete out here. Professional golf is no longer as much of a dream as it is a reality if I can play like this and get my game back after my mission,” Jones said.
“I think that’s the biggest thing, that I can compete out here and one day become a professional golfer.”
How other Utahns fared
Ogden native Connor Howe, a KFT regular who prepped at Weber High and played his college golf at Georgia Tech, shot a 64 on Sunday and tied for 36th with the aforementioned Jones and others at -15.
Lone Peak High’s Kihei Akina, 18, a BYU commit, and former BYU golfer Peter Kuest came in at -13 and tied for 49th. Former BYU golfer Carson Lundell, now a pro, tied for 67th, while former BYU golfer Max Brenchley, still an amateur as he finishes up some classwork at the school, tied for 75th.
State Am champion Cole Ponich of Kaysville and Arizona State golfer Preston Summerhays — Daniel’s nephew — did not make the cut after Friday’s second round.