[Photo: Sun Day Red/Instagram]
Australian Karl Vilips will make his debut as a member of the PGA Tour this week draped in the new clothing brand of arguably the game’s greatest player – Tiger Woods.
Vilips, an Australian who played college golf at Stanford, the same university Woods called home in the mid-1990s, was unveiled on Wednesday as the first brand ambassador of Sun Day Red. It was launched as Woods’s clothing line in early 2024, after he spent decades as one of the faces of Nike. Sun Day Red teased the announcement last week with a silhouette of a player swinging a club.
That player was 23-year-old Vilips.
“Karl’s journey has been marked by success at every level he’s played,” Woods said in a press release. “At Sun Day Red, we were drawn towards his relentless work ethic and pioneering spirit that embody what we stand for and look for in our athletes. With his impressive track record and determination, I have no doubt he will make a significant impact quickly on the PGA TOUR and is one of the game’s future stars.”
Vilips moved from Perth to the US at age 11 to chase his professional golf dreams. He went to high school in Florida before he chose Stanford for university, partly because of Woods. As a student at Stanford in northern California he made it through qualifying for the 2023 US Open at Los Angeles Country Club.
After turning pro in May of 2024, Vilips won his fourth Korn Ferry Tour start at the Utah Championship and eventually finished No. 19 on the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Points List. That earned a PGA Tour card via the top 30 on the season-long standings.
He was glowing in his praise of Woods, who Vilips credits with inspiring him to take up golf.
“I’ve had a handful of interactions with [Woods]; all have been progressively a little bit better,” Vilips said. “I think the first time I met him, I was 6 and I was just awestruck looking at him. Couldn’t really say anything. Just listened to whatever he had to say. And then met him again a couple years later. Throughout this whole [Sun Day Red] process, it’s been really cool to hear what he’s had to say in picking me as an ambassador. I hold that to heart. It’s a huge honour.
“I mean, when they posted [the Instagram video] today, and Tiger reposted on his story, that was one of the coolest things that that’s ever happened to me. Obviously it’s someone that I’ve looked up to my whole life and his involvement, you know, and interest in my game, I think. I definitely take that to heart. It’s it’s really cool being the first. Certainly not the only, but being the first alongside Tiger, it’s special.”
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Vilips will make his first PGA Tour start as a member at this week’s Mexico Open; he had been sidelined to start the season due to a back injury he was diagnosed with around the time of the Australian Open.
“I had a bit of a nagging back injury at the Australian Open and was diagnosed as one with a stress fracture and took some time off,” he said from Mexico on Wednesday morning. “We later found out that it was a disc bulge and now I’m back earlier than expected. I was supposed to be back at Valspar [in Florida] and once we found out it was just a disc bulge, we got to work pretty quickly and put in a good, good month of solid hard work to get me here already in mid-February.”
