Australia’s Karl Vilips coasted to the fifth American Junior Golf Association victory of his career at Sedgefield Country Club's Pete Dye Course ini North Carolina.
The win at the Wyndham Invitational was the first of 2018 for the No. 1 player in the Rolex AJGA Rankings, and his third invitational win overall.
Vilips, from Melbourne but now based in the United States, started with a nine-shot lead and won by six.
“It feels great to finally get the win here,” said Vilips. “I’ve played this tournament three years now, and I got third, fourth and to finally get the win is pretty huge for me at such a pretty prestigious place…It’s definitely a good stepping stone to win a tournament like this and to see what I can do with the rest of my career, with people like Justin Thomas winning this in 2009.”
After equalling the competitive course record with a third-round 10-under-par 62 on Thursday, Vilips closed with a three-over-par 73 on Friday to finish at 10-under-par 270 for the tournament. The tournament score placed him one stroke shy of the tournament record set at 11-under-par by Andrew Yun (2006) and Billy Kennerly (2011).
South Korean Jeewon Park out of Lake Mary, Florida, finished solo second with a closing 1-under-par 69. The runner-up finish is his second of the year.