Spartanburg, S.C. – A picture perfect day welcomed players to the Country Club of Spartanburg as the sun gleamed from the skies setting the stage for an exciting final round of the 25th Annual Bobby Chapman Junior Invitational. Beginning the day with a two shot lead, it didn’t take long for Karl Vilips (Wesley Chapel, FL/Australia) to extend his lead over the field. With a birdie on the opening hole, and three more before making the turn – Vilips would step on the tenth tee with a four shot lead over the field.
As if that wasn’t enough, Vilips would card birdies on holes 12 through 14 to increase his lead to seven at one point during the round. An errant tee shot on the par-4 15th hole would place a blemish on his back-nine – but in a true champion’s fashion, he would bounce back and end his round with back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 to clinch the victory. His finish of 127 was just one shot off of the tournament record of 126 set by Davis Shore.
Thinking of himself as a 4-under or 5-under player, when asked what this win means to him, Vilips expressed, “It gives me the confidence to know I can go very low in big-time tournaments and be aggressive in pressure situations.”
A 2020 graduate, Vilips came to the states when he was just 11- years old to focus on his game and academics, in hopes to land himself at a prestigious college offer. The mission has been accomplished as Stanford University will be Vilip’s home next fall and he looks forward to taking this win into his final junior golf season.
A familiar name in the final pairing, Gordon Sargent of Mountain Brook, Alabama would again try to catch the leader in the final round. Sargent sat four shots back at the turn and would post a one-under on his final nine, coming up short and tying Florida’s Joseph Pagdin for the runner-up spot. Pagdin made a run for Vilip’s lead late in his round, firing a back-nine 3-under 33. However, the duo finished seven off Vilips’s near record pace at a respective eight-under par 134.
