Vilips is medalist as North & South Amateur heads to match play

June 29, 2022 | by AmateurGolf.com Staff

Karl Vilips (Matt Gibson/Pinehurst photo)

Karl Vilips shoots six under at Pinehurst to lead qualifiers in the third tournament in the Elite Amateur Series

Stanford men's golf is on a roll.

Just days after his teammate Michael Thorbjornsen recorded the best finish by an amateur in a PGA Tour event since 2016, Karl Vilips earned medalist honors at the 122nd North & South Amateur at Pinehurst, N.C.

The native of Australia and rising junior at Stanford shot rounds of 66 on course No. 2 and 68 on course No. 4 to top a strong field by one shot at 6 under par.

Vilips is attempting to be the second-straight Aussie to win the North & South, following Louis Dobbelaar, who unlike Vilips did not play college golf in the U.S. and instead traveled here for a summer of golf last year. He has since turned pro.

Vilips made a run to the quarterfinals in 2021 and hopes to win two more matches this year. He will start match play as the top seed.

Ross Steelman, Frankie Capan and Maxwell Ford shot 5 under to take the next three match play seeds.

Capan has good memories of Pinehurst, having won the 2017 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball with Ben Wong.

-Pinehurst photo

Jackson Koivun had the round of the day, a course-record 7-under 63 on course No. 4, to finish at 4 under. The Auburn commit's round included six birdies and an eagle on the par-4 16th.

“I had no clue what the course record was,” Koivun told Alex Podlogar of Pinehurst . “I didn’t even think it was even in reach until after I made the putt on 18. Someone said, ‘Course record!’ and I was so confused. I thought it might’ve been lower, but, what do you know?”

We at AmateurGolf.com are not surprised -- we have seen Jackson up close at seven of our Winter Tour events.

Jackson Van Paris, last year's runner-up to Dobbelaar and a home-town favorite, made it through to match play at 1 under 139.

The cut for match play came at even par, and no playoff was needed as there were exactly 32 players at that number or better.

Andrew O'Leary, who made headlines by shooting a 68 in round 1 that included both a 9 and a hole-in-one, saw his roller-coaster ride take a steep drop in round two, shooting a 77 that put him outside of the cut line.

Match play begins early Thursday morning, with Vilips going out first against Leo Oyo.

Results: North & South Amateur

Place	Player	Location	Pts
Win	Luke Clanton	Miami Lakes, FL	1000
Runner-up	Tommy Morrison	Dallas, TX	700
Semifinals	Nick Lyerly	Salisbury, NC	500
Semifinals	Maxwell Moldovan	Uniontown, OH	500
Quarterfinals	David Ford	Peachtree Corners, GA	400

View full results for North & South Amateur

About the North & South Amateur

Vilips is medalist as North & South Amateur heads to match play

The North & South Amateur Championship is the longest consecutively run amateur tournament in the United States. Its past winners list includes names like Walter Travis, Francis Ouimet, Billy Joe Patton, Jack Nicklaus and Curtis Strange. The field is...