Golfing Scrapbook of     "Koala" Karl Vilips

Welcome to Karl's Golfing Scrapbook. This is where you can keep up with Karl's journey as a junior golfer and to also find out a little about what he gets up to off the course. This site is a chronicle of Karl's golf achievements to date.

As of 25th May 2012;

• Karl is 10 years old.
• Has an official men's handicap of 6.1
• Has Won 2 World Championships, at Ages 7 & 9.
• Has had 2 Holes-in-One
• Has a Personal Best official competition round at Age 10 of 73 off the Men's Back Tees at the Alistair McKenzie designed Yarra Yarra Golf Club layout. The course rating was 73, and the course measured approx 6102 Meters ( 6673 yards). Official score here.

You can also see both photos & videos of Karl's golf highlights to date, view his Biography, or check out his latest news. 

I'm Karl's Dad and it's me that updates things here. My name is Paul and I invite you to feel free to check it out and to email us with any comments, questions or words of encouragement for Karl that you may have at pauls@westnet.com.au.

World Championships funding appeal

Can you support Karl in the 2012 World Championships? 

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Lorena Ochoa had all won World Championships by Karl's current age. From an early age, they learned the art of winning and the rest is history. As recently as the recent Player's Championships at TPC Sawgrass, Tiger Woods quoted that his wins as a junior helped teach him how to win on Tour.

If a player is worthy of support in any sport, he or she should be given the opportunity to realise their full potential. 

With just 6 weeks until this year's Callaway Junior World's, Karl urgently needs your support to help him try to bring another world title home to Australia, so if you can help, please contact us at pauls@westnet.com.au

Karl's World Championships schedule can be viewed here.

Latest News: 

25th May:  The Moorabin Leader newspaper runs a story in support of Karl's 2012 World Chapionships capaign. Story Here.

12th May: It's been a good day for Karl. After appearing in an article in Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper, he also managed to secure his 2nd Ace, albeit at the local Pitch'n'Putt and only from 55 yards. However, his first Ace at age 7 was a "genuine" Ace, scored at the 2009 Callaway Junior World Championships on a Par 3 of 109 Yards with a full 7-iron.

12th May: Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper do a story on Karl. The Online version of that is available for view here.

11th May: Karl shoots a new Personal Best of 73 "off-the-stick" in the member's competiton at Yarra Yarra Golf Club and wins the day's competition with 42 Stableford points. The course rating for the day was 73, seeing Karl (not only) shoot even par for the first time, but also smash his previous best round by 5 shots. His handicap also dropped down to 6.1. Score here

29th April: Karl played at his former Home Club, Southern GC and scored 35 Stableford points from the Mens White Tees, ie: the normal Men's competiton Tees. The Yardage from the White Tees is only 6557 Yards.

Afterwards, Karl (both) supported his club-mates and watched a few of Australia's best Amateurs playing Club Pennants. Australia's (and in particular Melbourne's) Club Pennants is the world's finest Amateur club competition, with Australia's and a couple of the UK's top Amateur golfers in action on some of the world's best courses for 10-weeks every year. Karl's Home Club actually had both Stuart Appleby and Robert Allenby in it's Pennants Team before they turned Professional.

28th April: New handicap of 6.5 after posting a score of 1- down in the Par format at Yarra Yarra's Saturday competition played from off the Men's Blue Tees. The Blue Tees are our "Back" Men's Tees in Australia, making the ACR (Australian Course Rating) 1-shot harder at Par of 73 instead of Par 72.

25th April: New handicap 6.8 after a solid and consistent past month of competition. Note, only competition rounds are calculated towards Karl's handicap.

17th April: Charity Appearance. Australian charity Very Special Kids (which supports families of children with life threatening illnesses) had a fundraising day at the famed Kingston Heath Golf Club. Karl has benefitted from support in the past to get him to the World Championships and hopes to get support again this year, and although he isn't in any position to provide money to any charities, Karl tries to give back whenever possible in any way he can. When asked whether he could help out this very worthwhile charity, the answer was a big Yes. Photos here , here and here 

Karl's contribution involved being the Pro on the "Beat the Pro" Par 3 measuring 141 Meters (155 yards), where players would try to get closer to the hole than him with their Tee Shot. A handful of the 88 players managed to get closer, and they went in the draw for a prize. Karl's efforts raised $800 towards a total of $71,000 on the day. If you are able to support the Very Special Kids Charity, click here

For the record, Karl used a 5-wood to start with in the cold early morning, then as conditions warmed up, he switched to his 7-Wood.

15th April: Win. Change of pace. With this Sunday being the last day of the Easter school holidays which blessed us with the best weather ever, Karl and our friends convinced me to partner him in the Father  & Son (and Mum's & Daughter's) tournament at the Mulgrave Pitch'n'Putt.

I shared Karl's shortened clubs and tried my hardest not to hamper him whilst we did battle with his friends and their Parents. Karl posted the best Gross by a couple of shots from his buddy Charlie, whilst our combined score of 2-over for Karl and 6-over for myself came through as the low Gross.

13th April:  Win. For only the 2nd time, Karl competed in a one-day 36-hole event, the South Gippsland Junior Classic. It was played at the 5710 Meter (6244 Yard) Par 70 Lang Lang Golf Club layout and was presented in magnificent condition on a sunny Autumn day, making play a pleasure. There was no age divisions for the day. Rather, there was the oft-used format of Handicap divisions which saw Karl on his handicap of 7 competing in the "A" division.

Karl's Tee-to-Green was perhaps the best I've seen, and both his Putting and Bunker work exceptional, seeing him get 4 of 6 Sand Saves and holding a better-than-average number of putts on the Poa Greens which baffled both Karl and rest of the field.

Aside from Winning Best Nett, Karl also finished 3rd Overall in the Gross with rounds of 77 & 76. It was a Benchmark performance in Karl's fledgling career, as the vast majority of the field fell by the wayside in the 2nd round, whilst he battled his own demons and outscored his 1st Round with a Birdie on the last hole.

Scores here and Video of the first 9 Holes of Karl's round before the battery ran low here.

12th April: Win. Karl wins the Easter school holidays edition of the Victorian Under 16 years Pitch'n"Putt championships. Karl won both his Under 12's age group and the Overall Gross, shooting a 57 on the Par 54 layout comprising relatively short holes on postage stamp size greens which penalised any shots which didn't it the greens on the right spot.

Full results here and photos here & here.

4th April: Win. Karl played in the 9-hole Stuart Appleby Junior Golf event held at Cheltenham Golf Club and played in the Boys Under 14 Age Division. Cheltenham Golf Course adjoins the famous Victoria Golf Club, but is a Public access course.

With a Par of 35 and played off a combination of Men's, Women's and shorterned Tees, Karl shot even Par to shoot the lowest score of the day and win his age division. The good news for golf here is that one of the 9-year-old boys shot a 36 to win the boys Under 10 years division, so hat's off to Ashley and Dayle at Stuart Appleby Junior Golf for their efforts in growing junior golf here.

Full scores here

There are heaps of Karl's videos available to view at his YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/KarlGolf

For archived "Latest News", click here