Australian Karl Vilips reeled himself up from despair to grab a place in the US Amateur matchplay phase today with a brilliant second round at Colorado Golf Club.

Vilips shot one of the rounds of the day, a 4-under-par 68, to vault into the top 64 who will enter the next phase beginning tomorrow at Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado.

At even-par overall, he made the cut on the number while two other Australians – Jeffrey Guan and Tony Chen – missed out by a single shot. Reigning Australian Amateur men’s champion Kazuma Kobori from New Zealand suffered the same cruel fate at 1-over.

Vilips, 21, was a member of Stanford University’s conference championship-winning team this year as a senior, and was runner-up in the prestigious North and South Amateur recently at Pinehurst.

A quarter-finalist in the 2019 US Amateur, he qualified to play at the US Open this year, where he missed the cut after rounds of 74-75 in his debut major championship.

The Western Australian opened with a 75 in round one to put himself well off the pace, but he rolled in four birdie putts in the opening six holes today to regain his mojo, and ultimately posted a 68.

Vilips came to prominence as a junior wunderkind in Melbourne before moving to Perth, and later to high school in Florida. He won a Youth Olympics gold medal for Australia and has represented the International team at Junior Presidents Cups.

He meets college star Jackson Buchanan, the No. 3 seed, in the round of 64 tomorrow.

Scores