By all accounts, Karl Vilips has had a dream start to his PGA TOUR career. Vilips, 23, won the Puerto Rico Open earlier this month in just the third start of his rookie year. And he also inked a deal with his idol Tiger Woods to wear Woods’ Sun Day Red apparel line.

Like Woods, Vilips is a Stanford alum. And he also has had quick success since turning pro, becoming the latest success story from PGA TOUR U. Last year, Vilips won on the Korn Ferry Tour in just his fourth start as a pro to earn his PGA TOUR card for 2025.

Vilips also has emulated his countryman Jason Day in many ways. Vilips and Day both hail from Australia and also share a coach, Colin Swatton.

“A lot of what Jason [Day] does is probably semi-embedded in my practice and what I do,” Vilips said.

Day used TaylorMade equipment during his prime years in 2015 and 2016, when he won a combined eight times, including THE PLAYERS and PGA Championship, and reached No. 1 in the world. It was around that time that Vilips, then a junior golfer, started his relationship with TaylorMade

From a gear perspective, Vilips has been in the TaylorMade sphere since he was about 12 or 13 years old, working with TaylorMade fitters such as Ryan Ressa, who’s now the senior manager of player development at the company. Vilips first came to the TaylorMade facility unannounced while he was in town for the Junior World Championships at Torrey Pines.

“We got a call from the front desk, they said there was a junior that wanted to meet us,” Ressa said. “Karl’s been in our stuff since he was (12 or 13 years old), and he’s been coming to our facility in San Diego a couple times a year. And so we’ve gotten really comfortable with how he tests, and he’s pretty easy when it comes to switching stuff. He likes to go through his whole bag kind of once a year in the off-season, and anytime we introduce something new, make a few adjustments that day and he usually goes off with it and puts it in play right away. So he’s been very easy through the years.”

Now, as a full-blown TaylorMade staffer on the PGA TOUR, Vilips has a bag full of 14 TaylorMade clubs. Here are five things to know about Vilips’ equipment setup.

1. A new Spider

During his amateur career, Vilips was known for using a Jason Day-inspired TaylorMade Itsy Bitsy Spider Red putter with a short slant neck. He put the club in the bag shortly after seeing Day win with the same club. But, after eight years, Vilips had to make a move to a new Spider. He has moved into a new TaylorMade Spider Tour X, equipped with a plumber’s neck.

The new putter is better suited for changes to his stroke after he recently started working with a new putting instructor. His stroke now features a bit more arc than his former straight-back and straight-through putting style. The putter only has about two degrees of loft, as well, as Vilips doesn’t forward press his hands.

“The bigger head with the red Spider, the neck didn’t really allow me to rotate it; it was just very straight up and down,” Vilips said. “This allowed me to do that a little bit better. So I put it in the bag with a slightly thicker grip. And rolled it really nice as soon as I put it in, so I just kind of rolled with it and it’s been great.”

Clearly, the switch worked, since Vilips had the new Spider Tour X in the bag for his win at the 2025 Puerto Rico Open.

2. A beloved 7-wood

To go along with a new Qi35 15-degree 3-wood, Vilips is a member of the growing 7-wood brigade out on the PGA TOUR, using a Qi10 21-degree 7-wood.

The club’s versatility is the reason it’s his favorite club.

“I’ve never been a long-iron guy necessarily, I just kind of find them hard to hit; hard to launch in the air on par 5s,” Vilips said. “So I used a 3-hybrid for a long time, but, that wasn’t getting enough spin for me, although it was doing a really nice job helping me win the Pac-12 (Championship) last year. I just wanted something in the bag that could launch pretty high and fill that gap between my 4-iron and my 3-wood, because there’s a pretty large gap. And the hybrid was only about 240, so this one (carries) about 250 in the air. So it bridges it perfectly. And this one I can hit a 220-yard spinny cut, I can knock one down with low spin and hit it like 260 in the air, just super versatile; off the ground, off the tee, and it doesn’t spin too much into the wind. Into a 15 mph wind, it’s only taking off about 5-10 yards, which is great. And the crazy part is, it looks like it’s spinning but it’s not.”

More versatility, higher launch and about 10 yards more carry distance? It makes sense why Vilips likes the 7-wood so much.

3. New driver, more distance

As Ressa mentioned, Vilips is quick to switch when he finds something better, so it’s no surprise to see him using a new TaylorMade Qi35 9-degree driver. For Vilips, he equips the new head with a Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 6TX shaft.

Prior to hitting the head for the first time, Vilips said he was searching for lower spin and more forgiveness on his preferred cut shot off the tee – ultimately, he gained 3 mph of ball speed, too.

“First time hitting the Qi35, we just wanted something that was a bit lower spinning and forgiving, and we found exactly that,” Vilips said. “The driver’s been great. (I’m) spinning it around 2000-2300 rpm, which is what I like to see. … It doesn’t fall out of the sky even though it’s low spinning. I’m able to send it if I need to, and that’s when it goes a mile, when it’s low spinning and high launching. I get those ones that can carry me 320 yards. It’s nice to be able to have the comfortability to give it that extra 3 mph with the club head, and see the ball speed increase as well, while keeping the spin the same.”

4. A new P770 long iron

At the start of the 2025 season, Vilips used a full set of TaylorMade P-7CB irons, from 4-iron to pitching wedge. Ahead of THE PLAYERS Championship, however, Vilips was searching for a long-iron option that would provide a bit more height and stopping power into par 5s.

His search ended when he found the P770 4-iron.

“I needed something that launched higher,” Vilips explained. “My 4-iron was coming out a little flat. Tough to hold (the green) downwind. I think this one (the P770), after hitting it on the range and on the course, it’s a little higher launching. It goes a few yards farther, but again, the other 4-iron was flat and only getting about 10 yards further than my 5-iron. So this launching where it’s supposed to is evening out that space with my long irons.

“Just something a little forgiving off the ground. My 4-iron was great off the tee, but like, I just needed something into those par 5s where I could get it up in the air, get it to land a little softer. It was kind of an issue whenever I needed to hit a 4-iron, I’d say to my caddie, look, I’d rather step on a (par) 5 and hit it harder. So we definitely needed to find something for that, and I think I found it with this.”

5. Dots for each round

It’s always interesting to see how PGA TOUR players mark their golf ball. No two players mark their golf balls exactly the same way – that would kind of defeat the purpose of marking the golf ball, after all.

For Vilips, he marks his TaylorMade TP5x golf ball with his initials on one side of the golf ball, and then on the other side of the ball, uniquely, he marks dots based on what round in the event he’s playing. So for Round 1 on Thursday, he marks it with one dot. For Round 2 on Friday, he marks it with two dots, etc.

No word yet on how he marks it during a playoff – he hasn’t needed to endure one yet, since his first win came decisively in a three-stroke victory. Give him some time, though, he’s only five PGA TOUR events into his card-carrying career. And what a career it’s been thus far.