Alumni of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, Kaito Onishi and Karl Vilips, have earned PGA Tour cards for the 2024-25 season after finishing in the top 30 in the Korn Ferry Tour standings earlier this month.
Kaito Onishi of Japan and Karl Vilips of Australia have each earned PGA Tour cards for the 2024-25 season after finishing in the top 30 in the Korn Ferry Tour standings earlier this month.
Onishi, whose best finish in three Asia Pacific Amateur starts (2016-18) was T-15 in 2017, finished No. 25 in the standings in his second season on the Korn Ferry Tour. In his rookie season in 2023, Onishi finished at No. 100 in the standings, the last spot that is awarded conditional status for the following season. His victory at the 2024 UNC Health Championship made him the second Japanese golfer to win on the Korn Ferry Tour and propelled him to his PGA TOUR membership in his fourth professional season, after two years on the Abema TV Tour and Japan Golf Tour prior to his two seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour.
The 26-year-old has considered Japanese golf legend Shigeki Maruyama a mentor ever since meeting him at 10 years old. The duo connected shortly after his win and following the achievement of his first PGA Tour card.
“It’s honestly a dream come true,” Onishi said the day he achieved a lifelong goal. “I’m super excited for next year and super thankful...Seeing all these players on TV and being able to play in the same field … it’s one of those experiences that not a lot of people have, and it’s very special to me.”
Vilips, who competed in the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship in 2019 (T-8) and 2022 (T-11), finished No. 19 in the Korn Ferry Tour standings after a meteoric rise during the season. The 23-year-old believed he would spend most of his time this year on the PGA Tour Americas circuit after securing only conditional status through his PGA Tour U ranking, but a T-13 finish in his first start on the Korn Ferry Tour granted him additional starts and a win in his fourth start at the Utah Championship delivered him his Tour card faster than he could have dreamed. The Stanford graduate began the year as the No. 4,502 player in the world and is now heading to the PGA Tour.
“The journey has been crazy since day one,” said Vilips. “You always dream of getting to the PGA Tour, but need to make a choice at some point if you’re ready to dedicate most of your time to doing it...To become a member on the PGA Tour is a result of the hard work as a team and resilience to battle through way more lows than highs.”
