PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Canada’s Sudarshan Yellamaraju describes himself as a “feel” golfer.
The PGA Tour rookie was certainly feeling it in the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass this weekend, as Yellamaraju posted a 4-under 68 in the final round Sunday, which should be good enough for his first top-10 finish on tour.
“It was a long week,” said Yellamaraju, who finished with a 72-hole total of 9-under 279, which left him in a tie for sixth place when he walked off the 72nd hole.
“I’m pretty happy with how it went. Obviously, to kind of grind to make the cut, and then I just kind of wanted to play the best golf I could on the weekend. I think I kind of exceeded what I thought I could do.”
The 24-year-old certainly has had one of the most unlikely paths into professional golf. He was born in India and moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, when he was 4. He picked up the game as a 6-year-old, using rental clubs with steel shafts that were “too long [with] these tiny heads.”
Yellamaraju got his own set of clubs when he was 9. He carded a 101 in his first competitive round, the last time he ever broke triple digits.
Yellamaraju and his father, Suresh, watched YouTube videos of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott and other pros to learn how to swing a club.
“It was a lot of trial and error, so we had to kind of learn and figure out what worked for us,” Yellamaraju said. “I feel like for me, what I feel is what I feel. At the end of the day, you’ve got to go play golf and just play what you can.”
At 16, Yellamaraju won the Ontario Amateur Open. He didn’t attend college and spent two years playing on the PGA Tour Canada circuit and two more on the Korn Ferry Tour.
After picking up his first pro victory in the 2025 Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club, he finished 19th on the KFT season-long points list to earn one of the 20 PGA Tour cards that were awarded.
Even now, Yellamaraju doesn’t have a full-time swing coach. He relies on his caddie, Joel Kraft, and his father to record his swings. His father plays golf about once a year, but grew up competing in cricket and understands weight transfer and other parts of swing mechanics.
“We watched videos of different players,” Yellamaraju said. “We see what they do. He kind of sees, ‘OK, if this person is doing this, and I’m maybe not doing it this way, and I’m hitting this direction or whatever, maybe try something else.'”
That approach worked at TPC Sawgrass, where he ranked fourth in strokes gained: putting (5.514), 14th in approach (4.432) and was tied for second in driving distance (311.2 yards) when he finished his round.
After missing the cut in his first PGA Tour start at the 2025 RBC Canadian Open, Yellamaraju made the cut in five of his first six events this season, including a tie for 13th in the Sony Open in Hawaii.
He is ranked No. 216 in the world, but figures to climb mightily after his performance in The Players.
“I know I can compete and contend, and I have a lot of belief in myself, but that results-based confidence is something you can’t match,” Yellamaraju said. “Once you do something, you know you can do that or better. Obviously, wherever I finish, I know I can do that, and then kind of move up from there.”
