PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Canadian Sudarshan Yellamaraju gave fans plenty to like and subscribe to this week as he introduced himself to the world with his performance this week at the Players Championship.
The self-taught PGA Tour rookie who learned the game by watching YouTube videos made just two bogeys over his final 42 holes at the diabolical TPC Sawgrass to finish the week at nine-under par and in a stunning tie for fifth place, four shots back of winner Cameron Young.
“I think I kind of exceeded what I thought I could do,” Yellamaraju said after Sunday’s four-under round of 68. “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.”
In a sport more often dominated by gym rats and swing analysts these days, Yellamaruja is all knees and elbows as the lean 24-year-old strides down fairways with the physique of a 3-iron.
All he did this week was finish tied for second in driving distance and fourth in strokes gained putting. Somehow, through an incredible amount of trial and error, he has gone from YouTube study sessions to the pinnacle of the sport.
Asked after his round where all the power comes from, he didn’t seem quite sure.
“Adrenaline, I feel pumped to be out here,” he said. “I just try to keep my body loose. I do a lot of stretching to get ready, do a lot of recovery work, so I guess that helps. Being young, that helps. I don’t know. I just kind of swing it, to be honest.”
The most unlikely player in the Players Championship is suddenly in the midst of a storybook journey in the sport. After moving from India to Winnipeg at age four for his father Suresh’s job in IT, Sudarshan picked up the sport at the local golf dome with rental clubs when he was six years old.
“Steel shafts. Too long. These tiny heads,” Yellamaraju said of those first clubs.
The journey that took him from India to Winnipeg continued with a move to Mississauga at age 11 where he played most of his golf at ClubLink courses west of Toronto. He played a familiar circuit for many golfers in the GTA: Blue Springs, Glencairn, Greystone, Rattlesnake Point.
Despite winning the Ontario Amateur Championship at 16 years old, scholarship offers didn’t flood in and Yellamaraju made the difficult choice to skip college and turn professional at 19.
“Me and my parents made the decision,” he said. “It wasn’t easy, of course. I know my parents wanted me to get an education but at the same time they were like whatever you want to do, do it 100%.
“Also, it had to do with paying for it financially. We never got the good enough offers, and that’s what it was. Once we made the decision we were committed and we were focused on getting through it and getting to the highest level.”
After playing his way through qualifying schools, and last year earning the 19th of 20 PGA Tour promotions from the Korn Ferry Tour, Yellamaraju introduced himself to mainstream golf fans this week at the tour’s flagship event, in just his eighth event on the PGA Tour.
The young Canadian showed his resilience on Friday when he birdied three of his final five holes to narrowly make the cut, and he repeatedly said he has always had the confidence to succeed at the game’s highest level.
“I believed I can do that, but we have to do it first to kind of say, ‘Okay, I did that.’ ” he said.
With this finish under his belt, the goal for the rest of the season is not simply to keep his card, but to finish inside the top-50 in the FedEx Cup standings and earn his way into the top echelon of PGA Tour events.
Yellamaraju has come a long way from studying golf swings with his father and trying to replicate them at home. To this day, he still has never had a swing lesson and has never worked with a coach. His father is still providing a second set of eyes.
As for his dad’s qualifications in the sport?
“He doesn’t play golf.” |
