2018 SCOREGolf feature on diversity<\/a>. At that the time, he was a teenager and the defending Ontario Amateur champion despite never having taken formal golf lessons. Then, he and his family weren\u2019t even sure golf was a worthwhile pursuit. Now, he is a PGA Tour rookie whose name is on everyone\u2019s mind after weekend rounds of 66-68 at the ever-dangerous TPC Sawgrass tied him for fifth in the biggest tournament of his career.\u00a0<\/p>\nThat result has not only made the 24-year-old a whole lot richer, but also more secure in his position on the PGA Tour with his FedEx Cup ranking climbing to 30th, which will help him crack the field of the tour\u2019s next signature event. Despite a bogey on the 72nd hole, Yellamaraju\u2019s four scorecards at Sawgrass contained only six squares combined, and his Sunday number was the second-lowest of anyone in the field. He said after his round that he exceeded what he thought he could do, but make no mistake, the youngest Canadian PGA Tour member in history knows very well how good he can be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of belief in myself. I feel very confident I can be the best,\u201d Yellamaraju told me two-plus weeks ago when we sat down for a lengthy chat after his opening round at the Cognizant Classic in West Palm Beach, Fla.<\/p>\n
The other nugget about Yellamaraju that golf fans will have picked up from The Players telecast is that he doesn\u2019t have a coach. Much like Brooke Henderson, Yellamaraju relies on feel, instinct and his father\u2019s eyes for help. Unlike Dave Henderson, however, Suresh Yellamaraju had no background in golf before his son developed an unlikely interest in it. The two learned the game together \u2014 first in Winnipeg and then Mississauga \u2014 and even when Yellamaraju was named to Golf Canada\u2019s high-performance program, he continued to chart his own course.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really want a coach because I just kind of like to do things myself,\u201d Yellamaraju said at the Cognizant. \u201cI know how I feel and same thing, my dad knows how I feel when it comes to my body and tendencies in my swing and stuff like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, some people have coaches that they see one or two times a week and it works great. I feel like golf, at the end of the day, you just have to feel it out and play it, that\u2019s what I think. My way is trying different things, seeing what works for you. I feel like that\u2019s the best way to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
One instructor he has at least bounced ideas off is Louis Melanson, who serves as an assistant coach with Golf Canada. Yellamaraju was in Melanson\u2019s cohort when he joined the national program and he eventually gained enough trust in the New Brunswicker that he asked Melanson to fill in as his caddie in the third round of PGA Tour Q-School in 2024 after his father fell under the weather. Yellamaraju shot 67 that day and eventually recaptured his Korn Ferry Tour card with a tie for 36th. He won on the Triple-A circuit five weeks later in the Bahamas, which propelled him to a PGA Tour promotion.<\/p>\n
Melanson says Yellamaraju boasts a \u201cquiet confidence,\u201d noting that every once in a while he will drop a coy line that shows his conviction. \u201cHe\u2019s not brash, he\u2019s not gloating, (but) he\u2019s got the bravado,\u201d Melanson said. And because Melanson subscribes to a don\u2019t-fix-what-isn\u2019t-broken approach to coaching, he left Yellamaraju\u2019s long, languid, powerful, left-handed swing alone during Golf Canada training sessions. It is that swing that tied Yellamaraju for second in driving distance at TPC Sawgrass and has him among the top 20 in that category on the season. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times when people own their game, they usually go a lot farther than guys who are taking advice from all over the place,\u201d said Melanson. \u201cIf you can stay in one lane, you have a better chance of making it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such a throwback approach is refreshing in a sport where most who play at the highest level rely on the teachings of multiple coaches, not to mention trainers, nutritionists and psychologists. Maybe Yellamaraju hires help eventually since nobody is immune to golf\u2019s fickle nature, but for now, the young man who shone so brightly at Sawgrass is following the same script he started writing as a youngster. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKids get into the sport out of curiosity,\u201d Yellamaraju told me. \u201cIt\u2019s something they see, and at the beginning, they probably just feel it out. That\u2019s what I think, but I guess my path is more unique than others. I\u2019ve been just going with the flow of life in a way and just doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far so good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even with its field size slashed by some two dozen players, the result of competitive changes being implemented…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-538956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}