The only time Sudarshan Yellamaraju would sit still as a kid was when his father turned European Tour golf on the television in their home in India. To Sudarshan\u2019s father, golf was nothing more than something to fall asleep to. The high-rise office he worked in overlooked a golf course, which at the time was the family\u2019s only exposure to the sport.<\/p>\n
But when golf was on the television, a toddler Sudarshan would sit next to his father and take it all in. The ritual foreshadowed the next two decades of Sudarshan\u2019s life: he and his father in front of a screen, learning the intricacies of a new sport entirely from scratch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and my dad, we just kind of learned the game together,\u201d Yellamaraju said in a phone interview with Fried Egg Golf last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Yellamaraju family moved from India to Canada when Sudarshan was four years old. A couple of years later, he began playing golf, kicking off a journey that would take him through the mini-tour ranks and ultimately to the PGA Tour and this week\u2019s Players Championship<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yellamaraju represents the best of what a meritocratic professional golf system can offer: proof that the path less traveled isn\u2019t an impossible one. If you can shoot the scores, there is no limit to how far you can take yourself in the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here are five things to know about the self-taught 24-year-old \u00a0rookie with one of the most improbable routes to the highest level of professional golf:\u00a0<\/p>\n 1. His first full 18 holes were at a tournament when he was nine<\/p>\n He had hit plenty of range balls at the Golf Dome, a popular indoor facility in Winnipeg, but had never played a full 18-hole round. Sudarshan shot 101 in the first round of the tournament, followed by a 99 in the second. Those first 18 holes remain the only time he has ever shot over 100.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2. He has never taken formal swing instruction<\/p>\n Sudarshan and his father learned the golf swing by watching players like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on television.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe would take my video and put it side by side and try to see if we could do what they were doing\u2026or my dad would sometimes send me videos and see what I think. It was a lot of trial and error, but I guess now we\u2019re here,\u201d Yellamaraju said.\u00a0<\/p>\n MORE Q&A’s: From Patrick Reed and Frank Nobilo to Mike Clayton and Edoardo Molinari<\/a><\/p>\n He credits YouTube as being instrumental in his development. It gave him on-demand access to resources about the golf swing and allowed him to rewind and replay shots rather than trying to visualize movements he could only watch once on television.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even today, Yellamaraju still does not employ a swing coach. When he needs a second set of eyes on his swing, he continues to send videos to his dad.<\/p>\n 3. He turned professional in 2021 at age 19<\/p>\n Yellamaraju had offers to play college golf, but he couldn\u2019t afford to play at any of the schools that had offered him a spot. So he turned professional.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was very confident and my parents believed in me,\u201d he said. \u201cI had come this far and really didn\u2019t want to give it all up. The decision wasn\u2019t easy and it\u2019s not a traditional route, but it was something that made sense to me and my parents \u2014 and that\u2019s all that mattered.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He had originally hoped to turn professional straight out of high school in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed those plans. Instead, he competed as an amateur in mini-tour events within driving distance of the family\u2019s home in Ontario, where they had moved when he was 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP HUB: Everything you need to know for the PGA Tour’s flagship event<\/a><\/p>\n Without sponsors and supported by his parents, Yellamaraju worked his way up through Canadian tours.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI needed to play well right away because my parents can\u2019t do this forever. They don\u2019t have that kind of money,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n He remembers the relief of finishing second in a Mackenzie Tour event. The payout was only a few thousand dollars, but it was enough that he felt like he could start funding some of his journey himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yellamaraju eventually spent two years on PGA Tour Canada (2022-23) and two years on the Korn Ferry Tour (2024-25). He secured his PGA Tour status at the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Championship, finishing 19th on the points list for the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n 4. He points to a Monday qualifier in 2022 as a pivotal inflection point in his career<\/p>\n Yellamaraju only had conditional status on PGA Tour Canada that year and skipped traveling to several Monday qualifiers early in the season to save money. As a result, he had just two chances before the status reshuffle. He successfully qualified for the first event but missed the cut, leaving him one final opportunity. He again got through the second Monday qualifier, making eagle in a playoff to secure his spot.<\/p>\n He then made the cut in the tournament, earning additional status, which he ultimately parlayed into full status on PGA Tour Canada and later the Korn Ferry Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n Money tightened again at the beginning of 2025 after a difficult rookie season on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024. Then, when he needed it most, Yellamaraju won<\/a> the second KFT event of the year in the Bahamas, earning a $180,000 winner\u2019s check and enough points to turn his dream of playing on the PGA Tour into a reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a little \u2014 actually I wouldn\u2019t say a little. It was definitely stressful,\u201d he reflected on his journey. \u201cYou try not to think about the stress and just play because if you think about the stress, it can overwhelm you.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n 5. He didn\u2019t get a Trackman until March 2025<\/p>\n Though he uses the device, Yellamaraju still describes himself as much more of a feel-based player than many of his peers, and he doesn\u2019t get too bogged down in technical elements of the swing or rely heavily on training devices.\u00a0<\/p>\n His best finish so far this season \u2014 a T-13 at the Sony Open \u2014 came in windy conditions. \u201cI like to play in windy conditions because you have to work the ball a little bit more,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to be a little more creative. And I feel like that suited me a bit more. I felt like I could play my kind of game and didn’t have to think about it too much.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n