Before I talk about the thrilling finale of the 2026 Players Championship, I wanted to highlight Sudarshan Yellamaraju (Titleist Pro V1).

Yellamaraju is a landed Canadian immigrant – I’m a Canadian by birth – and his hometown is Mississauga, which is where I am based, in the west end of Toronto.

Up until last week, Yellamaraju was known only to the Canadian golf community, and even then, it was probably a limited audience. 

 That will no longer be the case. His cover, so to speak, has been blown after he finished tied with Ludwig Aberg (Titleist Pro V1x) and Jacob Bridgeman (TaylorMade TP5X) for fifth. 

Yellamaraju toiled in relative obscurity up to the Players, though his back story is the stuff of which movies are made. He picked up the sport at age six, two years after his family moved from India to Canada and began playing with clubs that didn’t fit at the local golf dome.

Yellamaraju learned the game from watching YouTube videos of the likes of Tiger Woods (Bridgestone Tour B X) and Rory McIlroy (TaylorMade 2024 TP5). He never had instructions. His father, who wasn’t a player, was his coach. He received his first set of clubs at age 9.

Seven years after coming to Canada, Yellamaraju moved one province east with his family to Ontario, specifically to Mississauga. For all I know, I may have passed by him somewhere in the city, though the population is some 900,000.

He played on various public courses and won the provincial championship at age 18. Because his family couldn’t afford to send him to a U.S. university and the scholarship offers weren’t anything great, Yellamaraju decided to discontinue his education and turned pro.

He played in qualifying schools and became part of the Korn Ferry Tour last year. He won the second event he played in and basically made about half the cuts in which he teed up. He played in the Canadian Open and missed the cut.

He became the 19^th of 20 players to be promoted to the PGA Tour this year. So far, Yellamaraju has made the cut in six of seven tournaments he has played.

What happens going forward? I’m sure in his native country there will be tremendous excitement. Pending his performances, he will have some interesting choices. I’m sure he will be flooded with sponsorship and marketing opportunities. He could theoretically have a choice between playing for Canada or his native India for the 2028 Olympics. Canada has developed a really strong golf program with several players on the PGA Tour, but India would appear to be a much easier route for him. Moreover, he will certainly became a star now in India.

And who knows if Hollywood will be come calling with a movie offer?

YouTube will certainly have an interest.

THIS AND THAT

• After the third round of The Players, I was liking my chances in the PG Golf Pool with Aberg and Cameron Young in the top two pairings. I was one of only two players in the pool who had Aberg and Young. I was dying a slow death when Aberg went into the tank in the final round, though I was nervous after he bogeyed his final hole on Saturday, but I was still happy Young was in serious contention. When he won, I immediately thought I was moving from mid-pack in the PG Golf Pool standings to near the top, only to find out many players had Young. As for Aberg, I love the way he plays by not wasting energy on his setup, doing endless waggles like Brian Harman (Titleist Pro V1) or taking forever to set his feet before putting like Patrick Cantlay (Titleist Pro V1x), but I wonder if that will change based on the Players? Or maybe he will have to slow his thought process down? Whatever, he is the latest PGA Tour player this season to blow the lead after three rounds

• Had to laugh when Sepp Straka (Srixon Z-Star XV) hit a shot on the 18^th hole that appeared to hit one of three geese perched on the wood circumference separating the course from the water. It gave new meaning to a foul shot. Or should that be foul ball? Of fowl shot?

• Is it my opinion or does CBS and NBC really go overboard on Justin Thomas (Titleist Pro V1x)?

• The battle between Young and Matt Fitzpatrick (Titleist Pro V1x) really did feel like a Ryder Cup. An Englishman had never won the Players, so Fitzpatrick had a chance to make history, until losing the tournament with a bogey. Young’s shot on 17 and his birdie putt followed by his drive on 18 are collectively among the best three cumulative shots by any player in any event. It took him 94 PGA Tour events to win his first, then only 10 to win his second

• A key tip to finding winners is using players who played in the 2025 Ryder Cup or the 2024 President’s Cup

• If Xander Schauffele (Callaway Chrome Tour) doesn’t win the Valspar Championship this week, I’ll be shocked. But who to pick for second? I’m sure Thomas will get a lot of love…Since this is a site about lost golf balls, I was watching to see how many tee shots on the 17 ended up in the water. It was a lot on the first two days

• Two weeks ago, I talked about equipment changes. Young won his first PGA Tour event last year after switching from the Pro V1 Left Dot to the Pro V1x Double Dot Prototype to give him more control and confidence with his iron play. He struggled with spin because of his speed. Titleist created the prototype just for him. But as I said, he had everything in perfect harmony in the last two holes on Sunday, including the longest drive off the tee since they started recording that stat. The day before, he drove his tee shot into the water.