OverDrive - Yellamaraju on his impressive THE PLAYERS tournament, learning from YouTube and jumping up the leaderboard

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

PGA Tour Golfer Sudarshan Yellamaraju joined OverDrive on his incredible performance at THE PLAYERS Championship, his scorching game at TPC Sawgrass and being on the leadership with star golfers, learning his skills from YouTube, his season on the tour and more.

If Bell 5 TV is now streaming, is it still TV? Is it still TV if there's no TV box? If I can stream all my favorite channels and pause and record shows, that's TV, right? A new era of 5 TV. It's streaming, but it's still TV. Well, glad that's settled. Bell, connection is everything. Sudarshan Yela Maraju, top five finish, $925,000 payday from India to Winnipeg to Mississippi, a winding road that leads him here to overdrive tonight.

Sudarshan, thank you so much for doing this. Congratulations on your success. How you feeling? Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah, it feels good. You know, that's kind of a night to kind of reflect on the past. weekend I had and you know yeah it was a really awesome week for sure obviously playing in the player as a big tournament playing on tepee's saga as a great golf course and then to

top it off with a great weekend from finding to kind of make the cut and having a good a chance to kind of come down the stretch and get in some sort of contention it was pretty cool well man i can speak for myself and i know dave feels the same way we were cheering for you i was so fired up every birdie you made, you're getting closer, closer to the top of the leaderboard. And there was a moment there on Sunday when Oberg was just blasting balls into the water. You were at 10 under. And I thought, oh, my God, is Darshan about to make a run here? Unfortunately not, but you did finish T5, $925,000 payday.

Any thoughts as to maybe what you might spend that? And he splurges that you've been thinking about or is it just business as usual for you? Yeah, no, I mean, you know, yeah. It's a big payday, but I'll be honest. The main thing is the points that I got, it's a good chunk of points, which is huge for at the end of season, and at least right now, you know, to try to get into the bigger events, the signature events and et cetera,

and then obviously the big jump in the world ranking. So those are, the money is money, but I think the main thing is the points in the world ranking jump is huge. So, Siddarshan, we know your story a little bit. The broadcast brought up the fact that you're, a self-taught guy that you mostly use YouTube videos as your main swing coach, so to speak. You know, is that, you know, a lot's been made of that. Is that, you know, when you think about that, you know, how unusual have you found yourself

to be among your peers and how much do you get asked about that? I wouldn't say I get asked about it a lot. And, you know, to be honest, I don't feel like it's unusual because at the end of day, you're just going and playing golf. and, you know, golf is sport where there's not really one way of playing the game. At the end of the day, you just got to get the ball into the hole in the fewest number of shots possible. And, I mean, we've seen so many different players play the game and different styles of the game. So, yeah, I mean, there's no one way of doing it, and you just got to just play the best golf you can.

Sudarshan, Yelamaraju, is our guest here in Hour 2 of Overdrive. So you're out there yesterday. McElroy's right there, a couple groups ahead of you, Scotty Sheffler's, a couple groups behind you. I mean, it must have just been in a crazy environment for you. And I know you've played in some professional tournaments before, but those crowds, that atmosphere in the mix at the players? I mean, what was that experience like? Because it must have been something that you really haven't experienced before. Yeah, no, I mean, well, to be honest, I played in the Phoenix Open, so that was pretty crazy.

But I think it was in a different reason because it was just a whole, thing of the 16th pole and all that and it is kind of more the entertainment of just being there so they're kind of watching the golf a little bit but just they're trying to have fun but Zetsuke was kind of you know when I had the stretch of birdies in the third round

actually Scotty was playing in front of me so he had a lot of people following and I guess maybe when I started making a few birdies they kind of fell back and started watching me a bit so that was that and then you know yesterday I played with JJ's Fawn, so again, he won the O's Open last year, so he has fans that were kind of watching him too, and then I guess with me playing well, they just started kind of piling up and starting watching me, so it felt pretty, it was pretty cool

for sure. I mean, you know, the fans are supporting me throughout the two rounds, you know, keeping me motivated, trying to keep my energy up, and yeah, it was a pretty cool week, and like I said, playing with all the great players. around me and all that was pretty cool. So, Sardtian, I understand you've withdrawn from the tournament this week, the Valspar. Can you talk about that? And I guess, like, what's the biggest change in your life when you're suddenly on the leaderboard among all those great names and everybody's talking about you?

Yeah. I mean, first off, I mean, obviously it's not an easy decision because I know as a rookie you want to play everything and, you know, obviously I played well last week and stuff like that. But I think I kind of looked at it as a point of view, I've already played three straight weeks up to now, and then I have another three straight week coming up. So if I play six straight, it can be a lot. And by the time you get to that fifth and sixth week or even next week, it's going to be a long week, especially with the week I had. So, you know, like I said, didn't want to. I obviously wanted to play as many as I can, but, you know, I kind of looked at it, okay, you give my chance to get to, I, have some rest and then get ready for the two. And then, I mean, it's a long season ahead. So when I get the chance, I should kind of take advantage of that. And I live in Jacksonville as well.

So, I mean, it was pretty easy decisions to say, okay, I was going to spend another week at home. And then, yeah, about being on the leaderboard. To be honest, I wasn't really thinking about it too much. I mean, you obviously have the leaderboards out there and you see it, but you get used to it when you're playing tournaments, you know, okay, you play well, you're going to be up there, but, you know, I was just trying to play one shot at a time, play the best of the golf I could. I mean, I never really thought I had

a chance of winning. I mean, it almost did happen, but, you know, I had to do something pretty miraculous, so yeah, all that experience was pretty cool. You mentioned you're spending a lot of time out in Jacksonville. When you're back in the greater Toronto area, where are you playing most of your golf? Right now it's just at the TPC That's kind of the Nice The easiest place to go

Because I mean You know I'm not like you said I don't really get to spend much time At home Because you're so busy with the season And then obviously you can't golf up In Toronto right now

So the only time If I do would be starting I don't know April, May Or in the summer months But even then you're still playing Week after week almost So, yeah, that would be a place I go to right now. Well, you're going to have a big gallery at TBC Toronto at Osprey Valley

come June for the RBC Canadian Open. We can't wait to see you there. You'll be one of the top contenders, excuse me, and we're really fired up for that tournament, very fired up for your success. So again, congratulations. Enjoy the week off, and we'll see you in June. Thank you.

Thank you, guys, for having me. It is our pleasure. That is Svdarshan Yela Miraju. Sing Brian Adams Radio on IHart Radio. Hosted by Brian Adams himself. Join me for an insider look on a wild ride through 40 years of global rock and roll. Brian Adams Radio. I'm ready.

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