Canada’s Sudarshan Yellamaraju earns first Korn Ferry Tour title at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic

Canada’s Sudarshan Yellamaraju earned his first Korn Ferry Tour title Wednesday at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club, closing in 8-under 64 for a comfortable victory at 25-under 263, five strokes clear of Russell Knox and Kensei Hirata.

Yellamaraju, 23, led by one stroke into Wednesday’s final round and pulled away with five birdies in a six-hole stretch to close the front nine. He added birdies at Nos. 14, 16 and 17 to cement a tournament-record 72-hole total by seven strokes; the event dates to 2017.

Yellamaraju struggled as a Korn Ferry Tour rookie in 2024, recording just two top-25 finishes in 25 starts and finishing No. 99 on the season-long standings. By finishing inside the top 100, he narrowly kept conditional status at minimum for 2025, which freed him up for a spirited run through three stages of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry that culminated with a T36 finish at Final Stage to secure eight guaranteed starts in 2025.

With his victory at the season’s second event, he’s now fully exempt on the Korn Ferry Tour through 2026 at minimum. He moves to No. 2 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List and is well positioned to chase his first PGA TOUR card via the top 20 on the season-long standings, finalized after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance in mid-October.

As a young child, Yellamaraju moved from India to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with his family. He started playing golf at age 6 and spent ample time practicing in a golf dome in the winter months. He eventually moved to the larger Toronto area, turning pro at 19. "I didn't go to college because couldn't afford to go to college, didn't get good enough offers," he said Wednesday.

The soft-spoken Yellamaraju bet on himself, and now he’s a Korn Ferry Tour winner.

Charting the champion

Sudarshan Yellamaraju (first/-25)

• Captures first career Korn Ferry Tour victory in his 29th start on Tour
• Fourth time the 54-hole leader/co-leader has gone on to win the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club
• Becomes the 20th Canadian to win on the Korn Ferry Tour; third to win The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club (Adam Svensson/2018; Ben Silverman/2023)
• At 25-under 263, breaks the previous 72-hole tournament scoring record of 270; shared by Jared Wolfe (2020), Brandon Harkins (2022) and Zecheng Dou (2022)
• Moves to No. 2 on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List
• Sixth winner under the age of 24 years old to win on the Korn Ferry Tour since the start of the 2023 season
• Secured guaranteed starts in the first eight events of the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour season with a T36 finish at Final Stage of 2024 PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry
• As a rookie, finished No. 99 on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, logging 13 made cuts and one top-10 finish (T7/NV5 Invitational) in 25 starts
• Finished T14 at Final Stage of 2023 PGA TOUR Q-School to earn Korn Ferry Tour membership for the first time
• Previously competed on PGA TOUR Canada (2022, 2023); where he made 12 cuts in 18 total starts with four top-10s
• Turned professional in 2021 and plays from Mississauga, Ontario
• Born in Visakhapatnam, India

Additional player notes

• Japan’s Kesei Hirata (T2/-20), a seven-time winner on the Japan Golf Tour, cards a 4-under 68 in the final round to secure a runner-up finish in his Korn Ferry Tour debut.
• Two-time PGA TOUR winner Russell Knox (T2/-20) records a 7-under 65 in the final round to record a second consecutive top-10 finish to begin the 2025 season.
• 36-hole co-leader Christo Lamprecht (fourth/-19), who finished No. 2 in the 2024 PGA TOUR University Ranking, logs the best result of his professional career with a solo fourth (previous: T5/2024 NV5 Invitational).
• First-round leader Luke Guthrie (T5/-18), a two-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour, places T5 for his first top-five finish across any PGA TOUR-sanctioned Tour since the 2019 NV5 Invitational (T4).
• Hank Lebioda (T7/-17) follows up his first career victory at The Bahamas Golf Classic at Atlantis Paradise Island with a top-10 finish and remains No. 1 on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List.
• Korn Ferry Tour winner Josh Teater (T7/-17), who competed as a sponsor exemption this week, logs his best career finish at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic in the form of a T7 in what was his fifth start at the event (previous best: T15/2017).
• First-year members Jonas Baumgartner (T7/-17), Zach James (T7/-17) and Rayhan Thomas (T7/-17) record the first top-10 results of their careers on Tour; James and Thomas made their way around The Abaco Club at Winding Bay bogey-free in the closing round with scores of 5-under 67 and 7-under 65, respectively.