Over the weekend, rumors began swirling that Caleb Surratt, the sophomore at the University of Tennessee, is leaving Knoxville to join Jon Rahm's new LIV Golf team, Legion XIII. Along with Rahm and Surratt, U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark and Zimbabwean professional golfer Kieran Vincent will round out the four-man squad.
If the deal ends up being finalized, Surratt will join the likes of David Puig, Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra, and James Piot as standout amateurs to make the leap to LIV before earning their PGA Tour cards.
Over the last few years, Surratt has enjoyed plenty of success on the amateur circuit. He won the inaugural Elite Amateur Series Cup in the summer of 2022. While he didn't win an Elite Amateur Series event, he recorded five top-ten finishes. That same summer, Surratt finished runner-up in the U.S. Junior Amateur at Bandon Dunes, losing to Wenyi Ding in the final.
Over the summer of 2023, Surratt represented the United States in the Arnold Palmer Cup and the Walker Cup. He also finished runner-up in the Northeast Amateur and reached the Round of 32 in the U.S. Amateur.
Since arriving on Tennessee's campus, Surratt won two events - the 2022 Maui Jim Invitational and the 2023 SEC Championship.
Most recently, Surratt finished runner-up in the Jones Cup Invitational for the second straight year. That might end up as his final amateur golf event.
Surratt's rookie season at Tennessee earned him first-team All-America honors, the first selection of its kind for a Volunteer golfer. In addition, Surratt entered the fall on the Haskins Award preseason watchlist.
In 2023, Surratt earned some PGA Tour experience. He competed in three events. His best finish was a T65, which came in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
As of the writing of this post, Surratt is ranked No. 2 in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf rankings behind Gordon Sargent.
Handicap 54, an X account that has called other LIV defections, was the first one to make the call on Surratt's move. The rumor was made more plausible when his name was pulled from the Dubai Desert Classic.
Thanks to my dear friends, 🇪🇸 @aletengolf and David Durán, for giving me credit for the news about the jump from amateur 🇺🇸 Caleb Surratt to @livgolf_league , joining the 🇪🇸 @JonRahmOfficial 🤝 team. They, in turn, have added that Surratt has been replaced from the Dubai Desert… https://t.co/IzGjhdlsmk
— HANDICAP 54 (@handicap_54) January 15, 2024