“It's obviously been a whirlwind of events” – 20-year-old Caleb Surratt details journey from College to LIV Golf, dubs it the ‘best’ move

Caleb Surratt has acknowledged that the last few weeks have been quite eventful for him. He went on to play his last amateur event earlier this month at the Jones Cup Invitational, and by the end of January, he was already a part of LIV Golf.

Earlier this week, Surratt joined the LIV Golf League and became part of Jon Rahm's team, Legion XIII. He will make his professional debut this week at the LIV Golf Mayakoba, the first event of the season.

Speaking at the post-round interview at the Jones Cup, Surratt was asked what made him turn professional and join the Saudi-backed league. He said (as quoted by Yahoo Sport):

"It's obviously been a whirlwind of events. I mean it's I went from playing my final Jones Cup which was my last amateur event to then spending time with my girlfriend in Florida to then receiving the call that afternoon saying it was official and then driving back to Knoxville, Tennessee to move out of my dorm room.

"So this was three weeks ago time, so you go from moving out of your dorm room to competing with the best players in the world and having two of them truly being your daily mentors on the golf course, it seemed like a big opportunity for me in my golf game. And of course everybody's going to be entitled to their opinion. But I have no doubt that this is what was best for me in my golf game and the future of my professional career."

Before turning pro, Surratt was the World No. 10 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. He was also part of the 2023 Walker Cup squad along with Nick Dunlap, who turned professional last week after winning the American Express. He claimed the individual SEC championship as a freshman last year as well.

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When will Caleb Surratt tee off at the LIV Golf Mayakoba?

Caleb Surrat is paired with Jinichiro Kozuma and Richard Bland for the first round of the LIV Golf Mayakoba event. The trio will tee off on Friday, February 2, at 1:15 pm (local time).

Here are the complete group details for Round 1 of LIV Golf Mayakoba:

Hole 1

• T Gooch
• J Rahm
• C Smith

Hole 2

• D Johnson
• J Niemann
• B Koepka

Hole 3

• B DeChambeau
• P Mickelson
• S Garcia

Hole 4

• T Hatton
• A Ancer
• M Kaymer

Hole 5

• A Lahiri
• L Westwood
• B Grace

Hole 6

• A Meronk
• G McDowell
• I Poulter

Hole 7

• P Casey
• D Burmester
• M Wolff

Hole 8

• L Herbert
• K Vincent
• H Swafford

Hole 9

• S Horsfield
• C Ortiz
• D Puig

Hole 10

• P Perez
• T Pieters
• A Ogletree

Hole 11

• E Chacarra
• L Canter
• S Vincent

Hole 12

• C Surratt
• J Kozuma
• R Bland

Hole 13

• K Samooja
• M Jones
• C Schwartzel

Hole 14

• D Lee
• C Tringale
• J Kokrak

Hole 15

• B Steele
• C Howell III
• S Muñoz

Hole 16

• M Leishman
• H Varner III
• P Uihlein

Hole 17

• K Na
• M Pereira
• P Reed

Hole 18

• B Watson
• H Stenson
• L Oosthuizen