LIV Golf announced two more high-profile signings ahead of its season-opening tournament this week in Mexico.
Tyrrell Hatton, a 32-year-old Englishman and three-time Ryder Cup player for Europe, will join U.S. collegian Caleb Surratt on Jon Rahm’s new team Legion XIII for LIV’s 2024 opener beginning Friday at Mayakoba Resort on the Yucatan Peninsula.
The signings occur amid the backdrop of the ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour and potential investors, including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which bankrolls LIV Golf, for a stake in the proposed PGA Tour Enterprises. The for-profit business would operate outside of the tax-exempt PGA Tour.
Hatton teamed with Rahm to win two points in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory against the Americans in Rome last fall, two months before Rahm bolted for LIV. Hatton, whose lone victory on the PGA Tour came at the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational, is a six-time winner on the DP World Tour and stands No. 16 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Surratt, a 19-year-old University of Tennessee sophomore from Indian Trail, North Carolina, won the 2023 Southeastern Conference title and recently finished runner-up in the Jones Cup for the second consecutive year. He posted a 3-1 record for the U.S. in its Walker Cup victory against Great Britain and Ireland in September at St. Andrews’ Old Course in Scotland. He was No. 10 in the recent World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Surratt is the second member of the Americans’ winning Walker Cup team to turn pro. Nick Dunlap will make his pro debut this week at the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after the Alabama sophomore won the recent American Express. He was the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson in 1991.
LIV is promoting Rahm’s new team, which includes Zimbabwe’s Kieran Vincent, as its first expansion squad as the tour pushes its franchise model.
In its third year, LIV Golf has shown an ability to attract top amateur talent to supplement its recruitment of major champions and other winning professionals. David Puig jumped to LIV two years ago from Arizona State, and Eugenio Chacarra joined the tour out of Oklahoma State. Both play on fellow Spaniard Sergio García’s team.