Meanwhile, his game continues to develop thanks to mentors like Rahm and Hatton, as well as other LIV golfers who have taken the time to work with him. In Hong Kong, for example, he received a brief playing lesson from overall captain Phil Mickelson of HyFlyers.
“I think I’ve learned, in the four or five months that I’ve been on LIV, something that I fully believe would have taken me many years as a professional to do on my own to learn,” Surratt said.
Rahm said Surratt has only scratched the surface after jumping headlong into life as a professional golfer.
“You go from being around your teammates, maybe being the best with the people you play with in college golf, to now you’re on a world-class stage with world-class players and great champions… ( It’s not) Sometimes it’s just a little reality check that we all need at some point, but it’s also a lot of new information coming at you that you need to learn to process. That’s not easy to do and I think you’re doing a great job.
“Once he learns to apply a lot of those things that he’s learning to his game, I think we’ll see a huge jump in what he can do. We haven’t seen what it can do yet. We saw him in the last four holes at Mayakoba and there have been moments here and there, but I can’t wait to see him go 54 holes together. “It will be eye-opening for a lot of people who haven’t seen it.”
Through his first eight outings, Surratt ranks 13th in driving distance with an average of 306.4 yards and is in the middle of the pack in the other key categories. He has made 99 birdies this season, ranking 24th in the league.
But beyond the numbers, there are other encouraging signs. Perhaps most important is his performance on Sundays, when every score counts for the team. His final round scoring average is 69.125 and he has a collective total of 15 under par. Only once did he fail to beat par, and that score was only 1 over.
“I feel like I can compete and I feel like I’m good enough to be here,” Surratt said. “I’m excited to feel like I’m in a position to start going toe-to-toe with a lot of the top players because I want to take advantage of that knowledge. It’s not just for fun.
“I’m working hard and trying to learn from the best. “I think I can confidently say that I’m taking advantage of the players’ resources here instead of just hanging my head all the time.”
While Surratt is mostly in learning mode, he also finds opportunity to teach, especially this week in the heart of country music.
Surratt’s favorite artist is Zach Bryan. He wants the rest of Legion XIII to enjoy the Grammy Award nominee, but encounters some resistance. It’s hard when your teammates are from Spain, England and Zimbabwe.
“Like the rest of the internationals on this team, country music is not the best for us,” said Zimbabwean Kieran Vincent. “However, we are getting to that point.”
Rahm does like listening to another artist, Luke Combs, and even saw him in concert a month ago. “I still can’t say he’s a country fan, but Luke is someone I really enjoy,” Rahm said.
Surratt, full of youthful enthusiasm, will keep trying.
“I have to get them excited about Zach Bryan,” he said. “I’m the most uncompromising Zach Bryan in the world.”
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