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Comparing Surratt & Dunlap two years into their careers
+ News, Notes, and weekly favorites
Sean Melia
January 23, 2026
Hey Everyone,
I spent the majority of my week working on a big project that has been slowly coming together. Bay State Golf Volume 1 will be available for download soon, and I’m excited about it!
The PDF will include my thoughts on all 168 courses I’ve played so far on my quest, along with some details about each course. Most of the work has been creating a simple template to keep everything focused and easy to follow. If you are familiar with my restaurant tiers, I have added a new tier and moved some courses around, too.
I’m looking forward to finishing this up in the next few weeks so people can use it to find new courses to play this upcoming season.
This week’s newsletter has a bit of a deep dive into the LIV v. PGA Tour earnings for younger players. It was on my mind because this week marks the two-year anniversary of Nick Dunlap’s win on the PGA Tour as an amateur. On top of that, Michael La Sasso decided to leave Ole Miss for LIV on Monday, so it crystallized a lot of what I was thinking.
But first, a bit of news and notes…
News and Notes
Pro Golf
Michael Thorbjornsen and Davis Chatfield are both in the American Express Championship out in California. Both had good starts to the tournament. Thorbjornsen shot 66 (-6), and Chatfield shot 65 (-7). Min Woo Lee and Pierceson Coody both shot 62 to lead after 18 holes. Results
Robbie Oppenheim missed the cut in The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club on the Korn Ferry Tour, which ran from Jan 18-21. The next event is the Panama Championship starting on Jan 29.
James Imai, John Cammarano, Jon Mayer, Will Frodigh, and Timothy Umphrey all teed it up in the Minor League Golf Tour this week. James Driscoll played the first round before withdrawing. Results
Plugs
I put together a list of seven nine-hole courses for beginners this week.
The Lure of LIV Golf: Easy Money
A week after Brooks Koepka returned to the PGA Tour, LIV Golf snapped up Michael La Sasso, a college kid from Ole Miss who was once ranked third in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) and played on the Walker Cup team this past September. He is also the 2025 NCAA Champion, and turning pro means he relinquishes his Masters invitation that came with that victory.
The announcement was a bit of a surprise. It’s the middle of the college season, so La Sasso is trading in his Rebels gear for HyFlyers garb and mentorship from the one and only… Phil Mickelson.
After the signing, Graeme McDowell issued this “hot take” about young players and what LIV offers.
In some respects, McDowell is right. Michael La Sasso will “get paid to be mentored” (which is kind of a wild line of reasoning). However, I’m not sure we’ve seen LIV develop a “superstar” yet.
The most enticing part of LIV for a young player is avoiding the uncertainty of professional golf on the other tours around the world.
Before leaving Ole Miss, La Sasso was third in PGA Tour University and within striking distance of the top spot, which would have given him a PGA Tour card for next year. Even finishing inside the top 5 would have given La Sasso status on the Korn Ferry Tour next year.
He would have been handed starts, but he wouldn’t have been handed money.
The future was bright for La Sasso, but, as Michael Kim stated in his response to Graeme McDowell, access to the PGA Tour is a pure meritocracy. Some might argue with the “purity”, but in contrast to LIV, it is tough to disagree with the point.
One amateur who did take advantage of the meritocracy is Nick Dunlap.
Two years ago, Nick Dunlap won the 2024 American Express Championship as a sophomore at Alabama. It capped an incredible stretch of golf for Dunlap. He had won the 2023 U.S. Amateur, joining Tiger Woods as the only player in history to win the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur.
Just days after his AmEx win, Dunlap decided to turn pro and take advantage of the starts he had earned in signature events (big money and big FedEx Cup points). He would win again in Reno at the Barracuda Championship that summer.
Within a few days of Dunlap turning pro, Caleb Surratt, another excellent amateur, decided to leave the University of Tennessee for LIV golf in the middle of his sophomore year. Surratt was a U.S. Junior Amatuer runner-up in 2022 and won the inaugural Elite Amateur Cup.
In short.
Surratt can ball.
These two players provide an excellent test case because they have both fared well; however, the contrasts in their choices are stark.
If money matters, then Surratt is the winner in this comparison. He has $14 million in the bank after playing 27 LIV events, according to National Club Golfer. He’s also played well in some non-LIV events. He has a runner-up finish in the Saudi Internatioinal and finished T8 in the Australian Crown.
Dunlap has played 52 events, made 29 cuts, and has earned $4.1 million. Twice the golf for one third the money.
Surratt is currently ranked 201 in the World Golf Rankings, and Dunlap is 177.
According to DataGolf, which counts LIV performances in their rankings, Surratt is 180th in the world, and Dunlap is 292nd.
Yikes.
Dunlap’s driver made the some news on Thursday, too.
However, if playing in the biggest events is part of the chemistry, then Dunlap has a leg up on Surratt.
Dunlap has played in eight majors. Six of them as a professional. Granted, the results haven’t been pretty. Like, at all. He has also played in one Players Championship; he also missed the cut.
But Surratt hasn’t played in a single major.
Dunlap played in the 2022 and 2023 U.S. Opens as an amateur.
Dunlap just turned 22, and Surratt will turn 22 in March.
They are both getting very different things out of their early professional careers.
Don’t get me wrong, $4.1 million is nothing to sneeze at for a 22-year-old kid with tons of talent (and he is more marketable as a PGA Tour player, too). Dunlap might be learning a bit more about himself as a golfer than Surratt is learning on LIV, too. Missing cuts, battling his driver, and grinding can make or break a player, as Michael Kim said in his response to McDowell.
If you’re good enough, you’ll end up playing on Tour
Okay, back to La Sasso.
He has not had a great run on the golf course since winning the NCAA Championship.
He played in six pro events and made one cut. He competed just twice for Ole Miss in stroke play events this fall and didn’t really perform well, especially when you contrast them with his spring results in college - two wins and a runner-up finish.
So, the question is… did La Sasso not feel good enough about his game to fight for PGA Tour U ranking points this spring and grind out on his own as a professional?
The cynic (read: me) would say yes.
The 2024 U.S. Amateur champion, Jose Ballester, is another LIV signee. He has played 7 events and earned $3.6 million. David Puig, also college defector, has played in 42 LIV events and earned $21 million.
On the other hand, Luke Clanton has played in 19 pro events and earned $251,429. His best finishes were as an amateur (which is an entirely different post…).
Those numbers are staggering.
One last comparison.
Gordon Sargent, who earned his PGA Tour card as a sophomore through the PGA Tour U Accelerated program, is completely lost at sea right now. The former No. 1 amateur in the world is currently ranked 943rd and has earned $113,000 across 18 professional events.
He has his card for the 2026 season and will have to turn things around to keep it for 2027.
For all the money that LIV is handing out, let’s give the final word to a player who left college for LIV and is now no longer with LIV: Eugenio Chacarra.
In an interview with the Flushing It Podcast, he had a few interesting things to say…
“I’m thankful for everything LIV has given me. I’m 24 years old, and my life is set. I don’t know if it will work out for the best or not, but I know this is what my heart tells me is right and it works for my motivation to wake up and grind and get better, and to say I can be a PGA Tour player one day.”
The PGA Tour remains the aspirational place for most golfers not named Dustin Johnson.
Even Patrick Reed called it the best tour in the world this week and admitted he would return if he could.
Chacarra would go on to say…
"I see what it’s like to win on the PGA Tour and how your life changes. How you get major access and ranking points. On LIV, nothing changes, there is only money. It doesn’t matter if you finish 30th or first, only money. I’m not a guy who wants more money. What will change my life is playing in Hawaii and qualifying for the majors, qualifying for the Masters, the Ryder Cup.
On LIV, nothing changes, there is only money.
That just about sums it up. It’s not about mentorship or anything else.
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When I’m not golfing…
I’m reading…
I started reading The Radium Girls this week. It’s about the factory workers who were basically poisoned for the sake of a glow-in-the-dark clock dials and then World War I caused the industry to explode, causing more women to get sick and die. Uplifting stuff! But an interesting topic.
I’m eating…
Slow Cooker Chili (but I follow the directions for the Dutch Oven)
I’m watching…
Southern Charm is back!
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