May 17—Talor Gooch’s journey to Southern Hills hasn’t been as simple as several of the Oklahoma State golfers in the field for the PGA Championship in Tulsa.

While Rickie Fowler, Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland had the skills — and names — to have sponsorship exemptions and a chance to earn a permanent place on the PGA Tour, Gooch has taken the longer path.

The Midwest City native who turned pro in 2014 after a college career that ended with a national runner-up finish with the Cowboys at Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Kansas, started out on PGA Tour Canada. He spent two years on the tour to the north before earning a place on the Web.com Tour, one step below the big leagues, in late 2016.

That stop didn’t last long, as a sixth-place finish on the tour in 2017 earned him his PGA Tour card for 2018.

But those don’t come with guarantees to the major tournaments — or even a permanent spot on the tour. He was doing just enough to maintain his card, but still had to qualify for each major for the next few years.

That changed in November.

At the RSM Classic — the last four event of 2021 before the December hiatus — Gooch claimed his first PGA Tour victory. And with it, a coveted guarantee.

“When I won at the RSM, the final tournament of the fall season, you know, I know that was going to get me into all the majors this year, and it was just so special because again, this is what you dream about, playing the PGA Championship in your hometown at one of your favorite places in the world,” Gooch said. “Growing up watching Retief win here, watching Tiger win here; there’s a luster about this place that makes it that much more special that this is the year that I guaranteed myself to play in all of the majors for the first time so it was very, very cool.”

It was the perfect timing, too.

As he fought to find his footing in the golf world, a carrot lay ahead of him that helped in his drive along the journey.

For the first time since he was in high school at Midwest City, a major tournament was to be held in Oklahoma.

“I don’t think I’ve ever driven to a major championship before, so I drove up here this morning. So if you can drive to a tournament, that’s pretty much a home game in my opinion,” said Gooch, who will be playing in his sixth major.

Now a resident of Midwest City after his time at Oklahoma State, Gooch is the only Oklahoma native playing in this week’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa.

And he is one of five Cowboys in the field.

One in particular is happy to see Gooch — who finished tied for 14th on his first Masters Tournament appearance last month — in the field for his “home” major.

“It’s been fun to know him over the years. I know him quite well,” Rickie Fowler said. “He’s a damn good player and I think he’s finally started to come into his own. It’s been fun to watch his success.”

The pair of Pokes have a connection beyond that of the Oklahoma State golf program.

In one of Fowler’s final amateur events before turning professional — the Public Links Championship at Jimmie Austin Golf Club in Norman — it was Gooch who caddied for Fowler, who finished as one of the final 16 in the 2009 event.

“He’s been so incredibly generous and just humble and just likable from when I was 16 years old, I caddied for him at the U.S. Pub Links right before he turned pro,” Gooch said of Fowler. “He’s just the same old Rick. And so even though he was a larger-than-life figure in the golf world, because he spent so much time with us and was just such a normal guy, we never looked at him in the sense of like this superstar.”

But Fowler did present Cowboys such as Gooch a guiding light from Stillwater to the PGA Tour.

Fowler’s popularity with the fans on tour — and his early success — gave way to the return of Oklahoma State golf on the main stage in professional golf. And while Gooch didn’t follow the exact same route as the golfer everybody just knows as Rickie, he still has reached a similar spot in his journey.

“We knew (Fowler) was a superstar because when we went to Murphy’s there was literally a cardboard cutout larger than him. We are like, ‘OK, that’s kind of cool,’” Gooch said. “Again, it’s another dream-come-true thing when I was in high school, watching Rickie Fowler playing Walker Cups and going straight to the TOUR and hoping to be on the same path as him and now we are living the same type of life. It’s just crazy.”