Former Cowboys hyped for 'home' major at Southern Hills

May 17—TULSA — Viktor Hovland heard the cheer but continued to walk off the No. 5 tee box at Southern Hills on Monday.

Then he heard it again: "Go Cowboys!"

The former Oklahoma State golfer obliged the cheer with a smile and a thumbs up in the middle of his first day of practice leading up to Thursday's start of the PGA Championship in Tulsa.

It likely wasn't the first and likely won't be the last time the cheer rings out through the hilly course tucked into south Tulsa. With five former Oklahoma State golfers competing in the year's second major a mere hour and a half from Stillwater, the golfers are expecting to see plenty of orange apparel in the gallery throughout the week.

"I already heard a lot of 'Go Pokes' in the gallery today. I just finished playing the front nine, and seems like there's a lot of support out there, which I really appreciate. Hopefully that can get me going," said Hovland, who heads into the major ranked sixth in the Official World Golf Ranking.

The cheers Hovland heard as he departed the tee box on No. 5 had a dual purpose.

Right before the third-year PGA Tour member took off down the fairway, he shared a few minutes with a member of the Cowboy fraternity who was in the practice group right behind him.

Sporting hair creeping out of the back of his ball cap and a mustache, Rickie Fowler can relate to the meteoric rise of Hovland — as well as Hovland's college teammate Matthew Wolff.

"It's been great to be a part of the program there and the long history. I'm another one of the guys that went there and had success. It's just one big family," Fowler said. "So to see guys after me continue to show that, you know, Oklahoma State is a great building block or steppingstone to go to the PGA Tour, and it's been a lot of fun for me to get to know those guys when they are at school, and then when they turn pro, get to spend a little more time with them out on the road.

"They are both impressive players and we are seeing a lot of impressive players throughout college golf, and there's more to come."

While that trio was quick to establish themselves on tour, former Cowboy Talor Gooch, who grew up in Midwest City and played at Oklahoma State from 2011-14, took a longer journey.

He will get to play in the first major in his home state since the PGA Championship in 2007 thanks to having won the RSM Classic in November to earn an automatic bid to all of this year's majors.

And having grown in up Oklahoma, he knows the fans of the orange and black will turn out in Tulsa this week.

"Being an Oklahoman, I think most of us would agree, Tulsa leans a little bit more towards Oklahoma State, so it's always fun seeing the orange out," said Gooch, who is 10th in the FedExCup standings heading into the week. "Just even today in the practice round, there was a lot of 'Go Pokes' and a lot of orange, and it's awesome, man. It's what a kid from Oklahoma who went to Oklahoma State dreams about."

Gooch feels a bit of pressure playing a major tour event in his home state in front of a lot of Oklahoma State fans, but he said it pales in comparison to his college days — when he was on the roster that lost in the 2011 semifinals at Karsten Creek and the 2014 championship match at Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Kansas.

"It's a fun pressure," Gooch said. "... Funny enough, this doesn't seem nearly as much pressure-filled as that was. It's a pressure of I want to do good for Oklahoma, where (in college) it was, 'All right, we gotta win this tournament or Coach (Mike) Holder's gonna be pissed at us."

Hovland agreed with the sentiment first brought up by Gooch, with the Norwegian — who was a part of a national championship with the Cowboys in 2018 and a run to the national semifinals in 2019 — expressing it has more to do with the difference between college and professional golf.

"It's a little bit different when it's not a team event," Hovland said. "The fans, if you will, they have plenty of guys to root for out here. I think we have five in the field this week. I think I just see it as a positive. They are out there wanting you to do well, and they will cheer you on if you hit a good shot, and if you're in a bad spot they will try to encourage you."

Having five Cowboys in the field is also allowing those members of the fraternity to catch up while they are a stone's throw from their college hometown.

According to Hovland, he and fellow Scandinavian Cowboy Alex Noren — a Swedish PGA Tour member whom Hovland admitted he knew very little of when he first chose Oklahoma State — intend to use this week to bond about their past both in heritage and in golf.

"I've become really good friends with Alex. He's a great guy and (we) played a couple practice rounds together," Hovland said. "He actually called me (Sunday) and we just talked about maybe getting dinner in Stillwater and something like that.

"It's cool to have a couple of those guys that don't live in Oklahoma but went to Oklahoma State to come back here and just talk about some of the great memories that we've had here."

Follow News Press sports editor Jason Elmquist on Twitter @jelmquistSW for updates on Oklahoma State and high school athletics.