SAN DIEGO – They say the appendix is a useless body part but Talor Gooch wondered if his mojo went with his into the medical waste bin after it was removed last season. But any sense of that notion is gone now as he backed up his fourth-place finish at the Desert Classic with an impressive tie for third at the Farmers Insurance Open. It has rocketed the 27-year-old to a career high 27th in the FedExCup and given him every opportunity to make his first FedExCup Playoffs. In his rookie PGA TOUR season in 2017-18 the Oklahoma native was by no means playing amazing but still found himself inside the top 125 on the FedExCup list heading into summer. While he had failed to post a top 10 he had started to grow in confidence, particularly after a T13 at the Wells Fargo Championship. And then the appendix had to come out. “Up to that point I was playing decent and I think I made one cut after that,â€� Gooch said. “That kind of threw me off a little bit.â€� He decided against taking a minor medical exemption and instead tried to fight his way through. But it was apparent he came back a little early and the results dropped. His poor finish meant he missed the FedExCup Playoffs but did manage to stay inside the top 150 to gain conditional status this season. Starts from this position are hard to come by. Gooch had to Monday qualify into the Sony Open in Hawaii where he missed the cut only because he hit the wrong ball and was penalized. Rather than dwell on a potentially very costly mistake he surged his way up the leaderboard at the Desert Classic and booked a ticket via his finish to Torrey Pines. Now he’s booked another start next week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. “Last week was the first time I was in contention and I kind of came through the final round and that obviously gave me a lot of confidence,â€� he said. “Never having done it before, now kind of doing it … I know I can do it now. It feels good. “There’s no doubt that the physical parts have been there the last couple weeks and then it’s just a matter of getting out of your own way. I’ve figured out how to do that the last couple weeks and hopefully we can keep doing it.â€� The goals have certainly lifted now. Forget top-10s, he’s now thinking wins. He’s not a complete stranger to success having won the 2017 News Sentinel Open on the Web.com Tour. A win on the PGA TOUR would take away all the uncertainty of when starts are coming his way. “I think the results would indicate I’m closer to winning,â€� Gooch said. “It’s a funny game as far as winning. People kind of got numb to how hard it is to win out here because of Tiger over the last couple decades. “You have to have things go right, you have to be there in that position a lot as well … If I can get that first one out of the way, then hopefully they start tumbling after that.â€�
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