Tie-down roper Tuf Cooper entered September barely inside the Top 20 and with 10 days to go in the regular season, he was still No. 17 in the world, outside the NFR picture.
The 14-time NFR qualifier changed his fortune over the weekend by placing at five rodeos total, including three wins. Which were, believe it or not, his first wins of the season.
He left the Wing & Barrel Western Days (California), Poway Rodeo (California), Sheriff’s PRCA Rodeo (California), Omaha River City Rodeo (Nebraska) and the Springhill PRCA Rodeo (Louisiana) with at least $1,000 and made over $10,000 for the weekend to jump to No. 15.
Cooper has his work cut out for him to finish the job and make it to Las Vegas again. He leads No. 16 Luke Potter in by about $9,000, but Potter is in the $1.1 million Governor’s Cup field and Cooper is not.
During the final week of the season, Cooper will go to four rodeos - the Pasadena Livestock Show and Rodeo (Texas), Cumberland County Fair (Maine), Edmonton Pro Rodeo (Alberta) and Young Living’s Last Chance Rodeo (Utah).