Pro
View US Open Championships
2015
Cinch USTRC National Finals of Team Roping
Sunday
October 25 2015
Chad
Master and Travis Graves
Can you freeze a mindset? Can you
capture the momentum and pull it out to use later when you need it the most?
“I missed a lot of cattle this past
week,” Open roper, Chad Masters, said. “I’d had a rough week and it just wasn’t
working. I had to make some kind of
change.”
Masters did exactly that. He regrouped and he and partner, Travis
Graves, emerged with a different game plan.
“Our game plan was to win,” Graves
commented about the pair’s win in the Open Preliminary at the 2015 Cinch USTRC
National Finals of Team Roping. Undoubtedly, it came together for the pair and
they made good their win in the Preliminary.
Now to capture that momentum and preserve that mindset.
“From the start we knew the Open
Roping was going to be tough,” Masters elaborated. “We needed to maintain our
momentum. I didn’t really have a plan. I
just knew I had to catch. I guess in
some aspects I was just going to catch and then put it all on Travis.”
“I think the fourth steer in the Open
was the turning point,” Graves explained. “The fourth steer was a good steer
and it was the breaking point. The fourth steer was the pinnacle. We both knew we had a shot that we could make
it happen.”
Twenty teams, the best in the
business, came back to rope in the short go round of the Pro Vue US Open
Championships at the 2015 Cinch USTRC National Finals of Team Roping.
Masters and Graves was the high team back
in the short go round and needed at time of 6.93 to move Charly Crawford and
Will Woodfin out of the first place position.
“I looked at that steer and from my
perspective he had really wide big horns,” Masters said. “I had to slow down,
do my job, make a point to catch and not beat myself. I was putting all the hard
work on Travis.”
When the pair rode into the box a hush
fell over the crowded OKC Fair Park Coliseum. It all boiled down to one final
steer and with this kind of roping it could go either way.
Masters got out of the box good,
stayed true to his plan and roped the horns.
Sometimes slower is faster if that makes sense. Graves moved in and
roped his best. In his words, “I didn’t do anything stupid.” As the ropers grew
tight, the flag dropped and the clock stopped.
You could cut the silence in the coliseum with a knife. Even the announcer didn’t have anything to
say.
“I honestly thought when the announcer
paused and didn’t say anything that we had not made it,” Masters said very
seriously. “Then he said our time was 6.90.
It was so close.”
Both Masters and Graves realized they
probably were not breathing.
“There they are, ladies and
gentlemen,” the announcer finally spoke. “With a time of 31.99 in a five steer
average, Chad Masters and Travis Graves, your 2015 Pro View US Open Champions.”
“It is such an honor to win this roping,”
Graves said. “I’ve been coming here a long time and it is an honor. You practice hard for this kind of
roping. Chad had a good start and we had
a good steer. The fourth steer was the
turning point for both of us and the last steer brought it all together.”
The pair pocketed $76,500 and Martin
Championship Trophy Saddles. They also
received Gist Championship Gold Buckles, Tony Lama Ostrich Full Quill Boots and
Western Horseman Collectors Prints.
Masters and Graves also are the
Reserve Champion Header and Heeler in the 2015 Pro View US Open Tour
Championship race qualifying them for an additional $5000.
“A win like this is always good,”
Graves added. “It is a good momentum for going to the National Finals in Las
Vegas.”
“I’d like to freeze this mindset,”
Masters elaborated. “It is a good momentum.
I changed horses, changed my focus on just roping right and catching my
cattle. I’m lucky to have a good heeler
and it made all the difference. I want
to keep this mindset for Las Vegas.”
In some respects slower is
faster. It doesn’t matter how fast you
are if you miss. Bottom line, you have
to catch. Focus and concentration on the mental mind game of team roping can
make or break you. Consistency is an
issue and one has to maintain a level of conformity. Masters and Graves
regrouped and made it work. There isn’t
a lot of room for error when you need a time of 6.93 and you make it happen
with a 6.90. There is a fine line
between first and focus. In the words of
Travis Graves, “Consistency is the difference in good and great. It is knowing you can wait if you need to. It
is knowing when to attack and when to slow down and let it happen.”
