Meet the Pro Rodeo Champs Who Love to Tee it Up When They're Not Roping Cows
Rodeo is part art, part sport and cowboys and cowgirls for centuries have been in search of perfection.
But following a post-golf discussion with Wrangler National Finals Rodeo tie-down roping qualifiers Shane Hanchey and Hunter Herrin, this golf writer may have discovered the secret to success in the rodeo arena.
"I'm not going to say the reason we had a great National Finals in 2020 was just because we played a lot of golf, but we were the top two money earners in the calf roping,” said a smiling Hanchey, the 2013 world champion and 2020 NFR 10-round average winner.
Tie-down roping is a timed event when the cowboy rides a horse and pursues a calf that is released from a chute. The competitor then “lassos” the calf before dismounting, grabbing the calf and tying three of animal’s legs together to complete the run. Hanchey and Herrin have been two of the best in the world at it for more than a decade.
The two are also avid golfers, and a few days prior to the start of the 2021 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, we teed it up at Bali Hail Golf Club on the fabulous Las Vegas Strip. Rounding out the foursome was PGA of America lifetime member and Las Vegas Country Club teaching professional Jason Edmiston.
In 2020, and due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Wrangler NFR was held in Texas. Due to limited sponsor and other obligations, the Hanchey and Herrin decided to spend many of their days on the course. Their play on the fairways and greens seemed to spur (rodeo term) them on to positive results on the dirt.
Hanchey earned $143,692 during the grueling 10 rounds of the “Superbowl of Rodeo”, while Herrin earned $142,846. The terrific performances helped Hanchey finish third in the world rankings and Herrin finished fourth. The NFR returned to Las Vegas in 2021, where it has been located since 1985 prior to the one-year hiatus.
“Playing golf gets your mind out of your hotel room, and with Covid last year, we couldn't go do a lot of stuff inside, but you could go do stuff outside like play golf,” said Herrin, who routinely shoots in the upper 80s to low 90s, and demonstrated plenty of short-game talent during the round at Bali Hai.
“Playing golf helped the days go by quicker because when you just sit around, you feel sluggish, and then you try to figure it out. But when we went to play golf in the morning at 10 we were done by two, and then we started doing what we needed to do to get ready for that night. Playing golf just freed our minds up is the best way to put it.”
Now, the two place a priority on teeing it up during the NFR and also while on the long road of participating in 80+ rodeos during the year.
“You hear all the stories about how Michael Jordan would be out there playing golf on the day of a playoff game and then drop 50 points that night,” Hanchey said.
Herrin and Hanchey share similar golfing styles and results. Both hit the ball with a left-to-right shape and each stayed engaged in what they were doing throughout our round at Bali Hai, a course they both enjoyed and one that Hanchey has played multiple times when in Las Vegas.
The tropical course features hundreds of palm trees, lagoon-like water features and a beautiful clubhouse that will soon include a sports bar, inspired by the course’s location near Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL’s Raiders.
Hanchey hails from Louisiana and is a big LSU fan. Herrin is from Oklahoma and loves all things Oklahoma State, including the perennial powerhouse golf team. Oklahoma State alums on the PGA Tour include Rickie Fowler, Viktor Hovland and Mathew Wolfe.
Hanchey’s PGA Tour favorites are Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Las Vegas resident Collin Morikawa. He appreciates how they play the game and the distance they create despite their smaller statures. He also enjoys watching LSU alum Sam Burns.
It may seem like a stretch, but Hanchey and Herrin believe golf and rodeo share plenty of similarities.
Hunter Herrin ropes a calf.
Cowboy Channel
“The discipline aspect of both sports is similar, and there's also a lot of stuff that you can't control,” Herrin said. “Like myself, each golf swing is not going to be the same —it’s like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. There is a lot of reaction needed in both and short-term focus is very important. It you hit a bad shot or have a bad run you can’t carry that result over to the next one because then you get into fighting negativity in your head. You can make some bad golf swings, but the next one could get you going. It’s the same way in calf roping. You can miss five in a row and then the next one can get you on a hot streak.”
Nerves may come into play a lot less on the course than during a rodeo, but golf is still competition.
“For me, the similarities between golf and rodeo is the mental game,” Hanchey said. “Playing 18 holes is like competing in 18 rodeos. Like Hunter said, you're going to have your ebbs and flows, but it's really about stepping up to the next tee shot, no matter how you did the previous hole, and being able to focus. It’s just like that for roping. No matter what you did yesterday, it's a new calf and a new rodeo the next day, and it's what have you done for me lately? Obviously, golf is a lot less nerve-wracking than rodeo because that's how we make our living, but to come out here, be competitive and not necessarily put everything on the line is a nice change of pace. But at the same time, we're so dang competitive, we still want to win.”
During the Vegas round, Herrin didn’t take any gimme putts because he has started to play on the MoBetta Golf Tour, which is supported by PGA Tour legend John Daly. The Tour allows golfers to play for cash and Herrin admitted to feeling the pressure, which caused him to miss some short putts during those tournaments.
The season finals were held at the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort in October and Herrin finished third in his division of 14 golfers. He may be a little more inspired for his next tournament after hearing Edmiston’s post-round thoughts.
“They are both great athletes, and coming from the world of golf instruction, that's what you always hope for with anybody who you are working with on a golf swing,” Edmiston said. “They both have athletic backgrounds and understand how to create speed and torque in what they do. It’s also kind of interesting watching them because they both kind of play the game fairly similarly and have the same ball flight and shapes. Both of them could probably get as good as they wanted.”
Hanchey, whose wife, Taylor, is a former NFR barrel race qualifier and 2021 NFR breakaway qualifier, appreciates the opportunity rodeo has afforded him, both on the dirt and on the course.
“The regular guy, maybe they will get to go play a couple of nice courses, but they will never get to see the kind of courses that we get to see, like here in Vegas and Bali Hai,” said Hanchey, while enjoying lunch on the patio overlooking the par 3, 16th hole. “We get to play these great courses all over, pretty much because of rodeo and traveling, so that's really cool.”