Tanner Tomlinson and Jade Corkill won the YETI Open Shootout at the Cinch USTRC National Finals in Fort Worth with a 30.18 on five head, worth $28,500.
For Tomlinson, a 25-year-old from Mineral Wells, Texas, and Corkill, 38, of Victoria, Texas, the win came down to roping the five steers they drew—never mashing on it but never giving anything away.
“I was just trying to get out of the barrier and go turn the steer,” 2022 NFR average champion Tomlinson said. “I knew if I did that, I had the best two heelers to ever do it behind me.”
That mindset showed from the get-go.
They opened the roping with a 5.88 before backing it up with runs of 6.51 and 6.00 in Rounds 2 and 3. A 5.48 in the fourth round—one of the fastest runs of the roping—created some separation and put them in control heading into the short-go steer.
“We had five really good steers,” Tomlinson said. “That was a big part of it.”
By the time they roped in the short round, the plan was simple.
“I wasn’t going to mess up,” he continued. “I just stayed focused and got through it steer by steer.”
They finished with a 6.31 on the last steer.
“I’m just doing my job,” Corkill said.
While Tomlinson had it handled on the front end, the win adds to a strong 2026 ProRodeo season for the 25-year-old, who sits No. 6 in the PRCA World Standings with $37,149 won and picked up a win earlier this year at Rodeo Austin with Coleby Payne.
Corkill, meanwhile, came into Fort Worth building momentum of his own, sitting No. 26 in the world standings with $21,940 and adding a second-place finish at the San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo alongside Clint Summers after also placing second at Rodeo Austin.
“With what happened this week… I can honestly say I don’t even remember the runs,” Corkill said. “For the first time in my life, I’m just at peace and having fun.”
The win marked Corkill’s second of the week, adding to his #16.5 Succeed Shootout title earlier in the finals with his oldest son, Colby, and capping one heck of a day for the three-time world champion.
“I’m just having a pretty cool life right now,” he said after it was all over.
For Tomlinson, the win was a product of everything coming together and having trust both in his horse and in the partner behind him.
“My horse, this is only about the fourth jackpot I’ve ridden him at,” Tomlinson said. “I just tried to do my job and not get in the way.”
For the veteran of the sport on the heel side—who rode AQHA Heel Horse of the Year “Turbo” to the pay window in the YETI Open—it was a full-circle moment winning with one of the younger NFR headers in the pack.
“He’s not old enough yet, but what I’ve been through here is it used to be two different kinds of roping—jackpotting and then there was rodeoing,” Corkill explained. “But now, the way these guys do it, we rodeo rope all the time. It’s rodeo roping at the jackpots. It’s just evolved so much.”
“The first time I made the NFR, Tanner was eight years old,” he said with a laugh. “But now, I am so thankful I am young enough to enjoy all these kids and be out here roping with them.”
