Clay Tryan Breaks Down His $50,000 Spicer Gripp Memorial Open Win

Situation: Winning the 2026 Spicer Gripp Memorial Open

Time: 44.91 on six head

Payout: $50,000

a) SETUP

It doesn’t feel as hard as a BFI, but the score is a little bit shorter—18 feet and 18 feet—so the steer gets a pretty good head start. I thought they were really good steers. They all wanted to try pretty good, and that makes it tough. Anytime you’ve got to score them out that far and the steers run, it’s a challenge.

b) START

Round 1 went terribly bad. I just scored dumb on the first one. Then when (son) Tyler went, I’m thinking to myself, “He’s going to be 5.7 right here and be 4 seconds ahead of me after Round 1.” Usually, you can’t win it when you make that bad of a run. But after that, I got in a good rhythm scoring, and we made five more good runs.

c) PACE

In Round 1, I was so slow that I knew I had to try to get back in it. I couldn’t start being 8 every time or I just wasn’t going to get there. My second steer was pretty good, and I roped coming to him and we were 6. Then on the third one, I fell into a good groove. You get in a groove doing it, so you just keep doing it. A 6-second run was a good run all day. We made three of them, and that’s how we got back in it.

d) POSITION

This horse I’ve got, sometimes if you run him real close, he frees up more than I’m used to. So I rope better just a little farther back. I wasn’t reaching or nothing, just a little farther away.

e) DECISION

Our last one was going to the right, and it just felt like a good spot to throw. It was a little farther than I thought I should have thrown, but I was in a good rhythm.

Spicer Gripp Memorial Youth Foundation Announces New Spring Date Beginning in 2027

—TRJ—