If you didn’t already know, Shad Mayfield’s comeback is on. After sitting out six months due to two hip surgeries, Mayfield had an ambitious goal to make the NFR through the Summer Run alone. After a $28,000 this past weekend, this could be the moment we look back on as to when this started to feel real. Mayfield won the Average in Salinas by one-tenth of a second thanks to a 9.2, the second-fastest run of the entire rodeo in the Short Round. The night before, he banked $10,000 for his runner-up finish to Haven Meged at the NFR Open. For the entire event, he won $14,500. Just like that, Mayfield is already No. 33 in the World and $30,000 out of an NFR spot. That sounds like a lot, but it’s pretty dang close to what he won last weekend alone.