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Thursday morning update:
The KTD Cornhole Tourney has been postponed due to the predicted rainstorm on Saturday. The event hasn't yet been rescheduled.
Original post:
WORTHINGTON — Serious cornhole players and casual backyard bag-tossers are both welcome at the upcoming Turkey Day Fundraiser Cornhole Tourney Saturday, with trophies, cash prizes and custom bags up for grabs for the winners.
“People who just like to do it to have fun don’t want to come and be beat up on all day,” shared Brian Shaw, one of three co-owners of Triple Crown Cornhole, which is managing the event.
So Triple Crown makes sure they won’t be, by dividing the doubles teams into separate divisions: Competitive, for the more experienced set, and Social, who enjoy the game but perhaps don’t have much practice beyond backyard play with family and friends.
Registration for the event is open from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. Saturday at the pavilion at 930 Second Ave. in Worthington, with bags set to fly at noon. Social teams will pay $40 per team, and teams in the competitive division will pay $80 per duo.
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“It’s a fundraiser for (King) Turkey Day,” said Susanne Murphy, president of the KTD Board of Directors. “We invite the public to participate or to come and watch. I think there’s going to be some really, really talented throwers, if people want to see what the game is all about.”
Pulled pork sandwiches, chips and cookies will be available during the event, as well as beer, she said. A silent auction will also take place during the event.
The tournament will likely be a double elimination tournament, with a “best of three” on the winner's side of the bracket and one game and done on the other, Shaw said, but if there aren’t many teams, both sides of the bracket will go “best of three.”
“It just all depends on the amount of time we have and the numbers of teams we’re going to have,” he added.
Games will feature regulation-sized equipment, right down to the plastic pellet-stuffed bags, which feature two different surfaces so that experienced players can toss the bag so that it slides more or less on the wood surface of the board. The boards, too, are regulation-size, and they will be placed 27 feet apart from each other — a distance that surprises some casual players.
Games will be a race to 21.
Shaw advised new and casual players to just focus on getting the bags in the hole, but mentioned a few strategies experienced throwers use, like placing a bag directly in front of the hole to stymie an opponent and force them to try to land an “airmail” toss into the hole from above.
“It all depends on what kind of style you like,” he said.
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And despite the “regulation” sizes and shapes, the bags can still bounce, kick, tumble, roll and generally behave oddly, even apart from variables like wind. Humidity and temperature affect the boards, too, making them stickier and slower with heat and cleaner and faster in cool air.
“We really encourage new people to come, because we’re trying to grow the sport around here,” Shaw added, emphasizing that new players shouldn’t be intimidated by cutthroat competitors warming up before the contest, as they won't be in the same division anyway. “It’s a growing game.”
