Cornhole League’s Ryder Cup Draws Crowds

Irving—The Irving Convention Center was full of bags and boards, Jan. 28-29. However, it was not a trade show for grocers or lovers of charcuterie; it was the 2022 Texas Cornhole League’s (TCL) Ryder Cup, where 1,500 players from 88 teams competed for bragging rights for their community or state and $70,000 in prize money.  

This was the 12^th Ryder Cup, a name borrowed from the famous team golf competition between Europe and the United States. The TCL Ryder Cup started in 2011 and has become a popular format.

“It’s been a cool experience,” Chad Jacobson, co-tournament director for TCL, said. “We absolutely love it. Players love this event. This is their favorite event of the year. It’s the hardest one to prepare for, because it is so unique, but it’s an amazing event.”

Cornhole is a sport where competitors toss beanbags toward a wooden board 27 feet away, hoping to land their throw in the middle of a hole six inches wide. Each competitor throws four bags per inning, and the first team or thrower to reach 11 points is the winner.

The sport’s origins are found in the 19^th Century when quoits, similar to horseshoes, where competitors throw steel rings at a metal spike was introduced. However, cornhole got a big boost in the United States in 1974 thanks to a ‘Popular Mechanics’ article detailing how to build a board for bean bag bullseye, a game resembling modern cornhole.

There is plenty of slang associated with the sport, which is a fixture when tailgating at sporting events and as a great way for family and friends to get together, enjoy adult beverages, and have fun while engaging in some friendly competition.

An ace, which earns one point, is when a toss lands anywhere on the board. An airmail is when a competitor lands a perfect toss directly inside the hole for three points. A candy corn or sally is when a toss fails to reach the board.

Besides having catchy slang, another cool aspect of TCL Ryder Cup are the great team names like Holes R Us, a nod to the defunct Toys R Us brand; the Cleburne Yellow Jackets, the Texas Militia, and the Wise County Bandits.

Bridgeport resident Danny Gonzalez has only been throwing bags for six months with the Bandits and this was his first major TCL event. He was blown away with the entire experience.  

“It’s [great] being around people you know from your hometown. We all play together,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve never been to an event this big. It’s huge. After COVID, this is something that really took off.”

The 2022 tournament was the first Ryder Cup held at the Irving Convention Center, a venue which TCL has staged other events at before.

“One, it’s an outstanding venue. The architecture’s amazing,” Jacobson said. “The staff is great. The uniqueness of all the hotels and restaurants there [is great].

“It’s centrally located. It’s one of those places that I’ve always driven by and thought it would be amazing to have an event there. We just weren’t big enough [then]. Now that we are, we’ve done a couple events there and absolutely love it. It’s quickly become our favorite place to go.”

TCL’s origins as an organization date back to 2009 when Jacobson and others wanted to help grow the sport.

“It started really as a group of people who wanted to get together and throw bags. Not a lot of people knew about cornhole,” Jacobson said. “We’ve progressed and grown. We now have over 40 different regions spread out over Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.

“We host these four major tournaments along with Ryder Cup and our league championship. We’ll have over 600 regional tournaments hosted by our regional directors throughout the year. It’s really become this cool fraternity of players.”

Even though the sport has been broadcast on ESPN for several years, some still consider cornhole a niche sport outside of the mainstream.

However, its legion of competitors are not concerned about the sport’s perception. Instead, they are focused on getting together to have fun, throw bags, maybe win a trophy or prize money, and help grow the sport, one where every competitor is part of a family.  

“Everybody’s been really encouraging. That’s what I like,” Gonzalez said. “It’s still very competitive though. There’s a lot of families. The guy who runs Wise County Bandits, it’s him, his wife, his mom and then he’s got his little boy and girl. The little boy, he’s probably 12 and he’s better than everybody.”