Thanks for Record Eagle for this:
TRAVERSE CITY — 62-year-old Traverse City resident, Ken Goodhue, is a cornhole pro.
“I probably throw easily over 500 bags a day,” Goodhue said.
The recent retiree practices and plays cornhole between 3-5 hours every day, and even northern Michigan winters don’t stop him from getting his daily rounds in. Goodhue has a spot in the downstairs part of his house that is long enough with a high enough ceiling to provide protection from the outdoor elements and allow him to hone his skills 365 days a year.
And Goodhue is rather skilled.
After finishing in the top 17 of bracket play at the American Cornhole Organization’s World Cornhole Competition in Owensboro, Kentucky, which featured more than 500 competitors, Goodhue earned professional status to become the first cornhole pro in Northern Michigan.
“It’s such a fun sport to get into,” Goodhue said. “There’s the simpleness of the game, but there’s the game within the game. It’s just not throwing a bag in a hole. There’s defense to go with the offense. Blocking shots. Airmailing shots. Throwing around blocks. The more you dig into it, the more there is to it.”
The wild part is that Goodhue has only been digging into cornhole for the last two years after retiring as a project manager and estimator with ABI Mechanical in Traverse City.
He now has close to 50 sets of bags that adorn the shelves of a room in the upstairs of his house, citing that his favorite is a set from Breezy Bags — a local Traverse City company that sponsors Goodhue in his tournament play.
Goodhue has a neighbor down the road from his house that got him interested in playing cornhole. He and his wife, Jennifer, still go down there twice a week to play.
“Everyone just pops in for a little bit if they’re walking by,” Jennifer said. “As soon as (Ken) was playing down at the neighbor’s house, he came home and said, ‘I really like this, honey. I really like it.’ And I was like, ‘Good! Go! Have fun! Keep playing!’”
So that is what Goodhue has done. He’s kept playing and playing and playing.
And now he’s a pro.
But Goodhue readily admits that he was not very good right away.
One of the first tournaments Ken and Jennifer entered was at the Traverse City National Cherry Festival, and it did not go too well.
“We said, ‘Oh, let’s go down there. It’s going to be fun,’” Ken said. “And then I think that first game we lost 21-0. But that’s when my eyes were opened and I realized that these people were really good.”
Along with playing at his own house and his neighbor’s, Goodhue plays in a cornhole league on Mondays and for Voodoo Cornhole on Thursdays at the Traverse City Fraternal Order of Eagles Post 383.
“I just got hooked on it,” he said.
He’s not the only one. According to a recent poll from Ipsos, cornhole was the most-played sport by Americans in 2022 with 20 percent of those surveyed saying they played the game in the last year. Bowling was next at 19 percent followed by swimming at 18, cycling at 15, basketball at 10, and golf at 9 percent.
“It’s one of the fastest-growing sports there is,” Goodhue said. “I know pickleball is up there, but you don’t need a court for cornhole. You just need a couple of boards and some bags and a backyard or a frontyard to play.”
Although cornhole is said to have been invented in the late 1800s, the popularity of the game didn’t really kick off until about 20 years ago. Not only has cornhole maintained its popularity and survived the big boon about 15 years ago when it started showing up at every backyard barbecue and football tailgate, it is now a legitimate sport that is featured on network television and channels such as ESPN.
Although Goodhue loves the spirit of competition that comes with cornhole, he truly appreciates the social aspect of the game.
“I love meeting new people and going new places. I’ve met people from all over the country that throw bags and go to these tournaments,” he said. “I’ve never met anyone that’s mean or anything close to that. We all just have a good time. There’s no real smack-talking during the match. Everyone is just pleasant to each other. When the game is done, you all hang out together and have a good time.”
That is how Goodhue started his journey to become a pro. He stuck his foot in the proverbial door by simply talking to the right people who then helped guide him on his way.
Once he began regularly beating his opponents here in northern Michigan, Goodhue began traveling more to play better competition.
“I started to go downstate and get my butt kicked down there,” Goodhue said. “That’s what you have to do if you want to get better. And I wanted to get better.”
He improved quickly and won the Cherry Fest tournament last year, coming in second this year. Now, he’ll be traveling to Ohio, West Virginia, Mississippi and other states this year to see how he stacks up against the best of the best in his division.
Aside from the worlds in Kentucky, Goodhue took second place in competitive singles and won the Open Level Four Doubles with Kevin Romel at the 2023 American Cornhole League Pro Shootout 8 and Open 16 from Hall of Fame Village in Canton, Ohio, in July.
“The more I practiced, of course, the better I got,” Goodhue said. “I’d go to the local tournaments and start moving up the ladder. The guys that used to beat me, I started beating them. And then I started to travel further to find more competition and get beat and then come back and practice more and then win some tournaments.”
All of that play helped him better understand the variables that come along with the game, be it differences in the bags, the boards or the playing conditions.
“There’s quite a science to it. It’s kind of crazy,” Goodhue said.
Most amateurs are happy to make a bag or two in the hole out of their four tosses. Goodhue has a personal record of making 50 straight bags in the hole during practice and 26 consecutive during tournament play.
His sound mechanics and strong mental approach to the game have been the matches that lit the wildfire that has been his successful rise to the pro ranks.
“When you’re on, you’re on,” he said.
Goodhue said he is “pleasantly surprised” by the joy he feels playing cornhole. His wife sees it, too.
“He just lights up when he plays,” Jennifer said. “He made a comment to me that I just love. He said, ‘I’m 62 years old. I’m retired. And I’m a pro. How many people can say that? That they became a pro at 62?’ It’s amazing, and I am just so proud of him.”
Goodhue’s drive to be better and his passion for the sport just continue to grow the more he plays. His hope is to win some major tournaments this year and earn his ACL pro status.
So how long does Goodhue see himself throwing bags and traveling around the country chasing perfect rounds?
“As long as I can. As long as I can,” he said, mentioning a 71-year-old who plays in league with him as well as the legendary T-Bone Dawson, who is nearing 80 and still active in cornhole competitions. “I don’t see it ending anytime soon, I can tell you that.”
Ken Goodhue ACL
