Rain a factor in ‘Fun Day’ bags tournament

By John Burbridges sports@charlescitypress.com

MARBLE ROCK — Any sport, game or activity played outdoors is always going to be at the mercy of the weather.

Especially a bags tournament.

When rain disrupted Saturday’s bags tournament at Whitetails Bar and Grill as part of Marble Rock’s “Fun Days”, the players took shelter but many of the bags were left out in the open to get soaked. When play resumed, that made things a little more challenging for the competitors as they had to adjust their throws to the water-weighted bags.

And some bags were more weighted than others depending if they were shielded under the boards or not, or how well they were wrung out.

If anything, though, it was easier to stick a bag on the board if your team needed a point. But that posed another problem for the championship round.

For that, the tournament was moved from the game boards set up on Main Street adjacent to the bar and grill, to Whitetails’ outdoor bar and miniature golf area. There, the games were played on a dry board with dry and new American-flag designed bags.

That’s when the game got challenging again. The new bags didn’t stick like the wet ones, and would repeatedly slide down the grade and off the board like golf balls off the undulated greens at Pinehurst.

After battling back through the loser’s bracket, the father-and-son team of Kelly and Levi Winters advanced to the championship to face Corey Jones and Dalton Winters, who were undefeated throughout the tournament.

Needing to win back-to-back best-of-three-games series with each game up to exactly 21 or bust (1 point for each bag on the board and 3 points for each hole shot provided if they’re not matched by your opponent), Kelly and Levi won the first two games forcing a latter series.

By now, the new bags had been “broken in” and were no longer sliding off the board. That’s when Jones and Dalton Winters turned things around by winning a pair of marathon games in order to claim the first-place cash prize.