(Industry rep Alan McGuckin is in Plattsburgh, N.Y., for this week's Lake Champlain Elite Series. He passed along this recap of Thursday's (non) action after day 1 of the tournament was canceled.)
The manner in which pros chose to occupy an unplanned day off was as wide-ranging as the waves that stirred massive Lake Champlain on the New York-Vermont border.
“I could have listed a lotta things I’d have rather done than go bowling, but when my fiancé, Abby said she wanted to go bowling, we rounded up Jesse Wiggins, David Mullins and their girlfriends and hit the lanes,” said Matt Lee, a former Carhartt college fishing champion who has notched two top-12 finishes this season.
The group of six bowlers was actually more like a half-dozen former all-state high school athletes. Lee won a state title playing baseball in high school. His fianceé, Abby, was a two-time state champion basketball player. Jesse Wiggins was an all-state small school football player in Alabama, and David Mullins competed as a college golfer.
“I was within seven pins of beating Mullins yesterday, and couldn’t pull off the win,” Lee said. “Mullins is just good at everything, a straight-up athlete, who even puts spin on every ball he bowled yesterday.”
While the six co-ed bowlers from Alabama and Tennessee made memories together, likeable pro Shaw Grigsby found himself alone in a movie theater.
“Are you ready for this? You’ll never guess what movie I watched,” he said with a smile. “I went to see Wonder Woman – and it actually wasn’t too bad.”
As for Lee and Grigsby’s Quantum teammate Gerald Swindle, he didn’t do much of anything.
“Hey, when B.A.S.S. told me the competition day was canceled and that I could have the day off I took them seriously," Swindle said. "I took two naps, first with the big dog, Myric, then with the little dog Bama, before finally taking Lulu to eat at the local brewing company.”
