Having earned the crown three times already, Matt Guy is indisputably the King of Cornhole.

But that’s almost an understatement.

An opponent once called him the Michael Jordan of Cornhole.

Future competitors may well speculate that he’s the Tiger Woods of Cornhole.

Matt doesn’t brag, but he does acknowledge that he’s got skill to back up his reputation. He says ever since he was a kid he had good hand-eye coordination. That’s what enabled him to excel at a game similar to cornhole when he was young – horseshoes. He played horseshoes so well he was ranked sixth in the world by the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association of America. “I just transferred the basics to cornhole. I’ve been good at under-handed things, and sometimes I kick myself for not bowling,” he says with a laugh.

It’s a bit easier to stay game-ready for cornhole, too. “With horseshoes, if I didn’t practice, it showed. With cornhole, it’s more natural, it’s there. I just go do it.”

Matt, 38, of Alexandria, Kentucky, started out as a casual player years ago. Then, while working on a bread delivery route in the Cincinnati area, he noticed a sign promoting a tournament with a cash prize. That led to buying his own boards, then learning about more tournaments. “I played and won the majority of them,” he says, simply.

He doesn’t have a specific training regimen. And his many wins can be chalked up to aptitude, sure. But for a while, the otherwise-not-superstitious fellow and friends began wondering if he unknowingly had a “lucky charm.” As nearly as he could figure, a common factor in a string of his victories was the same pair of Nikes he’d been wearing. But when he switched shoes, the success continued.

The trophies (20 or 30 of them so far, he estimates, adding that “some are cool ones but I’ not a big trophy person”) and cash (more than $10,000 gross) started adding up. And while those are great to have, they’re not his main motivation for competition. Matt plays – weekend after weekend, at venues throughout the U.S. but mostly in the Midwest – because he so greatly enjoys it. Often, what he wins covers his travel expenses. The family can join him for these get-aways, which is a benefit. And “I’ve made a lot of friends and enjoy going to new places.”

The camaraderie is terrific. Matt is good-natured about people who strive to beat him. “Everybody wants to win…everybody wants to knock off the king.” Top-ranked tournament players want to beat him, and “casual players who come just for the love of the came want to play me to see how they stand up.”

His sons are taking up after him already. (Bret, at 15, “is pretty tough, and wants to beat Dad”; the younger two are making progress fast, too, he says.)

Even if someone dethrones this King of Cornhole some day, he’ll stick around the circuit. “I’ll keep playing the game as long as nothing goes wrong. I think I could still play at a high level even to my Sixties,” he said. “Anybody can play and play for a long, long time.”