Mohegan — It’s largely in the wrist, they say.

Cornhole’s top professional players can toss a bag filled with plastic resin toward a raised board 27 feet away, “airmailing” it directly into a hole near the far end of the board — or have it land near the hole — more or less at will. They can "land" a bag on the board and have it slide up into the hole, or knock an opponent’s bag off the board.

“There’s a lot more strategy than you’d think,” Stacey Moore, commissioner of the American Cornhole League, said in a phone interview. “That’s one of things that attracted me to the sport.”

Moore’s league will hold the fourth and final installment of its 2019 National Tournament as well as its 2019 Pro Invitational at Mohegan Sun this week, following Barrett-Jackson’s 4th Annual Northeast Auction of collector cars into the casino’s Earth Expo & Convention Center.

More than 700 cornhole players ranging in age from 15 to 70 are expected to compete for $30,000 in prize money. Spectators can watch for free.

The competition will take place from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesday, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. ESPN2 will broadcast live coverage from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, while ESPN3 will provide live online coverage from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday.

Having hosted its own single-day cornhole tournaments in the casino's Uncas Ballroom the last couple of years, Mohegan Sun was happy to “let the professionals take over” when approached by the ACL, said Lauren Willard, a Mohegan Sun public events manager.

The ESPN exposure can’t hurt, Willard said.

After holding an invitational tournament on Coney Island last July Fourth — sharing billing with a famous hot dog-eating contest — the ACL was looking to return to the New York area this year, said Moore, who founded the league three years ago. He’s presided over a rapid expansion of the league and its reach, due in large part to the ESPN coverage.

“When ESPN2 televised it (in 2017), it went viral,” Moore said. “It caught on like wildfire.”

The ACL season runs from January to August and includes four national tournaments such as the one this week. The Pro Invitational is akin to an all-star event. 

Moore sees cornhole continuing to grow, given its appeal to both genders, the social aspect of the sport and support from sponsors. He said it caught on a few years ago among tailgating college football fans in the Midwest and the South, and has become a favorite of fundraisers and corporate teambuilders. The top professional players can early $40,000 to $60,000 a year, a range Moore believes will escalate.

“Anyone can play and anyone can win,” is the ACL's motto, he said.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com