Matt O'Grady's day in the Lone Star State today proved to be about as crazy as a Texas twister.

The reigning Tournament of Champions winner already had hauled out of the Lubbock area today and driven hundreds of miles toward Dallas when he found out that actually he had made the cut to the cashers' round in the PBA Lubbock Sports Open. To his surprise, he had secured the 23rd spot among the 24 who advanced. His 2951 pinfall, it turned out, was just enough to keep him inside the number.

"I just drove 470 miles round trip for nothing," he told BJI, then joked, "I guess you can say it was good thinking time."

That's one way of putting it.

O'Grady explained what happened as follows:

"Immediately after this morning's poorly executed qualifying round, I cleared out of the paddock and my AIRBnB and headed to Dallas. Today is my wife Joely's birthday, and since I projected my finishing position to be anywhere between 28-32nd, I wanted to hit the road to see her as soon as possible.

"I didn’t have any internet service in the plains of West Texas, but I did connect with my good buddy Kyle Troup on the phone. He said I was 40 pins inside the number with four games to go. I stopped off at the next gas station and got a coffee, figured I’d wait another game.

"The cut skyrocketed as I went from 18th to 25th after 11 games. I turned my key in the ignition and continued my journey east towards Dallas. Kyle texted me saying I’m 23rd with a game to go. And sure enough, as I was 235 miles away in Jacksboro, Texas, I had to turn around!"

That's a lot of work to bowl a cashers' round. It should be interesting to see how O'Grady embraces the mulligan he's been given on Friday, when PBA Lubbock Sports open action will resume at 9 a.m. E.T. on FloBowling.com.