One possibility is that he sees that he's over 500 pins out of the cut and is cutting his losses. Not only would he need to average 250+ over the next 18 games (probably 260+ on the Cheetah pattern since almost everyone else will score higher anyway), he'd need help from the 60+ people ahead of him. It's gonna cost him another couple of hundred dollars to stay and bowl the next few days just for hotel and meals. Equipment, too, I'm sure. He's out the $2K, no reason to be out any more money if he knows he's out of the running.
I'd rather stay, but Chris Collins is Chris Collins. Notoriously hot-headed when things don't go his way and he may feel like the stress of it isn't worth the experience. Some people go for that experience whether they expect any success or not (Ike, for instance), I doubt he's one of them.
SH
