The Internet Invitational was a remarkable event. It truly was.
There were more cameras at Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri, watching YouTube’s most popular golfers, than at Hatton Garden.
The production of this special event, arranged by Barstool Sports and Bob Does Sports, was of the highest level, there was genuinely good golf from genuinely good golfers, and there was drama, mostly born out of the $1 million prize fund.
48 players started, and you didn’t have to know all of them to enjoy this match play contest that featured a variety of formats, such as foursomes and Texas scramble, with a variety of golfers from Wesley Bryan, former PGA Tour winner, to a man known as the Duke, who held the club like a broomstick and navigated the course dressed like a shephard.
It was intriguing to watch how club-level golfers behave with such money at stake. Frankie Borrelli of Barstool Sports fame hit a shot seen in weekend stablefords up and down the country at the pivotal moment of the final match: a knifed chip that roadran across the green and into a lake.
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The winning team was Brad Dalke, a former US Amateur runner-up, and Barstool Sports duo Francis Ellis and Cody ‘Beef’ Franke. The end was particularly heartwarming, as ‘Beef’ was openly overwhelmed by winning the event and the money, but also desperately sad following his death at the end of October.
A fitting end, though, was somewhat clouded by several rule disputes during the event, and in the last round, which included social media star and professional golfer Paige Spiranac, as well as Malosi ‘Mo’ Togisala of the Good Good channel. These two were part of the losing trio in the final with Borrelli.
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Peter Finch of Preston, Lancashire, one of the biggest stars of YouTube, appeared for what felt like 30 seconds, watching the final match, yet his presence had seismic ramifications for what happened, and the fallout since the event’s broadcast.
The final was a three-on-three foursomes match, and it was Togisala’s turn to hit his ball from thick rough. In said thick rough, Finch reported that he saw Spiranac improving her teammate’s lie, and footage appeared to show that too.
“That lie in the rough there,” Finch said to Fat Perez of the Bob Does Sports channel. “It was shit, and Paige has gone ahead of the ball and literally pressed down all of the long grass, so he could hit it out. Like, there’s no way he could’ve hit that shot without that.”
When this eventually got put to Spiranac, she quite remarkably said, “I thought you could do that. I didn’t realise you couldn’t do that.” Spiranac, now 32, turned professional for a year after playing golf at the University of Arizona and San Diego State.
And she openly said she thought improving a lie on a golf course was within the rules. Refer to Rule 8.3 for more.
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“I wasn’t trying to cheat,” she said while becoming emotional. That horrible word has cropped up in many quarters online since the final of the Invitational was posted to YouTube on November 13.
Also in the final, Togisala was cross-examined on several occasions about using the slope function on his rangefinder. It was decided before the event started that you couldn’t use slope, a mode which gives you adjusted yardages for changes in terrain.
Togisala was accused by one competitor, Micah Morris, of using slope on his rangefinder, after they dialled different yardages to the same pin. He maintained he hadn’t used slope at all, despite footage from a buggy camera appearing to show him fiddling with the switch.
He survived several grillings, and one final one from Barstool Sports president and rules adjudicator Dave Portnoy, who was very sceptical, having reviewed the footage himself.
For a while, the event became a circus. Some might argue it was already a circus, given Portnoy, the rules adjudicator remember, uttered the words, “I don’t even know what a slope looks like,” and also, “Does anyone know how to check for slope?”
It was a farcical segment of the final, and the whole event, that has already had consequences for Togisala. He has told his social media followers, “I can handle all these bad messages and threats. But please stop messaging my wife and family.”
It has already brought out the ugly side of social media, and the furore around Spiranac and Togisala’s actions left a stain on what was an event that even YouTube golf cynics should doff their cap to.
As we all know, cheating allegations follow golfers around forever. And unfortunately, they will follow these YouTubers around forever, no matter what they believe they did or didn’t do.
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What did you make of the Internet Invitational cheating allegations? What did you make of the Internet Invitational in general? Tell us on X!
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