Did Big John's ball move? Internet Invitational Episode 4

Episode 4 dropped Thursday afternoon, and within hours the clip everyone was passing around wasn't a hole-out. It was a ball sitting next to a drain grate.

The Internet Invitational

@Internetinvite

Sam called out Big John saying his ball moved forward when he addressed it. Thoughts on this? 👀

Here's the accusation. Sam and Wes say Big John's ball moved forward when he set the club down behind it. The tour accounts didn't pick a side. They slowed the shot to black-and-white, ran the argument from beside the carts and asked the internet to decide. You can hear the clip build the case: "actually rolled?" Then the back-and-forth gets heated enough that the subtitles need asterisks.

The ruling matters because of what it costs. Under the modern Rules of Golf, if a player causes his ball to move anywhere other than the putting green, it's a 1-stroke penalty and the ball goes back where it was. A ball that moves on its own carries no penalty. In a match-play event, 1 shot can decide the hole, and 1 hole can decide whether a team moves on. Calling it on a guy is not a small thing.

The replay didn't settle anything. Plenty of people watched the slow-motion and saw nothing.

Stoolies Clubhouse 🏴‍☠️

@StooliesClub

@barstoolsports @Bigjohngolf @ForePlayPod @VivaLaStool @Internetinvite @bobdoessports Am I missing something? Didn’t look like it moved at all??

That's where the comments have mostly landed. One camp thinks Sam and Wes were sharp, or at least gamesmanship-sharp, to make the call in a moment that big. The other thinks they're trying to win a hole off a ball that never budged. Fans can't go to a rules official with a high-speed camera. They have the edit, and the edit is clearly enjoying itself.

Some context on why this blew up. The Internet Invitational is back for Season 2 with 64 YouTube golfers, athletes and celebrities playing for $4 million. All of it was filmed at Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri, in August. Episode 4 pits Wesley Bryan's Green Team against Ryan Ruffels' White Team, with a spot in the next round on the line. With that much money at stake, a single club length gets argued over.

There are 6 episodes, so only 2 are left, and new ones drop Mondays and Thursdays at 1pm ET. There was no rules official in it. Big John said he didn't think it moved, allowed that he might have touched it, told Sam "good win" and picked up, which squared their match. The only fight left is the internet's, over whether the ball really moved. Watch how Big John plays the rest of the way, and whether anybody brings this up again when the money gets bigger.