Jon Gruden built a Hall of Fame-caliber reputation as one of football's most relentless preparers, and it turns out that habit doesn't switch off just because the sport changed. With football season still a few weeks out, Barstool's Head Coach has been posting a steady stream of golf-prep content ahead of this year's Internet Invitational, and the theme is obvious: he's treating a charity golf tournament with the same film-room intensity he once brought to Sundays.
Gruden posted that he's "working on my golf game" and released a new video breaking down parts of his swing that "need some real work," tagging Nobull as the presenting sponsor of the prep series. It's a small window into how seriously the guys treat this event now — what started as a Barstool golf gimmick has turned into an actual production with sponsors, video crews and, apparently, swing coaches.
Gruden works through short-game reps inside 100 yards with a coach named Scott, ball-flight lines overlaid on the footage.
That last part is the real headline here. Gruden name-checked "my man Scott" for help dialing in his wedge game specifically inside 100 yards — the scoring zone that decides most amateur golf tournaments, Internet Invitational included. It's the same logic that made him a good NFL coach: identify the weak spot, bring in a specialist, drill it until it's not a weak spot anymore.
The Internet Invitational has grown into one of Barstool's biggest annual swings since debuting at Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri, and the stakes have gone up accordingly — Barstool confirmed a $4 million prize pool for this year's field, a fourfold jump from the tournament's $1 million debut purse. That kind of money changes the incentive to actually practice instead of just showing up and hacking it around for content, which seems to be exactly what's driving Gruden's sudden seriousness about his short game.
Gruden hits balls on the range and talks about rediscovering his love for golf between takes.
Whether the extra reps translate to results once the tournament actually gets underway is the fun part of the bit — golf has humbled better preparers than Jon Gruden. But between the Nobull-sponsored video series and the range sessions with Scott, it's clear he's not walking into this one cold. For a guy who spent his coaching career obsessing over 100-yard-and-in situational football, working the same range inside 100 yards checks out.