The drip campaign for the Internet Invitational has officially turned into a flood. The Bob Does Sports x Barstool golf event in August has a $4 million prize pool, and every few hours another creator is filming themselves cracking open a green invite box. It's the best content cycle Barstool has had in months, and we haven't even hit a tee shot yet.
Tyler Toney of Dude Perfect unboxes his invite on Instagram and promises to work on his swing.
Toney getting the nod is a big swing for the field — Dude Perfect bringing their audience into a Barstool-orbit event is exactly the crossover the tournament was built for. Of course, the Stoolies Clubhouse crew immediately hit back with #JusticeForSas, riffing that Lil Sas getting passed over for an outside creator is a borderline crime. It's a bit, but it's also kind of the point: every invite that goes out makes the snub list more interesting than the guest list.
Jon Gruden does his own unboxing and confirms he's officially in.
Gruden holding up the co-branded Bob Does Sports x Barstool card while shouting about a share of $4 million is the kind of thing that would have felt impossible 5 years ago. Now it's a Tuesday. And the prize pool reveal landed hard on Son of a Boy Dad, where Rone summed up the stakes better than anyone — finishing 6th at the Masters or winning this thing pays roughly the same.
Lil Sas reacts in real time to learning the purse, with Rone delivering the Masters comparison.
Then there's The Duke, who got the full WWE entrance treatment — laid out on a putting green under a white sheet until two guys in golf gear pulled the cover off for the reveal. It's ridiculous and perfect, and it tells you everything about how seriously these guys are taking the bit while not taking themselves seriously at all.
The Duke gets unveiled on the green in a staged sheet-pull reveal for the Internet Invitational.
August can't get here fast enough. The field's already deep, the memes are running hot, and somewhere Lil Sas is checking the mail every 20 minutes hoping a green box shows up. If the actual golf is half as fun as the rollout, this thing is going to print.