Internet Invitational hits 7M views, Episode 2 Oct. 29

Season 2 has been out for 2 days and the boss is already doing a victory lap. He posted the number himself on Wednesday night.

Dave Portnoy

@stoolpresidente

7 million views in 48 hours. Episode 2 drops tomorrow and it’s awesome. Thanks to everybody watching. #InternetInvitational

That is Dave's count, so treat it as Dave's count. Even so, the timing holds up. Episode 1 premiered Monday, October 26 at 1 p.m. ET on the Fore Play Golf YouTube channel, and it ran about 5 hours. When a show that long gets 7 million views in 2 days, people are not clicking it and leaving after a minute. They are watching a golf tournament in big chunks.

Everything got bigger for Season 2. The field doubled to 64 players, and the purse went from $1 million to $4 million, with Portnoy putting up the money. The event is back at Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri, built by Barstool together with Fore Play and Bob Does Sports. The celebrity list grew too. Johnny Manziel and UFC lightweight champ Justin Gaethje are new this year, and Episode 1 opened with Jon Gruden and Johnny Football playing together. Brad Dalke, Wesley Bryan, Peter Finch and Ryan Ruffels are the 4 team captains.

The best thing to come out of the first episode, though, is the Duke. He's a returning favorite with a swing nobody else on earth has, and Golf Digest gave it a full breakdown like it belonged to a tour pro. Dave loved it.

Dave Portnoy

@stoolpresidente

THE DUKE!!!! Where else can the Duke get his golf swing evaluated by @GolfDigest other than the Invitational 😂😂😂

Golf Digest

@GolfDigest

The Duke is the definition of “swing your swing” @LukeKerrDineen breaks it down.

Golf Digest's written version is just as funny because it plays it completely straight. The Duke sets the club up almost 90 degrees upright and uses a split grip with both hands turned way strong. Then, instead of turning back like everybody else, he lifts the club straight up in front of his body. Golf Digest's verdict, more or less, is that this is as good as it gets unless he changes the whole move. Nobody should want him to. A mainstream golf magazine doing a straight-faced breakdown of the Duke is a good sign of how far this thing has spread beyond the Barstool bubble.

Next up is Episode 2 on Thursday, and Portnoy is calling it awesome. The season runs 6 episodes, released on Mondays and Thursdays through November 12, and Thursday's episode moves from Episode 1's scramble matchups to alternate shot. Alt-shot is where teams fall apart and partners stop talking to each other, which is exactly what you want after a 5-hour opener. If Episode 1 got to 7 million in 48 hours, Thursday is where we find out whether people stick around.