Internet Invitational 2025 Episode 1: 48 Golfers Compete For One Million Dollars!
TLDR: Riggs's team took the Day 1 morning 8-4 after Luke Kwon slept through his 9:30 tee time, cost Bob's team 4 holes and left PFT Commenter to play them alone. The first episode opens on Beef Franke, who died the weekend before it aired and hit the first shot in the event's history; then the captains' vote, the snake draft and 12 nine-hole scrambles at Payne's Valley.
Cody “Beef” Franke died over the weekend of October 25, 2025, of what Fore Play called a sudden medical issue. He was 31. The series was set to start on Monday the 27th and went up a day late.
We are beyond devastated to announce that our good friend and cherished Barstool Sports colleague, Cody “Beef” Franke, passed away from a sudden medical issue over the weekend.
Episode 1 opens on Riggs saying what happened and that Franke's family wanted the series to run, because it was him living his life to the fullest.
“We love Beef. We'll love him forever and he will always be a part of us.”
Then he is on the first tee at Payne's Valley, told to lead the team off, and he hits the first shot in the Internet Invitational's history.
Barstool and Bob Does Sports announced the field on July 9: 48 creators, at least $1 million. By the time they reached Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri, the pot was “closer to about 1.7,” and J.R. Smith had missed his flight; Lacey Snell, a college golfer from Big Cedar, took his place.
THE FIELD IS SET FOR THE FIRST EVER INTERNET INVITATIONAL 48 personalities will go at it for at LEAST $1 MILLION @ForePlayPod @bobdoessports Presented by @dunkindonuts
The format halves the field every day. Day 1 is a Ryder Cup between two teams of 24: 12 nine-hole scrambles in the morning, 12 alternate-shot matches in the afternoon, and the team with the most points goes on while the other 24 go home. Day 2 redrafts the survivors and adds a $4,000 skin on every hole. The last 12 play an alternate-shot semifinal on the Cliffhangers par 3s in threes, and the top 2 threes play 18 holes for the million, $333,000 a player.
Dave Portnoy and Big Cat are the rules officials, in red jackets, with the final say and no appeals but to themselves. The first ruling of the week: no slope on the rangefinders.
The captains were voted in Survivor style, two names a ballot, and the room got the matchup it wanted: Riggs for Barstool, Bob Does Sports for Bob Does Sports. Riggs won the option and took the second pick, so Bob opened the snake draft with PGA Tour winner Wesley Bryan. Riggs answered with Wesley's brother George and Brad Dalke, who played the 2017 Masters as an amateur.
The pick that started a feud came late. Riggs took The Jet, one of Bob's own regulars, and Bob's side called it “such a scumbag move”; from Riggs's table, “the Jet play was personal and they will pay for that.” Bob's team wore pink, Riggs's orange, and they threw out their pairs for the morning in turn.
Luke Kwon, Bob's 3rd pick and the man his own team would call the best player in the field, did not show for his 9:30 tee time. Teammates banged on his cottage door. Portnoy ruled he could join on the 5th hole, docked him the first 4, and denied the appeal; a rules official said he could have been disqualified. PFT Commenter asked to play a one-man scramble and was told no, and played the holes alone.
Frankie Borrelli and Bubbie Broders, on Borrelli's birthday, were 4 up after 4. Kwon's first hole back was the 5th, where PFT stuffed his approach inside Kwon's. They lost 4 & 3, the one margin the episode says out loud.
Interesting teamate behavior from Luke Kwon here after sleeping in and missing his tee time at the internet invitational. All my homies hate Luke Kwon
Ryan Whitney had said it before the match was over: “If we lose a point, Quan's dead to me.”
Luke the human ambien Kwon…the worst of the worst
Bob's team won the first match off. Mac Boucher hit “the best struck golf ball of my life,” a 7-wood into the par-5 8th, and he and Joey Cold Cuts beat Franke and Malosi Togisala: “First match goes to the pink team.” The Bryan brothers' match went to the last hole after George chipped in on the 8th (“I don't ever do cool things on the internet”), and Bob and Wesley won it with a putt on the 9th.
Most of the rest went orange. Peter Finch drove a par 4 for an eagle; The Duke and Josh Richards beat Sketch and Trent Ryan to “orange kittens in the house”; Roger Steele was 6 under through 6 on his own ball and he and Paige Spiranac beat Grant Horvat and Daltoosh; Dalke and Chandler Hallow beat Jon Gruden and Paul Bissonnette, whom Bob called “our sacrificial lambs.” Bob's 4 points were Boucher and Cold Cuts, the Bryans, Rick Shiels and Andrew Santino, and Jake Adams and Whitney.
Payne's Valley · 9 holes
The episode ends before the alternate shot, with Bob doing the math. If Kwon had shown and won, it was 7-5; instead Bob's team needed the afternoon by four just to force a playoff.
“We're down bad. We need to win 8 to four on the back to force a playoff.” – Bob Does Sports
The verdict on Kwon from the sideline was shorter: he cost 23 other people the tournament because he slept.
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