Internet Invitational 2026 Episode 4: The Twist Of The Century
TLDR: Ryan Ruffels's team, white, finished off Wesley Bryan's in Wednesday afternoon's 16 singles, needing 12 and a half points to go through, and green went home. Then came the twist: white's 16 were redrafted on the spot into four teams of four, under Big John, Grant Horvat, Micah Morris and Ruffels, to play off that night, and one of those teams goes home.
White led 6-2 off the morning, and the afternoon was 16 nine-hole singles, a point each. Both teams ranked their players and the committee set the matches from the lists: “12 and a half is the magic number to end it.”
Cheddy and Riggs went off first. Ryan Whitney drew Sabrina Andolpho and took it personally, sure the matchup was a setup.
One late swap, argued on handicaps, moved Bob Does Sports off Bobby Ray and onto Justin Gaethje. Gaethje beat him.
In Big John's match with Sam Heung Min, green's side said Big John's ball had rolled while he addressed it in the fairway. Big John said he didn't think so, said he would take their word for it, and gave up the hole.
“I'm an integrity guy. That's fine. If you believe that happened, I will die on that hill.” – Big John
A few holes later Sam thought his own ball had moved, and called the penalty on himself: “Sam did to himself what he called Big John.”
Cheddy and Riggs had a rules fight about marking on one green; the ruling was that a ball that moves while it is being marked goes back without a penalty. Then Cheddy's drive went into the trees, two TaylorMades turned up, and he couldn't say which was his: he had thrown his ball in a pond after a missed putt and grabbed another from his cart.
“I buy refurbished golf balls. … I don't play at Whisper Rock like Riggs.” – Cheddy
His three minutes to find it ran out, and he dropped under a two-shot penalty. Afterwards he put it on the rules official: “They called a two-stroke penalty on me, so I didn't know my ball.”
Claire Hogle beat Paige Spiranac (“I've never played worse”), and green won enough matches to make white wait: “We need to get 12 and a half total. And right now we have 10.” It came down to the last group, where a white player one down with two to play won 17 and 18.
“The white team, congrats on advancing.” Wesley Bryan's team goes home.
Everyone was called back to the clubhouse: “Something's brewing.”
The committee named four captains, Big John, Grant Horvat, Micah Morris and Ryan Ruffels, who snake-drafted white's 16 into four teams of four. Each team's first picks play a hole together and the best scores are safe; the bottom teams send their next players out for another hole, and the team at the bottom goes home whole. The draft holds for that night only: “tomorrow's a redraft.” The Duke went last again (“Duke, you're last again”), and the episode ends as the first group tees off.
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