With Internet Invitational Season 2 now in the books, it’s time to hand out some awards! Our expert panel has put their collective heads together to find the winners across a range of categories, some illustrious, some not so illustrious. From MVP to Biggest Meltdown, take a look at our seven award winners below.
MVP – Fat Perez
Fat Perez took out the MVP award after leading his team to the Promised Land without that Whoop heart rate monitor even registering a spike. By no means do I subscribe to the theory that the MVP absolutely has to come from the winning team, and Big John gave this one a serious shake for some of the moments he pulled out throughout the event. But while BJ had higher highs, FP could hardly have been steadier throughout the tournament. He lost just a solitary match on Day 1, winning his last four and ultimately leading his trio to victory with a near-flawless final round. Even the guy’s snap hooks were finding the fairway. A worthy MVP.
Best Shot – Big John
Not a shadow of a doubt about this one. Big John swaggered into his first Internet Invitational with plenty of confidence, riling up Dave, calling time penalties on opponents and wielding a putter that looked like it belonged in the hands of the Grim Reaper rather than on a golf course. Turns out that scythe works pretty well.
With the fate of 31 others in his hands at the end of Day 1, a lag putt from 30 feet would have been sufficient to force a third playoff hole between Team White and Team Blue. But Big John showed no interest in a push, exhibiting a steady hand that Grant Horvat could only dream of as he rolled it straight into the middle of the cup. Safe to say FP, Riggs and Bobby Ray owe him a beer or ten out of their winnings.
Honourable mention to Evan Thompson, who pulled out a fairway wood for his 2nd shot into the par 5 18th with his match against Grant Horvat tied going up the last hole and literally cannoned it into the flag to set up a short eagle putt.
Surprise Packet – Justin Gaethje
Gaethje went at pick 45 and doesn’t exactly have a swing that would inspire confidence in teammates, but the man known as The Highlight lived up to his nickname from Day 1 with some much better golf than most expected from him. How the ball even gets in the air with that technique isn’t clear, but the UFC lightweight champion went undefeated through his first four matches, winning three of those including an absolute whitewash of Bobby Fairways, and only missed out on the final by a solitary shot alongside Micah Morris and Bubbie Broders.
Sixth Man Award – Riggs
Riggs cops plenty of heat for his golf game, and to be honest when you see his swing and pair it with his claims about his handicap, it’s easy to see why. Walking after a moderately well-hit 6-iron like he’s Tiger Woods on a Sunday probably doesn’t help either. But you’ve gotta hand it to the guy, he was absolutely lights out in each of the final two episodes and probably showed that he could put down a reasonably low score on his day.
Riggs was a role player in most of his matches – he was paired up with Ruffels twice and Horvat once over the first two days – and while he only had a 1-1-2 (W-D-L) record in those first four episodes, he rose to the occasion in a big way on the final day as his team’s second or third best player, depending which version of Bobby Ray we’re talking about.
Most Improved – Bobby Ray
Speaking of Bobby Ray, he wins the Most Improved award by a street, with a chasm the size of his biceps separating how he played at the beginning of the event and how he played at the end of it. With a shirt like that the guy was always going to be a prime candidate to draw the ire of the internet, and snap hooking every second shot 60 metres out of bounds on Day 1 didn’t help him. But erratic as he might be, clearly the guy can swing a club, and there was nowhere to go but up from that first day horror show.
And up he went, bouncing back with a much better performance on Day 2 and hitting some extremely good shots on the final day. He still missed a couple of greens with a wedge in his hand in the final, but he also almost drove multiple greens with an iron and compared to what he dished up on Day 1, was a new man.
Biggest Meltdown – SGK
A really hard-fought win for SGK here, who had some serious competition for the award. Jake Adams, a roughly scratch golfer, literally topping a fairway wood off the tee with a spot on the final day up for grabs went very close. Or there was the Duke, playing for a spot in the final, putting the ball from just off the front of the green to 20 yards over the back. Kyle Forgeard threw his hat in the ring with a three-putt from 12 feet to lose to Salim on the last green in Episode 4. And SGK’s own teammate, Roger Steele, missed a pivotal short putt in the same match as SGK won this award.
But the guy is literally called Short Game King, and spent the day chirping his opposition (admittedly often very successfully). He had been living up to his names previously, but the pressure of the Internet Invitational weaselled its way between his ears when he stepped up for his most pivotal putt of the tournament, with not even two feet between ball and hole. With Dave unashamedly rooting for him to miss, the King duly obliged, shoving his putt just far enough right to lip out. Life is full of ifs and buts, BUT IF Short Game King sinks that putt, Team Blue beats Team White, Big John never has a chance to sink that putt, FP and co never win, and three members of Team Blue are $1.3 million richer.
Worst Record – PFT Commenter
PFT had some Pretty Fkn Terrible results at this year’s Internet Invitational. Granted it wasn’t all his fault – he actually played well in the first round alongside Callux after being thrown to the wolves against Tooms. Still, he lost 3&2, and things only got worse from there. He ended with four losses from four rounds, and the nature of the losses makes for some grim reading – 3&2, 5&4, 3 down, and 3&2.
That’s a wrap on our Internet Invitational content for the year, but be sure to check back in at YT Golf Talk or at our Instagram for all the latest in YouTube Golf, including detailed coverage of Your Golf Tour, news from your favourites at Big Cedar Lodge, and much more.
