The Full Details of the 2026 Internet Invitational
Filming for the 2026 Internet Invitational is officially underway, with the expanded field of participants heading to the top-secret location this week for the second version of the event. Details surrounding it have been gradually filtering out for months in a relatively non-cohesive way, so on this page we’ll keep a rundown of all the key details all in one place, adding to it as we find out more.
Where is the 2026 Internet Invitational being played?
The location of the 2026 Internet Invitational has been kept notably quiet, but a couple of slips of the tongue have revealed that it appears set to return to Big Cedar Lodge, which so successfully hosted the first version of the event. Back in June, one of last year’s winners in Francis Ellis let slip the location on his podcast in relatively unequivocal fashion, stating: “It’s at Big Cedar again. Same place.” Hard to misinterpret that.
Big Cedar Lodge has six courses in total on the property – three of which are par-3 only – but last year’s event took place on just three of them. The best among them is Payne Valley while Buffalo Ridge has also been ranked among the top 100 public courses in the USA, and the quirky par-3 Cliffhangers provided a point of difference midway through the event.
Whether they stick to those three courses or add in any of the others – Ozark’s National Golf Course, or par-3 courses Top of the Rock and Mountain Top Course – remains to be seen.
Who is playing in the 2026 Internet Invitational?
We’ve had a page dedicated to this question for a few months now, which we’ve been updating ever since the first invites were revealed back in late May/early June. The field has been gradually growing since that time, with most participants posting videos on Instagram of them opening their invites, while others are simply obvious participants such as the BDS and Fore Play guys.
There are a few others that we’re fairly confident are playing, but we’ll leave them off until they’re officially confirmed. Take a look at the page referenced above for more info, or check out the full field as we currently know it below.
Evan Thompson
Daniel Saloner (Short Game King)
Hailey Ostrom
Sabrina Andolpho
Bobby Ray
Martin Borgmeier
Tyler Toney
Karol Priscilla
Justin Gaethje
Jason Williams
Josh Kelley
Daltoosh
Andrew Santino
Mason Nutt
Cole Lantz
Brad Dalke
Peter Finch
Jon Gruden
The Duke
Cass Marie
Josh Richards
Micah Morris
Taco Golf
Jersey Jerry
Fat Perez
Seb Carmichael-Brown
Mac Boucher
Ryan Ruffels
Marissa Wenzler
Malosi
Rick Shiels
Luke Kwon
Joey Cold Cuts
Roger Steele
Tisha Alyn
Sara Winter
DOD King
Claire Hogle
Luke Toomey (Tooms)
Paige Spiranac
Big John
Kyle Forgeard
Max VanderAarde (Cheddy)
Johnny Manziel
Bobby Berger
The Jet
Sam Riggs
Frankie Borrelli
Trent Ryan
What will this year’s format be?
Last year the field consisted of 48 and that felt like plenty, but nonetheless the powers that be have decided to expand, most likely to 64. There is a good chance they’ll still follow a similar format – the field splits into two teams (which will be 32 players each), the losing team gets eliminated, the remainder again split into two teams etc. With 64 players, however, they do have the ability to play around with things a bit more – for example, with four teams of 16 to begin with.
Last year they split into teams of three once there were 12 players remaining, with two of those teams getting knocked out in the penultimate video leaving two teams battling it out in the final video. Until this year’s final is released we probably won’t know the exact format, but more than likely they’ll stick to what worked so well last year.
What is the 2026 Internet Invitational prize pool?
$4 million. The prize pool for this year’s event was revealed back in the beginning of June, and marks a significant increase from the inaugural edition last year when the three winners were forced to split a measly $1 million – Dalke was only able to buy himself one single house with that. This year, winners can potentially buy themselves multiple houses.
As mentioned above, it’s not confirmed what format the event will take so we don’t know for sure that there will be three winners again. But if the powers that be do choose to take that route once again, it would result in a handy $1.33 million per individual winner.
Last year we also saw Dave Portnoy throwing out side bets like they were going out of fashion, offering winners hundreds of thousands of dollars to replay the final hole of whatever game they had just won. They continually turned him down, so expect him to push even harder with potentially even larger sums of additional money to add to the drama this year.
When will the 2026 Internet Invitational be released?
This is one that we don’t yet know for certain. Last year, the first video of the event came out right at the end of October, and the six videos were released every couple of days or so over the course of two weeks. We’re banking on a similar timeline this year, but at this point there is no official confirmation of when it will come out – given the amount of editing it must take to get these videos into something vaguely cohesive, even they may not know yet.
Of course, we will be keeping a keen eye out for any updates regarding any of the above and will keep this page front and centre of our home page until release, so be sure to check back at ytgolftalk.com for all the latest Internet Invitational updates, and follow us on Instagram and X/Twitter for more from the world of YouTube golf.
