Luke Kwon
For a relatively laidback, inoffensive seeming guy, Luke Kwon has made some enemies in his time. Enemies might sound a bit harsh, but the way the world reacted to his infamous sleep-in at last year’s Internet Invitational, you’d think the guy had killed Bambi.
Regardless, the man who once nearly died in a golf cart accident (more on that below) is back, and no doubt eager to avoid the ire of Ryan Whitney this time around. Fortunately for Kwon, he’s extremely good at golf, so assuming he can make it to the tee box on time he should be able to win over whoever ends up on his team, at the very least.
Why is Luke Kwon famous?
First and foremost, Luke Kwon is a professional golfer. He might not be the most successful one of them in history, but nearly $800,000 in career earnings is certainly nothing to sneeze at.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kwon moved to the USA at the age of 2, and a couple of decades later found himself playing golf for the University of Oklahoma where, wouldn’t you know it, he was plagued by issues getting out of bed. Having regularly missed practice and classes due to his penchant for a sleep-in, Kwon was suspended from practice by his coach and forced to wake up at 6am every morning for a fortnight to meet his weight training staff, with expulsion from the team the punishment for any failure to adhere.
He passed, but while future incidences may suggest he never really kicked that habit of sleeping in, his time at Oklahoma pave the way for a decent albeit unspectacular pro career. He joined the PGA Tour China in 2019 and has since gone on to play in 16 events, making 14 cuts, securing 7 top 10 finishes and winning once, accumulating $758,220 along the way. He’s played in a similar number of events on both the PGA Tour Latinoamerica and the Korn Ferry Tour, though not with the same success.
But like a growing number of nearly-but-not-quite-good-enough golfers, Kwon doesn’t really need the pro circuit anymore. He’s become a recognisable face in the world of golf through less traditional means, initially as a member of Good Good, while he now has his own channel with 440,000 subscribers and is a regular alongside the popular Kiwi crew of Taco, Sam Heung Min and Tooms.
The golf cart incident
This is not quite as funny as it might initially sound. A lesser known fact about Luke Kwon is that in 2022, he suffered a life-threatening injury while riding, of all things, a golf cart. Kwon was a passenger in a cart when he hit his head on a bridge railing, an incident which left him with a headache but nothing serious enough to prevent him from finishing the final 7 holes of the round.
Initially he was hesitant to go to the hospital, but his girlfriend continued to insist, and it’s just as well she did. Upon arriving he was taken for a CT scan which found that nearly one-quarter of Kwon’s brain was bleeding, and that he was probably 30-45 minutes away from dying. Scary stuff.
Emergency surgery ultimately saved his life, with doctors removing a portion of his skull to relieve the swelling, and incredibly he survived without any major long-term effects. Maybe he can blame last year’s sleep-in on the ordeal.
What can we expect from Luke Kwon at the Internet Invitational?
Moving on from the sleep-in saga for a second, Kwon is obviously an extremely good golfer. Though he had limited opportunity to show it last year, there aren’t all that many players on the Internet Invitational roster with a professional win to their name, so expect him to go pretty early on in the draft.
Kwon’s got a reputation for coming off a little apathetic towards his golf, but I think it’s mostly a front. He might not be the most competitive guy on the planet, but there have been plenty of instances in which he’s had something on the line and it’s been plain to see that the nerves are there. Having set the bar pretty low last year, it would be no surprise to see Kwon become the comeback story of the 2026 Internet Invitational.
