RIDGEDALE, Mo. — The defining shot of the 2026 Internet Invitational so far was struck with a backward-blade putter by a creator who almost wasn't in the field.
With his team tied with Peter Finch's squad on Day 1, and the second hole of a sudden-death playoff on the line, John Melstrom II — "Big John" to his audience — rolled in the birdie putt that sent Ryan Ruffels' Team White into Day 2 and sent Team Finch home. Two days later, at Buffalo Ridge, he was winning points again, as White built a 6–2 lead over Wesley Bryan's Team Green going into the afternoon singles.
If you haven't carved out the hours, here is what has happened across both days, and why so much of the golf that mattered came from players with real tournament résumés. Spoilers for Episodes 1–3 follow. Episode 4, with the Day 2 singles, premiered Thursday, and its results are not included here.
The setup
The second Internet Invitational was filmed August 10–17 at Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri, the same property that hosted the inaugural edition. The field grew from 48 to 64 players, split into four 16-player teams, and the purse quadrupled to $4 million.
The players voted in four pros as captains: Wesley Bryan (Green), Brad Dalke (Red), Peter Finch (Blue) and Ryan Ruffels (White). In the snake draft, Dalke used the first pick on New Zealand's Luke Toomey. Before a ball was struck in competition, the captains each hit one shot on a 100-yard hole. Ruffels won it after an appeal and a tape measure, which earned $5,000 for every player on his team and the right to choose his Day 1 opponent. He chose Finch.
The series opened on a somber note, with a tribute to Cody "Beef" Franke, who died shortly after winning last year's event with Dalke's team.
Day 1 at Ozarks National: half the field goes home
Day 1 was played on Ozarks National, the Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design, as two head-to-head duels of 16 nine-hole matches each: a morning two-person scramble and an afternoon alternate-shot session on the back nine, one point per match. The two losing teams were eliminated outright.
Bryan ends Dalke's title defense
Dalke arrived as the defending champion and left on Day 1. Team Green won the morning 6–2 and closed out Team Red 10.5–5.5. One of the morning wins came from Bryan himself, who teamed with Robby Berger to beat DOD King and Andrew Santino 2 and 1.
Finch vs. Ruffels: 8–8, then sudden death
The other duel was close all day and finished level at 8–8, which sent it to a sudden-death alternate-shot playoff. The rules forced each captain to think ahead: each team picked a pair for the first hole, but the same two players couldn't play consecutive playoff holes.
Playoff hole 1. Finch sent himself out with Luke Kwon, and Ruffels answered with himself and Micah Morris. The hole was halved, and Kwon kept Blue alive by holing a four-footer. That was a measure of redemption for a player cast as the villain of last year's series after sleeping through a tee time. This year he made light of it on the series' opening day by pitching a tent on the first green.
Playoff hole 2. Finch went with Roger Steele and Rick Shiels. Ruffels chose Big John and Grant Horvat, even though Horvat had openly tried to talk his captain out of picking him. Steele's drive left Shiels about 100 yards in, while Big John's tee shot took a bad bounce into a fairway bunker. Horvat then hit the shot of the playoff, picking it clean from the sand to roughly 20 feet. Shiels was just outside him, and Steele lagged to within a foot for a certain par. Big John needed birdie, and he made it.
The backstory makes it better. Big John got a late invitation from Berger over the objections of Barstool's Dave Portnoy, who spent the series making clear he didn't care for him.
Day 2 at Buffalo Ridge: White takes control
The two surviving teams moved to Buffalo Ridge for Day 2 with their rosters intact. That came at Berger's urging: after the Day 1 finish, he lobbied Portnoy to keep the teams as drafted rather than reshuffle them. It hasn't worked out for Green so far.
The morning brought eight two-person scramble matches at a point apiece, and White won five and halved two to lead 6–2 at lunch. Big John and Fat Perez beat George Bryan and Chaz 2 and 1. Marissa Wenzler and Bubbie Broders beat Tisha Alyn and Evan Thompson 2 up, a matchup featuring two of the more accomplished amateurs left in the field. Green's lone win came in the captains' match, where Wesley Bryan and Berger beat Ruffels and Sam "Riggs" Bozoian 1 up.
The afternoon singles carry 16 points, double the morning's value, and decide which team advances. White needs 6.5 of them to reach 12.5 for the day; Green needs a comeback.
The pedigree check
The Internet Invitational is entertainment first. But the players carrying their teams include several with serious amateur and collegiate records. Here are the ones worth knowing.
Ryan Ruffels (Team White captain)
Ruffels was one of the most decorated junior amateurs of his generation. At 15 he became the youngest winner in the Riversdale Cup's 106-year history. In 2014 he also won the Australian Boys' Amateur and the Callaway Junior World Championship, and he represented Australia at the Eisenhower Trophy. He was 13th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking when he turned professional at 17 in January 2016, a decision he has since called a mistake.
Brad Dalke (Team Red captain)
Dalke reached the final of the 2016 U.S. Amateur at Oakland Hills, where he lost 6 and 4 to Curtis Luck after Luck won eight straight holes in the afternoon. The following spring he played the Masters as an amateur and the U.S. Open, then clinched Oklahoma's 2017 NCAA title with a 2-and-1 win over Oregon's Sulman Raza in the deciding match. He was also the 2015 Junior PGA champion.
Marissa Wenzler (Team White)
Wenzler's summer of 2021 is one of the better amateur stories of the decade. The Kentucky standout was medalist and champion at the Women's Western Amateur. Two weeks later she survived a 12-for-2 playoff just to make match play at the U.S. Women's Amateur, then beat medalist Rachel Kuehn 1 up in the Round of 64 as the No. 64 seed.
George and Wesley Bryan (Team Green)
George Bryan was a three-time All-American at South Carolina, only the third Gamecock to earn that honor. He won the 2007 Southeastern Amateur, and as a senior he shared medalist honors at the 2010 SEC Championship before losing a playoff to Georgia's Russell Henley. Wesley, his teammate at South Carolina, went on to win the 2017 RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour.
Luke Kwon (Team Blue)
Kwon started college at Division II St. Edward's, where he earned honorable mention All-American honors as a freshman, before transferring to Oklahoma. His final season there overlapped with Dalke's first. In an NCAA quarterfinal loss to Texas, he won the Sooners' only point by beating Scottie Scheffler 4 and 3. As a pro he won the 2019 Qinhuangdao Championship on PGA Tour Series-China, and in 2024 he won the first Creator Classic at East Lake.
Luke Toomey (Team Red)
Toomey, the first pick in this year's draft, won the New Zealand Stroke Play Championship in 2014 and again in 2016, the second time in a playoff. That fall he was New Zealand's leading performer at the Eisenhower Trophy in Mexico, where the Kiwis tied for sixth.
Evan Thompson (Team Green)
Thompson took one of the more unusual routes into competitive golf. At Kennesaw State he was a linebacker who set a school record with 118 tackles and made All-Big South first team in 2021, and he also played golf there. In May 2025 he shot 66 to medal at U.S. Open Local Qualifying.
Grant Horvat (Team White)
Horvat is one of the most-watched creators in the game, and he has tested his game in pro events, including a start at The American Express in January. Asked to hit the biggest shot of Day 1 from a fairway bunker under pressure he openly didn't want, he delivered.
What it means
Strip away the production and the first two days have come down to familiar things: who can hit a wedge under pressure, who can hole a four-footer, and how a captain manages his pairings. The biggest putt came from a creator, not a former champion. But Kwon's four-footer and Horvat's bunker shot are what gave Big John the chance to hit it, and Ruffels' roster has kept producing ever since.
The Day 2 singles are in Episode 4, which premiered Thursday. Episode 5 follows Monday, Nov. 9, and the finale is Thursday, Nov. 12. New episodes post at 1 p.m. ET on the Fore Play Golf, Bob Does Sports and Internet Invitational YouTube channels.
