Last year, the Internet Invitational took golf by storm, pitting 48 of the most popular golf influencers against each other in a no-holds-barred battle for $1 million big ones. There were overslept tee times, cheating allegations, tears, Jon Gruden halftime speeches and even the sort of emotional storylines—Cody “Beef” Franke won the grand prize alongside Brad Dalke and Francis Ellis but sadly passed away before the series aired—that only sports can deliver. Over the course of its six-episode run, the Barstool Sports-backed series racked up over 30 million views, capturing the hearts of minds of not just golfers or sports fans, but people everywhere.
With such success, the second edition of the Internet Invitational was bound to be bigger and bolder in almost every way, including finanically. Fueled in part by infamous hype man David Portnoy, prize money speculation spiraled to obscene levels. This weekend Barstool Sports put all of that to rest, finally confirming how much the Internet’s best and craziest (fans of The Duke, we see you) golfers will be playing for this summer. Check it out.
It’s not the $10 million that Portnoy was rumored to be seeking, but it’s still a 300% increase from 2025 and an absolutely eye-watering amount of money for mostly amateur golfers to be playing for. You can also be sure that Portnoy’s side-bets and wagers will play a role once again, potentially increasing the pot even further.
For comparison’s sake, Your Golf Tour, the new YouTube golf circuit from the Grant Horvat and the Bryan Bros. with funding from Wynn Las Vegas, will award a $1 million grand prize when it begins play. Meanwhile, this weekend’s Charles Schwab Challenge winner, Russell Henley, took home $1.78 million for his win at Colonial. If the Internet Invitational utilizes three-player teams in the final as it did last year, the three-way split of the $4million purse would be roughly $1.33 million per player. Needless to say, that’s a lot of money in the ol’ banana stand.
Much is still TBD, of course. The full field, venue and release date have yet to be announced, but we now know that Internet Invitational 2.0 will bigger and better in the one way that matters most: