Big John's playoff birdie knocks Peter Finch's team out of the Internet Invitational

Big John holed a birdie putt on the second playoff hole to put Ryan Ruffels' team through to Day 2 of the Internet Invitational and send Peter Finch's team home. It happened in episode 2 of the Barstool Sports event's second season, which went up on YouTube on Thursday.

The $4 million event started with 64 players split among four YouTube captains: Brad Dalke, Wesley Bryan, Finch and Ruffels. After two episodes, half the field is gone. The Big Lead counts 32 players left at Big Cedar Lodge, with four episodes to go.

How the playoff played out

Finch's Team Blue and Ruffels' Team White finished Day 1's alternate-shot back nine level, so they went to a two-on-two alternate-shot playoff, according to Heavy. If the first playoff hole was tied, each team had to send out two new players for the second.

Finch and Luke Kwon tied the first hole against Ruffels and Micah Morris, with Kwon making a four-footer to keep it going. That brought out Roger Steele and Rick Shiels for Finch, and Big John and Grant Horvat for Ruffels. Horvat had tried to talk his captain out of picking him. Ruffels picked him anyway.

Steele drove it to about 100 yards. Big John's drive took a bad bounce into a fairway bunker, and Horvat played out to about 20 feet. Shiels' approach finished just outside that, and Steele lagged to within a foot. Big John had to make his putt. He did, and it fell in over the edge. He was using the Reaper, a backward blade that Heavy calls one of the most unorthodox putters around.

Golf Digest's Christopher Powers named it the best shot of a four-hour-plus episode. He wrote that Dave Portnoy had wanted no part of Big John in the field before the creator found a way in, so the winning putt went in right in front of him.

Two past champions are out

The other match wasn't close. Bryan's Team Green led Dalke's Team Red 6-2 after the opening scramble nine, and alternate shot didn't help Red. Dalke, a 2025 co-champion, goes home with his 16-player team.

Finch's loss knocked out another of last year's winners, Francis Ellis, who shared the title with Dalke and the late Cody "Beef" Franke. Frankie Borrelli is out too. He lost last year's finale after blading a chip into the water on the last hole.

Day 2 puts Ruffels' Team White against Bryan's Team Green. All of episode 2 is on the Internet Invitational's YouTube channel. Watch the second playoff hole if you only have a few minutes.