The Internet Invitational is over, but believe or not, little old YouTube continues to soldier on without it. In fact, the platform\u2019s golf creators were churning out content the entire time, even if you were too busy forensically analyzing every video frame of Malosi Togisala fiddling with his rangefinder to notice. So please, stick with us with us this week as we return to our regularly scheduled programming with the potential birth of [drum roll please] \u2026<\/p>\n
The YouTube.com Tour <\/p>\n
Do you have hankering for more Luke Kwon content in your life? Do you love watching awkward, uncomfortable silences on camera? Then tune in to the Bryan Bros. inaugural YouTube Golf Pro Major\u2014which pits six YouTube golf creators with professional experience against each other in an 18-hole stroke play event\u2014and see if he wakes up for his tee time!<\/p>\n
OK, OK, OK. We jest. The Internet has taken their pound of flesh off Luke Kwon since golf influencer overslept at the Internet Invitational, a moment George Bryan, who was at Big Cedar Lodge when it all went down, addressed this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cKwon has been through the ringer here of late, and I\u2019m just going to go ahead and say it: They knew what they were doing. They wanted to make him a villain and they did a great job of that,\u201d Bryan says early in the video. \u201cI want to support Kwon, and not affirm his actions, but say hey, you know what, we\u2019re here for you. Don\u2019t do that again, but we\u2019re still going to be your friend. We\u2019re not going to throw you under the bus for one mistake\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can tell you Kwon is one of the most loyal, caring, selfless people,\u201d Luke Toomey, AKA Tooms Golf, chimes in. \u201cOur little weird crew wouldn\u2019t be doing any of this without him. He pretty much carried all of us on his back the first like 12 months when all of we\u2019re starting out. He\u2019s a generous person, he made a mistake, and he does not deserve the grilling he\u2019s gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree,\u201d Bryan replies. \u201cIt actually frustrated me. I know it\u2019s good for business and everyone loves drama \u2026 but I just wanted to say we\u2019re Team Kwon.\u201d<\/p>\n
RELATED: The Internet Invitational was a story about fathers \u2014 good, bad and toxic<\/p>\n
The impassioned response from two of Kwon\u2019s close friends adds plenty fascinating subtext to the discourse. First, Bryan implies that some of what fans saw on YouTube was dramatized, which, while unsurprising, raises questions about what else might have been, including the cheating allegations surrounding Paige Spiranac and Mo Togisala on the tournament\u2019s final day. Second, and more importantly, people don\u2019t publicly vouch for others often, and they certainly don\u2019t do it for a$$holes. Kwon\u2019s friends and fellow competitors going to bat for him like this suggests he\u2019s a decent human being who made an honest mistake. For the sitcklers among us, that probably won\u2019t matter, but we\u2019ll let you in on a dirty little secret:<\/p>\n
There are far more important things in life than what happens on the golf course. Shocking, we know.<\/p>\n
Hopefully that settles the Kwon date once and for all, because the rest of what\u2019s here is awesome and represents, perhaps, the ideal blend YouTube and professional golf. With experience on over 11 different worldwide tours between the six players\u2014Wesley and George Bryan, Luke Kwon, Luke Tooms, Taewook Koh (Taco Golf) and Sam Heung Min\u2014viewers get to watch these developmental tour sticks play in the laid back, relatable setting that YouTube affords. That setup offers fans an intimate look at the psychology and skill of elite players that traditional golf broadcasts simply don\u2019t provide. In many ways, it\u2019s the best of both worlds.<\/p>\n
For the pros themselves, the life of YouTube content creator also seems preferable to grinding away on feeder tours with tight financial margins in remote corners of the globe. Surely, players like the Bryan Brothers, Kwon and eventual winner Sam Heung Min grew up dreaming of being tour pros and winning majors, not playing golf on YouTube, but thanks to videos like this, perhaps the next generation might grow up dreaming of being them.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Francis Ellis on winning the Internet Invitational, SlopeGate and why he felt more pressure than Scottie Scheffler ever could<\/p>\n
Quick Hits <\/p>\n
Good Good Golf<\/p>\n
Newly minted Internet Invitational champ Brad Dalke takes on the entire Good Good squad armed with nothing more than a 7-iron. This dude was practically automatic at Big Cedar Lodge, so we\u2019re riding with Dalke on this one.<\/p>\n
Callaway Golf <\/p>\n
Speaking of Dalke, Callaway Golf has a \u201cWhat\u2019s in the Bag?\u201d with the Good Good bomber this week. Check it out.<\/p>\n
Bob Does Sports<\/p>\n
Apparently, it\u2019s major season in the world of YouTube golf. In addition to the Bryn Bros., BDS staged their own humdinger this week as the gang headed to Wolf Creek for another biggun\u2019. We started this column by dragging Fat Perez\u2019s name through the mud, but from the looks of the thumbnail, it\u2019s Joey Cold Cuts\u2019 turn this week.<\/p>\n
St. Andre Golf<\/p>\n
Remember the Jersey Jerry hole-in-one challenge that broke the Internet a few years (days? weeks? decades?) ago? That format makes a triumphant return this week thanks to St. Andre Golf, who lock themselves in a room until they make a hole-in-one on a simulator version of TPC Sawgrass\u2019 iconic 17th hole. Have fun, kids. Try not to kill each other!<\/p>\n
Skratch<\/p>\n
Skratch goes behind the scenes with the Stanford golf program, notable for producing a few journeymen like Tom Watson and Tiger Woods. Perhaps you\u2019ve heard of them? In addition, Chad Mumm also told an all-time John Daly story on the Vanity Index Podcast. JD stories are closest thing golf has to Aesop\u2019s Fables at this point, so don\u2019t miss it.<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Internet Invitational is over, but believe or not, little old YouTube continues to soldier on without it.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,755,138747,44,85,76226],"class_list":{"0":"post-299517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-golf","12":"tag-golf-digest","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-the-loop"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}