It wouldn’t be a Dave Portnoy event without some controversy.
The final round of the $1 million Internet Invitational had two separate cheating situations that were a significant part of the broadcast.
The final was a three-on-three alternate shot match pitting Brad Dalke, Francis Ellis and Cody “Beef” Franke against Paige Spiranac, Frankie Borrelli and Malosi “Mo” Togisala.
Spiranac was accused of improving the lie of Togisala by pushing thick grass down on the ninth hole, allowing him to get a cleaner shot and advance it further.
The thing that’s important to remember here is that a large chunk of the 42 players who were previously eliminated were following the match.
And one of those players, Peter Finch, witnessed the situation and brought it up to some of the other players.
Word quickly spread and Spiranac — who played impressively throughout the event — was confronted with the accusations.
“I thought you could do that,” said Spiranac, who grew emotional over the claims and started crying.
“I didn’t realize you couldn’t do that. I didn’t think I improved, I didn’t move the ball … I wasn’t trying to cheat. Like, I would never do that. I just don’t want people to think that I would try to cheat.”
And that immediately led to the second big controversy of the pre-recorded tournament, which was a Barstool and Bob Does Sports venture.
Whispers about Togisala using the slope option on his range finder began spreading through the gallery of eliminated YouTube golfers.
(The slope reading tells the golfer the distance while accounting for how far uphill or downhill a shot is.)
Portnoy, deemed the rules official at the outset of the event, decided before the opening round that would be illegal.
Togisala was accused in the previous round of the tournament of using the slope reading. He denied it in both instances, but video from the cart showed him fidgeting with the range finder just before Portnoy and others were planning to check it.
Portnoy ultimately confronted him.
“Hand to God, I was not using the slope. I swear,” Togisala said.
However, many of his fellow golf influencers were convinced the footage was pretty cut and dry. Togisala has not addressed the situation on his social media feeds since Thursday night’s airing.
The dramatic match ultimately went to the 18th hole with the Dalke-Ellis-Franke team pulling it out after Borrelli, who was a ball of nerves throughout the match, bladed a chip into the water.
The coverage ended with a touching tribute to Franke, who passed away last month at the age of 31, showing all his competitors congratulating him.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
