‘If The Duke won $1.3 million, he’d probably be dead’: Dave Portnoy discusses whether this will be The Duke's last Internet Invitational
The Duke. Some people love him. Some people loathe him. But one thing we can all agree on is that he can’t be replicated or replaced. The man is the first and last of his kind.
In the wake of Internet Invitational, Episode 5, where The Duke’s poor play essentially eliminated two of the best players in the field in Ryan Ruffels and Marissa Wenzler, some YouTube golf fans called for him to sit 2027 out. For the past two years, The Duke has been the weakest player in the Internet Invitational field. His pace of play makes Patrick Cantlay look like Usain Bolt and the non-stop vocalization of the chaos happening inside his head can be a lot for some to take.
Amid the renewed calls for The Duke’s impeachment, Barstool boss Dave Portnoy took to the podium on Wednesday to address the growing unrest. Listen in.
RELATED: Wesley Bryan gets into a gutter war and the time Austin Smotherman ditched Bryson at the Masters (for good reason)
“We’ll see. I don’t think a decision has been made on that [The Duke’s eligibility for 2027] either way,” Portnoy explained. “I don’t think I have enough input where I’m like ‘we absolutely can’t have this guy anymore.’ I think Bob and Fore Play would value that. But for the billionth time, I do not make the list. I don’t invite people. I don’t disinvite people.”
Long story short, the Internet Invitational brain trust has yet to come to a decision regarding The Duke, and when they do, it won’t be Portnoy’s call. At least not entirely.
Considering how close The Duke got to the $1.3 million share of this year’s winner’s purse, Portnoy did point out a potential hazard of inviting The Duke back.
“To be honest with you, if The Duke won $1.3 million dollars, he’d probably be dead. Like, he wouldn’t be able to take that much money.”
Truer words have never been spoken. So how do you solve a problem like The Duke? One of his fans in the comments had a great idea.
RELATED: ‘He was high then and he’s high now’: Internet Invitational captain claps back at Jason Williams’ criticism
Their pitch: Instead of (or in addition to) a Kevin Kisner celeb shot, give each team one Duke card to redeem, which would require their opponent to use The Duke for their next shot. That way, Internet Invitational fans still get The Duke, but at a much lower dosage, and The Duke doesn’t smoke himself to death on $1.3 million of magnum-diesel-mind-spider weed. Sounds like a win-win to us.