An overslept alarm turned a million-dollar event into YouTube golf’s biggest controversy and one creator into the internet’s most hated man.

Luke Kwon missed his 9:30 a.m. tee time at Barstool Sports’ Internet Invitational by eight minutes, leaving his partner PFT Commenter—a 22-handicap—to play solo against two golfers in a scramble format for the first four holes. Hours later, he posted an Instagram story that read: “Just woke up what’d I miss.”

That single post ignited a firestorm that would make him golf’s most talked-about villain in 2025.

Who Even Is This Guy?

Luke Kwon was a standout at the University of Oklahoma who won the 2016 Puerto Rico Individual Classic and earned All-Big 12 and All-American honors, but his professional career stalled after making only six cuts in 16 Korn Ferry Tour starts. The former college star turned YouTube golf creator now has 390,000 subscribers and high-profile collaborations with pros like Lydia Ko and Sergio Garcia. He’s part of the Good Good Golf collective—the same group that’s brought creator golf to millions.

The $1 Million Fiasco

The Internet Invitational featured around 48 golf influencers competing for a million-dollar prize pool at Big Cedar Lodge. Event founder Dave Portnoy slapped Kwon with a brutal four-hole penalty in a nine-hole match—essentially killing his team’s chances before he even arrived. But the real damage came from what happened next.

When Kwon finally showed up, his nonchalant attitude incensed his teammates, reaching a boiling point when former NHL player Ryan Whitney confronted him at the buffet line with sardonic applause. Whitney exploded: “Who is this guy?! You didn’t show up to the tee time and then you showed up and didn’t care that you were late. You’re the worst draft pick possible. This guy’s a clown.”

The Pattern Problem

This wasn’t Kwon’s first punctuality issue. In 2019, Oklahoma head coach Ryan Hybl gave Kwon an ultimatum after he repeatedly failed to wake up for workouts, practices, and classes—show up for two weeks of 6 a.m. weight training sessions or get kicked off the team. He was also allegedly late to his practice round the day before the tournament. Some habits die hard.

The Apology That Made It Worse

After days of silence, Kwon finally posted an 18-minute YouTube video titled “Addressing internet invitational” with genuine apologies to his teammates. But then he said the quiet part out loud: “I just don’t think this YouTube golf thing is that serious. We’re just playing golf on YouTube.”

The internet promptly lost its mind—again. When a million dollars and your teammates’ reputations are on the line, it turns out people think it’s pretty serious.