Cheddy Did Not Know Which Ball Was His, and the Internet Invitational Row That Followed

The 2026 Internet Invitational has produced its loudest rules row yet, and it came down to a question no golfer should ever have to answer on camera: which ball is yours? On the final hole of his singles match against Riggs, Cheddy could not identify the golf ball the group had found in the rough. He had not marked it. He did not know its number. He accepted a penalty, took a drop, and lost the hole that halved the match.

What happened between Riggs and Cheddy?

The two were playing the opening singles match of Episode 4 on the back nine at Buffalo Ridge, part of Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri. Riggs, Sam “Riggs” Bozoian of Barstool Sports, was playing for Ryan Ruffels’ White Team, which led Wesley Bryan’s Green Team 6-2 after the morning scramble matches. Cheddy was playing for Green. The 16 singles matches would decide which team advanced and which team’s players were eliminated, so the match had survival stakes before a ball was struck.

The tension had been building all match. Riggs was frustrated that Cheddy would not concede short putts and would not replace the flagstick, Golf Digest reports. On the eighth hole, Riggs’ cart partner, UFC lightweight champion Justin Gaethje, pointed out that Cheddy had moved his ball while marking it on the green. Kevin Kisner was called in and said it was not a penalty. Cheddy made his par putt, then fired his Titleist ball into the water in anger and put a TaylorMade in play. On the final hole, both players sent their tee shots into the high rough, and when the group found a TaylorMade, Cheddy could not say it was his.

Why did the green dispute end with no penalty?

Because the rule protects accidents on the green. Under Rule 13.1d(1), accidentally moving a ball or ball-marker on the putting green carries no penalty, EssentiallySports reports, and the player must restore the ball to its original spot. Kisner applied that rule and the match moved on, which is why the later dispute was a different question entirely. The green argument was about whether Cheddy had moved his ball while marking it. The rough argument was about whether he could establish that a ball the group found was his at all.

That distinction is what makes the episode a genuine rules story rather than a shouting match. A no-penalty ruling in the first situation did not resolve the identification problem in the second, because the two situations are covered by different rules. One asks whether a ball was moved. The other asks whether a ball can be identified. Cheddy won the first argument and lost the second, and the second one cost him the hole.

How did Cheddy end up not knowing his ball?

Through a chain of small decisions that added up to a lost ball. He threw his Titleist into the pond after the eighth-hole argument, which meant the ball he played on the final hole was a TaylorMade he had introduced without marking it or noting its number. When both tee shots finished in the high rough, the group found TaylorMade balls and had to work out which one belonged to whom, and Cheddy could not do it.

“You know what ball it is?” Riggs asked him. “No, I don’t. I told you that,” Cheddy replied, EssentiallySports reports. He explained himself in the exchange that followed: “Yeah. Brother, I buy refurbished golf balls. I don’t buy like rack; I just have balls in my cart man. I don’t play at Whisper Rock like Riggs.” Dave Portnoy, who had been backing Cheddy through the episode, stepped in with the line that settled the argument for most viewers: “I’m a Cheddy guy, but that’s a problem. Not knowing what ball you play.”

What did the rules actually say?

That Cheddy had to identify the ball, and that he could not. Under Rule 6.3a, a player should mark the ball he intends to play, but the wording matters: it says “should”, not “must”, EssentiallySports reports, so not marking a ball is not itself a penalty. Rule 7.2 covers identifying a ball at rest and gives several ways to establish its identity. If a player cannot identify it within the reasonable time allowed, the ball is treated as lost.

Kisner had already told Cheddy that his three minutes of search time were up, EssentiallySports reports, and under Rule 18.2 a lost ball requires stroke-and-distance relief: one penalty stroke and a return to where the previous shot was made. Cheddy ultimately accepted a penalty and took a drop, saying: “I’m telling you I’m taking a drop, brother. I’m not making it up.” The discussion about where to drop, including references to a cart path, a fence and two club lengths, does not confirm which relief procedure was applied, and EssentiallySports is careful to say so. What is confirmed is the outcome: Riggs won the final hole, halving the singles contest, and Cheddy could not close out the match.

What happened in the Big John penalty earlier in the episode?

The same episode produced a second ball-moving call, and it went the other way. Sam called out Big John for moving his ball by accident in the fairway as he set up to hit an approach shot, Golf Digest reports. Big John did not believe he had moved it, but accepted the “hardo” penalty, and the best video captured of the incident does not seem to show any wrongdoing. Later in the same match, Sam called the same penalty on himself for doing the same thing on a chip shot. Big John did not want him to take it, and did not need it, winning the match 3 and 2.

Big John has since posted a video response to the allegation, filmed in his hotel room at the Wynn, in which he repeats that the video does not lie and that he is stressed by the accusation. He has become the breakout star of the event, the soft-spoken creator who won a sudden-death playoff putt on Day 1 to send his team through, and the contrast between the two penalties is the episode in miniature: one player took a penalty the video does not show, and another could not identify his ball at all. The event has a history of on-camera rules rows, after Paige Spiranac was accused of improving her lie in last year’s final and later apologised for not knowing the rule. Peter Finch has already fired back at a rival in this year’s event over a rules disagreement of his own.

What happens next in the Invitational?

Episode 5 premieres on Monday, November 9, and the finale airs on Thursday, November 12, AmateurGolf.com reports. Episode 4 ended on a cliffhanger of its own, with Portnoy announcing he would send four more golfers home from the winning team that night, and Grant Horvat about to strike the opening tee shot of the most devious playoff the event has staged. The event features 48 creators playing for a purse of more than a million dollars, and the Riggs-Cheddy row will follow it into the final week, because it changed a match, and because it showed how quickly a rules question becomes a character question. Tyler McCumber called a two-shot penalty on himself this season when the cameras could not prove it, and the rules have produced stranger outcomes than this one, including a putt that missed and then rolled back into the hole on the wind. Portnoy, for his part, has already given Riggs his verdict on the episode, calling him a “great villain”.