Jake Adams now knows exactly what it feels like to play for $4 million, with the fate of your teammates riding on an absolutely critical tee shot.
The YouTube golfer, who was playing well at the 2026 Internet Invitational, was left shaking on a tee shot to keep his team of Grant Horvat, Paige Spiranac, and John Gruden in the tournament. He topped the ball off a tee shot, essentially ending his team’s chances.
Who Is Jake Adams?
Adams is a Los Angeles-based stand-up comedian who’s also really good at golf. He’s a content creator and scratch player. He built a massive online presence blending golf culture with comedy and launched Country Club Adjacent in 2020, which has grown to over 2.5 million followers.
He was among the better half of this year’s field and was Horvat’s second pick when the teams were redrafted for a playoff to eliminate four of 16 competitors.
When Horvat tied the first hole, it put the match in Adams’ hands. The pressure was too much.
Adams Said He Couldn’t Feel Anything
While critics of the Internet Invitational suggest it is just a goofy series featuring YouTube golfers rather than professionals, the pressure is real. Dave Portnoy, who created the series, put up $4 million ($1.3 million each for three winners). Pressure drives and putts littered the series with unforgettable moments, some good and some not-so-good.
Former PGA pro Kevin Kisner has been added as the rules official for the series and when the duffed drive happened, you could hear him say, “Oh my God, that’s pressure. That’s all it is.” He added, “I’ve never seen Jake Adams hit a shot like that… I mean, he hit a foot behind it.”
Another player noted, “Jake’s shoulder had a ripple in it from his arm shaking.” Adams turned to his cart cam as he drove to take his second shot, “I can’t feel any part of my body,” he said.
His heart rate was monitored during the shot and it went up to around 154 BPM.
Adams Not the Only Golfer to Experience the Nerves
Ryan Whitney hit his drive wide right and got a lucky bounce out of the trees. On the episodes prior, Grant Horvat’s hands were visibly shaking while he putted. Short Game King missed several gimmie-lenght putts and others have buckled under the pressure of the cameras, the money and their teammates needing them to move forward.
The Duke, who was one of the series’ worst golfers felt obliged to make an apology to his teammates because he was so bad and missed so many easy shots. Salim, who is trying to go 90 days sober, was visibly intoxicated throughout the series, and many believe it was to calm the nerves that come with the big pressure shots.
The Internet Invitational pressure is real. There are far too many instances where players had to make the shot and couldn’t for that not to be the case. Adams now knows that pressure first hand.
Jake Adams Visibly Shaken After Internet Invitational Pressure Gets Best Of Him