Cheating at golf never pays, at least not for former college golfer Zach Holland.
A member at WingHaven Country Club, located in O'Fallon, Missouri, Holland, who is listed as a 2 handicap these days, resigned from the club after being busted for faking a hole-in-one at the member-member tournament.
Holland told ESPN Radio in St. Louis that he placed his golf ball in the cup at the par-3 fourth hole and then lied about acing the hole during the tournament and offered the ball as proof of a hole-in-one to his playing partners.
"You do something as dumb as I did, there are consequences for that," Holland said Friday during an interview with "The Morning After" show on 101 ESPN St. Louis.
Nathan Charnes, the acting PGA of America president and general
manager at WingHaven, confirmed the incident in a statement to GOLF.com.
"WingHaven Country Club is aware of the recent attention surrounding an incident involving a former member during a Club event," Charnes told Golf.com. "The Club promptly addressed the matter. We care deeply about the integrity of the game and the experience we provide for our members and guests. Because this situation involved the actions of an individual and has been resolved, we consider it closed and have no further comment."
Holland told ESPN Radio he completed the first three holes with his group before telling his playing partners that he needed to take a personal phone call, allegedly from his ill grandmother, while they played the fourth hole. To keep up with pace of play, Holland teed off on No. 4 ahead of them and met them later on the green. Holland said he told his partners that he "thinned" his tee shot and it made a divot on the green but couldn’t see where the ball came to rest. The group ended up finding the ball in the cup, and celebrated Holland’s hole-in-one. However, no one in the group had seen him hit the shot due to the unusual circumstances with the phone call. The member-member tournament at WingHaven includes a hole-in-one prize pot, which would have been awarded to Holland.
When concerns of the validity of the ace were raised, the course superintendent went to review the video security footage and Holland was caught cheating. According to Holland, the security footage showed he had driven near the fourth green before his scheduled tee time in the first group and placed the ball in the hole. Holland said he admitted to club officials that he faked the hole-in-one and resigned his membership.
"There's no excuse for what I did, and I was completely in the wrong," Holland said. "There's really no motivation. Just complete stupidity, and we were giving two shots back to the field and that's not an excuse. There's no excuse for what happened…I made a bad decision, and I have to suffer the consequences. I'm trying to move forward as best I can and it's been rough."
Holland added he wishes his critics "would tread lightly on my family," saying his wife and two young children don't deserve the online vitriol directed at them.
"I made a terrible mistake," he said. "The lack of moral character — I can take the banter and the chatter and the heat because I deserve that from a golf perspective.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Amateur golfer resigns from club after faking hole-in-one at member-member
