A former college golfer resigned from his St. Louis-area course this week after a wild cheating scandal in which he faked a hole-in-one. Zach Holland, a 2-handicap amateur golfer who played for William Carey University in college, was caught up in a cheating scandal recently and admitted to faking a hole-in-one during a membership event at WingHaven Country Club outside of St. Louis.
“I made a bad decision, and I have to suffer the consequences,” he said. “I’m trying to move forward as best I can, and it’s been rough.”
Holland told ESPN Radio in St. Louis last week that he placed a golf ball in the hole on the par-3 fourth at the course before the start of a membership tournament. When he finished the third hole with his group, Holland then told his playing partners that he needed to take a phone call regarding his mortally sick grandmother. He said he’d tee off first, and then join the group on the green later in order to keep up pace of play. By the time he joined his group again on the green, he said he told them that he “thinned” the tee shot but wasn’t sure where it went. The group then found the ball in the cup, assumed he had hit a hole-in-one, and started celebrating.
But eventually, staff reviewed security footage that showed Holland driving near the fourth green well before his scheduled tee time. He then admitted to faking 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.”
Holland was in the first group of the member tournament, which included a hole-in-one prize pot. WingHaven general manager Nathan Charnes, who is also serving as the acting PGA of America president, said that the matter had been “promptly” addressed and is now considered closed. While Holland is admitting to his mistake, he said he and his family have been the target of online abuse ever since the scandal broke.
"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. "What I am most worried about is my family. ... It's not fair to them for me to put them in that situation where when they walk through a room, there is a stigma there that your dad is a [cheater]. So questions that they may get asked or be getting asked down the road, that's the worst part. The golf is secondary."