Former college golfer Zach Holland has resigned from his St. Louis-area country club after he was caught faking a hole-in-one and using a faux phone call regarding his dying grandmother to pull it off.
“You do something as dumb as I did, there are consequences for that,” Holland said on Friday, August 7, during an interview with “The Morning After” on 101 ESPN St. Louis.
Holland, who says he is a 2-handicap, claims he told his playing partners on the third hole during the WingHaven Country Club’s Member-Member tournament that he needed to take a phone call regarding his allegedly ailing grandmother. He then offered to move ahead to the fourth hole to take his tee shot and maintain pace of play before meeting up with them later.
When his friends rejoined him, Holland told them that he was unsure where his ball ended up. The group then arrived at the cup to find a divot where the ball allegedly landed and the ball sitting in the hole, making it appear to be a hole-in-one, which would result in the golfer earning a cash prize.
With no witnesses to Holland’s shot, club staff reviewed security footage, which showed Holland at the cup before his scheduled tee time. That’s where he allegedly made the divot himself and planted the ball in the hole. He confessed immediately.
“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.”
The father of two added that while he can accept the backlash directed at him, he is concerned for the safety of his family.
“I made a terrible mistake,” Holland 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.
He continued, “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.”
Nathan Charnes, the acting PGA of America president and general manager at WingHaven, confirmed to GOLF.com that the incident actually happened.
“WingHaven Country Club is aware of the recent attention surrounding an incident involving a former member during a Club event,” he said. “The Club promptly addressed the matter.
Charnes added, “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.”
