A Missouri man has made himself the most hated duffer in amateur golf after using his “dying” grandma in a plot to palm off a fake hole-in-one at a local tournament.
St. Louis resident Zach Holland, a 2-handicap amateur, is at the center of a firestorm after his cheating scheme was busted wide open in the media, according to the New York Post.
Holland has admitted that during a members-only tournament at Wing Haven Country Club in O’Fallon, Missouri, he told his fellow golfers that he had to step away from the fairway to take a call from his “dying grandmother.” But what he actually did was run ahead to the next hole to set up his ruse.
According to reports, Holland created a divot at the par-three fourth hole to make it look like he had teed off. He then placed a ball in the hole and went back to the tee to wait for his fellow golfers.
When they arrived, he claimed he teed off but could not find where his ball went. Soon enough, the golfers “found” Holland’s ball in the hole and he claimed a hole-in-one.
Holland then reveled in the attention he got for his fake hole-in-one.
But almost immediately his triumph came under doubt, especially because there were no witnesses to the one-shot feat.
Eventually, Holland admitted that he lied. He never achieved any hole-in-one, and he has repeatedly admitted that he is an “idiot” for his “inexcusable mistake” for trying to fool the world into thinking he made a hole-in-one.
Holland also resigned from the golf club, saying, “I told them I wanted to resign my membership; I don’t belong out there doing that.”
“I completely made a fool of myself, but it’s more than that. I’ve gotten a lot of messages, some positive, mostly negative, which is straight,” he added.
Still, he says he has never cheated at golf before his “complete stupidity” with the hole-in-one stunt.
“I’m not a cheater on the golf course,” he said. “I made a bad decision and have to suffer these consequences. I’m trying to move forward the best I can. It’s been rough.”
Holland, though, says that the threats and hate he has earned makes him worry for the safety of his family.
“I made a terrible mistake, a lack of moral character, and 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. Breaking trust with a marriage I have had for what will be five years next month,” Holland told sports radio show “The Morning After” in St. Louis. “We have two kids under three, and 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). Questions that they may get asked or be getting asked down the road, that’s the worst part. The golf is secondary. … There is no excuse for what I did. I was completely in the wrong.”
“I’m trying to get the help I need and the help that is going to help my family; that’s the most important thing. Golf is secondary. It’s a very lonely time. I put myself on an island, and it’s all self-inflicted,” he added.
“It’s pretty bad. It’s just like, people are ruthless. People that don’t even know me. It’s the worst thing you can do on the golf course. It’s the absolutely worst; it’s so stupid,” he concluded.
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