An amateur golfer is paying the price for cheating.
Zach Holland resigned his membership from WingHaven Country Club in O'Fallon, Mo., after admitting to faking a hole-in-one, he told ESPN Radio in St. Louis.
The cheating scandal, which was documented in a widespread social-media video, saw Holland place his ball in the cup of the par-3 fourth hole before the start of a member-member event, then act as though he made a hole-in-one when his group reached the green.
The event included a prize pot for aces, per Holland, a former NCAA golfer at William Carey University who was carrying a plus-two handicap.
"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 told ESPN that he played three holes with his group before saying he needed to take a personal call regarding his allegedly ill grandmother. He then went ahead and played the tee shot on the fourth hole by himself. When the rest of the group caught up, he told them he had "thinned" his tee shot, but left a divot on the green.
When the group walked up to the hole, it found the ball in the cup and celebrated before contacting a superintendent, who reviewed video footage that showed Holland's car driving by the fourth green prior to the round.
"You do something as dumb as I did, there are consequences for that," Holland said.
Holland then met with club officials, admitted to cheating and resigned his membership.
