Amateur golfer Zach Holland resigned from his St. Louis-area course after going viral for faking a hole-in-one during a membership event, he told ESPN.
Holland admitted placing a ball in the hole of the par-3 fourth at WingHaven Country Club before the tournament began. He played with three other members and told the group he had to tend to a phone call about his ill grandmother after the third hole. Holland said he would tee off on the fourth hole first and meet them on the green later.
Holland subsequently told his group he didn't see where his ball ended up. They found his ball in the cup and assumed he'd made an ace, which put him in position to win the tournament's hole-in-one prize pot.
Security camera footage showed Holland driving near the fourth green before his tee time that day. He expressed remorse after being caught.
"You do something as dumb as I did, there are consequences for that," Holland said.
He added, "There's no excuse for what I did, and I was completely in the wrong. 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."
After admitting wrongdoing and revoking his own membership, Holland urged angry golf fans to stop directing criticism at his family online.
