Golf news 2026: Fake hole-in-one cheating scandal, club competition

This could be the most insane cheating scandal you’ve ever read.

Weeks after ‘Clicky Ponting’ had the cricket world up in arms, a fresh cheating scandal from a local club competition has rocked golf.

Zach Holland, a former college golfer, was caught on CCTV cameras placing a ball in the hole of a par-3 hours before his tee time – which was the first of the morning – before claiming he’d hit a hole-in-one to claim a cash prize.

When news of the scandal spread through the club, Holland immediately cancelled his membership. He later called a radio show to apologise for the scandal, but also declared he’s “not a cheater on the golf course”.

Holland, who is believed to have been playing off a plus-two handicap, was playing in a Saturday member’s competition at the WingHaven Country Club in Missouri earlier this month. He had known for much of the week he was booked to play in the first tee time of the morning.

The club runs a hole-in-one pot, where players contribute a small fee every week, which is won when a player hits an ace. Holland explained to his playing partners he was expecting a phone call at some point about his ill grandmother. On the third green, he said he had received the call.

To keep pace, he told his group he would go ahead while they were still putting and tee off on the fourth hole, make the call, and would wait for the group at the green.

When his partners caught up, they asked where his ball was. He explained he had hit a ‘thin’ shot and didn’t see where the ball had ended up, but pointed to a pitch mark on the green.

After a brief search, the ball was “found” in the hole.

There was a celebration, mixed with a level of scepticism. Unfortunately for Holland, the fourth green was located next to the course’s groundskeepers shed, which had CCTV cameras. His playing partners were later able to approach the superintendent to see the footage, which showed the player driving past the shed hours earlier.

When confronted, Holland confessed he had dropped a ball in the hole to scoop the prize. Realising his membership was untenable, the player promptly resigned.

The authenticity of the story was confirmed in a statement from the club pro.

“WingHaven Country Club is aware of the recent attention surrounding an incident involving a former member during a club event. The club promptly addressed the matter,” WingHaven general manager Nathan Charnes, who is also the acting president of the PGA of America, said per Golf.com.

“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.”

After news of the scandal spread around the local golf scene, Holland called ESPN’s local radio show The Morning After to apologise, and ask his family be left out of the scandal.

“You do something as dumb as I did, there are consequences for that … I made a terrible mistake,” he said.

“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 that I have had for five years next month. We have two kids that are 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 cheat.

“Questions that they may get asked down the road, that’s the worst part. The golf is secondary.”

Holland gave a vague explanation when asked why he made the decision, which will no doubt follow him for the rest of his golfing life.

He said he was upset to be “giving a couple of shots back”, in reference to his plus-handicap. Where the handicap of regular hack golfers is removed from their total score, those with plus-handicaps have shots added.

“But that’s no excuse. There’s no excuse for what I did, and I was completely in the wrong,” he said.

“People say ‘he’s only sorry because he got caught’, and that might have been true at first. But the messages that I’m going to get … people that I’ve never met in my life, people that don’t know me, people that have no clue who I am, they just want to attack. I get it. I opened up the door to that. That’s fine. I can take that.

“But my family doesn’t deserve that.”

Screenshots posted in various golf threads suggest it’s not the first time Holland has been involved in a cheating scandal, having previously been called out for “sandbagging”, where a player artificially inflates their handicap.

But despite the evidence to suggest otherwise, Holland swore he’s “not a cheater on the golf course”.

“I made a bad decision and I have to suffer the consequences. I’m trying to move forward as best I can and it’s been rough,” he said.

“I’m trying to move forward and do what’s right for my family and be there for them and the two young kids that don’t deserve this. (My) wife that doesn’t deserve this.

“It’s terrible. I don’t want sympathy from anybody. I don’t deserve sympathy. But I just wish people would tread lightly on my family.”

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