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A golfer was exposed for cheating at a Missouri tournament.
A former Division I golfer has been exposed for cheating in a Missouri tournament. The player faked an ace to secure a hole in one prize.
His shady activity was uncovered after the round. He’s since admitted to the wrongdoing, while revealing personal attacks from online accounts in the days that have followed.
The identity of the golfer is now public knowledge. Zach Holland detailed his mistake on a local radio show this weekend. The scandal was initially discovered and posted to TikTok a day prior.
@rjisntfunny Is this not the craziest cheating story you’ve ever heard? This story was confirmed by Winghaven GC and the golfer himself who committed the act on The Morning After show on ESPN. #golf #cheater #sports #pga
Cheating scandal rocks Missouri golf tournament.
TikTok user RJ Plunkett publicized the cheating on social media Friday. The scandal broke in the St. Louis area at the Winghaven Country Club.
Plunkett says the golfer faked an ace.
The story goes as follows. After learning of a hole in one pot at No. 4, the golfer devised a plan to win the prize. He informed his teammates that he expected a phone call mid-round. That call would come from his grandmother, who he claimed was in the hospital with poor health.
He fielded that call while wrapping up at the third green. The golfer gave an update to his foursome, and said he’d quickly tee off at No. 4 before starting the conversation as to not interrupt pace of play.
His teammates then followed, hitting their tee shots a few moments later. Upon getting to the pin, they found the golfer’s ball in the cup.
No one witnessed the hole in one. A few competitors were skeptical. Plunkett says surveillance footage was requested, and it showed the golfer’s car parked near the green. It also allegedly showed the player creating a divot on the playing surface and placing his ball in the hole.
Golfer admits to hole in one sham.
Holland apologized for his mistake on Friday. He also revealed the negative response received from golf fans on social media.
“You do something as dumb as I did, there are consequences for that. Some are very fair, and some aren’t. I made a terrible mistake. The lack of moral character. 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 3 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]. So, questions that they may get asked or be getting asked down the road, that’s the worst part. The golf is secondary.
“I was so upset that we were giving a couple shots back. That’s no excuse. 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. We were giving two shots back to the field and I went about it just completely and utterly the wrong way.”
After providing reasoning for the sham, he pleaded to the audience to stop attacking his family online. He takes ownership of the cheating. He does not believe his wife and kids should be targeted because of his actions.
“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, I’m just someone to attack. 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.
“I’m 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… 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. The wife that doesn’t deserve this. It’s terrible… I just wish people would tread lightly on my family.”
Who is Zach Holland?
According to Golf.com, the golfer played collegiately at Eastern Illinois after a stint in JUCO. He was described as a plus-2 handicap.
While he did admit to cheating, he also offered a correction to Plunkett’s TikTok post. He disputed that surveillance footage was used to uncover the sham. He says that it was he, himself, who revealed the shadiness. He claimed to have informed the general manager that he faked the hole in one.
Holland has since spent the last few days asking that online hate be stopped.
— Mark the Bold (@Mark_the_Bold) August 9, 2026
Given the fact that real money was on the line, many in the golf community are unwilling to let the cheating slide.