Shocking: An Aspiring Pro Golfer With 36 (Alleged) Hole-In-Ones Was Caught Red-Handed Cheating In A Korn Ferry Q-School Qualifier
What a wild, wild story coming out from a Nebraska Q-School qualifier by way of Ryan French, better known on twitter as @acaseofthegolf1 (if you're a golf nut and you're not following him, you're fucking up... guy absolutely grinds on interesting storylines from the depths of mini-tours and Monday qualifiers).
The full story is a bit lengthy and can be found in two parts through the twitter links above. I'll summarize a (slightly) shorter version:
Each of the 3 guys in a grouping in a Korn Ferry Q School qualifier was around the cut line going into the final day. One of them was up to some sus behavior the first two days, enough so for his previous playing partners to quietly alert tournament officials to be on their toes on the final day.
Sure enough, on the 5th hole the lefty feller by the name of Matt Moroz blocked his tee shot down the left side to a spot where he had a tree to negotiate on his uphill approach to a green protected by a large mound. Here's a diagram (courtesy of Fire Pit Collective and Quarry Oaks, the course being played) to help paint the picture a bit.
Meanwhile, the other two players were on the right side of the fairway ahead of Moroz, so Moroz hit first. By all accounts, Moroz hits a bladey runner that in all likelihood should have stopped well short and left of the green. The other two guys took their guess that it most likely would have stopped 60 yards short of the green, and Moroz himself said "I skullfucked it". But again, blind shot… nobody knows for sure.
Well lo and behold, Moroz and his bagman take off up the left side of the hole while the other guys are hitting their approach shots. Sure enough as those two guys walk up the hill and the green comes into view, here comes Matty Moroz with ball already in hand yelling "it's in the hole!!!". The other two are too shocked to really know how to react, which is when Moroz (according to both guys) dropped a preposterous line explaining what might've happened:
“Maybe it bounced off the turkeys.”
Hilarious. Nothing better than the ol' turkey backboard into the jar. Hope he called "fowl" (high fives all around for that dad joke)
It didn't take long for lightning to strike again when Moroz went right off the tee on #7 into some serious junk, while one of the other two missed well left. The tournament had a spotter out for this hole, who threw a flag down where he thought Moroz's ball crossed the hazard line and proceeded across the fairway to help search for the other wayward tee shot. While the rest of the group was ball-hunting, Moroz hits an approach shot and meets those guys at the green. They ask what he's putting for and he says "birdie". Moroz had apparently found his ball just outside the junk about 30 yards ahead of where the spotter's flag had been planted. Fishy to say the least.
At that point, the caddie of one of the other two players was hashtag done and called bullshit, and the investigation began. They continued on with their round while officials gathered facts. Meanwhile with the heat now on him, Moroz suddenly developed a debilitating back injury that had him collapsing on tee shots in pain throughout the rest of the round. The looper who called bullshit wasn't buying it whatsoever, continually telling him to get up and get out of the way. Just a hysterical scene as guys are grinding to make the cut and launch their pro careers.
The group gets to the final hole and of course Moroz is right on the cut line. Guy actually digs deep and buries a 15-yard chip for birdie to make the cut and knock two other guys below the cut line. Just a grossly unfair turn of events if you ask me…for now.
Well wouldn't ya know it, officials were waiting for the group when they came off the green. Everyone gives their story, and obviously Moroz denies denies denies. Problem is… the spotter returned to his post near the junk on the right side of #7 and almost immediately found Moroz's original ball, right by where his flag had been planted. They show him the ball and he begrudgingly admits it's a ball of his, but theorizes it could have been from a practice round earlier in the week. The players (the two playing partners had actually both managed to make the cut in spite of all the hubbub) give written statements and go on their way.
Within an hour, the officials call everyone involved and tell Moroz he'd been DQ'd. Justice for those two guys who got bumped off the cut. That's where the internet (and great sleuthing by French) paint more of the picture of Matt Moroz. This part I won't summarize and will paste word for word from FirePitCollective.com's article because it's too good not to:
So who is Matt Moroz? Google searches led to a lot of dead ends, but I did find a 2017 Golf Digest article headlined, “Aspiring tour pro pulls off one of the craziest hole-in-one feats we’ve ever heard about.” The story noted that in the course of eight days Moroz had made three aces, two on par-4s, bringing his career total to 17. On Saturday, I texted Moroz to ask how many holes-in-one he now has. “I have 32 officially,” he responded. “I don’t count four others since they were (during) lessons and I didn’t finish all 18 holes.” I then asked how many of the 36 were on par-4s: “Three in tournaments and five with members,” was the reply. That means he had made 19 aces in the last five years. As reference, there has been exactly one hole-in-one on a par-4 in the history of the PGA Tour: Andrew Magee’s ace at the 17th hole at TPC Scottsdale in 2001, when his ball caromed off the putter blade of Tom Byrum, who was lining up a birdie putt, and into the cup.
With each phone call, the story kept getting crazier. I talked with three people who had direct knowledge of a few aces Moroz had made. All three said they were made on blind shots, and none of the people I spoke with saw the ball go in the hole.
Some additional sleuthing led French to track down Moroz's playing partners from the previous day. AKA the ones who had quietly alerted the tournament officials in the first place.
They described similar situations of wayward shots on 13 and 16 being miraculously found by Moroz unharmed. After the initial story of the DQ by French broke, tournament officials decided to go out to those holes and do some additional digging. Guess what they found?
Busted.
French ends the story with an awesome curtain drop regarding these additional facts.
When reached for a response, Moroz said, “No comment.”
So what we have here is one of the great golf cheats of our day. Guy just flew a little close to the sun and got caught red-handed.
It's the 32 aces that does it for me. Really big of him not to count the 4 during lessons. It's just a shame we'll never get to see him and Kim Jong Il go toe to toe. What a battle of the titans that would've been. Jordan v. Lebron. Tiger v. Nicklaus. Moroz v KJI. All great sports debates that will be argued til kingdom come as to who the GOAT is. Who's the greatest golf cheat of them all? We'll never know.
Lmao… fuckin turkeys.