From Mounting Credit Card Debt to a $633K Score: How Zack Sucher’s Bet on Himself Paid Off

Around here at Action Network HQ, we’ve got a mantra that can be applied to everybody’s life, every day: Bet on yourself.

There isn’t a professional golfer around — heck, a professional athlete around — who better personifies this philosophy than Zack Sucher, who joined us on The Action Network Podcast to discuss why that’s been so important for him.

A native of Birmingham, Ala., Sucher has spent the last half-dozen years ping-ponging back and forth between the PGA and Korn Ferry tours. It might sound like a glamorous life to be traveling the country competing at the highest level — the perks certainly aren’t bad — but in a play-for-pay sport, where money is truly earned and paychecks aren’t consistent, competing doesn’t mean succeeding.

With a wife and two young children at home, Sucher was beset by injuries. Multiple surgeries meant skyrocketing medical bills; skyrocketing medical bills meant credit card debt; credit card debt meant greater pressure when he was healthy enough to play.

During the podcast, Sucher speaks about receiving a bill via email during a practice round earlier this year and wondering how they were ever going to pay it off.

For anybody who’s withstood financial hardship while chasing a dream, his story is relatable.

And his next chapter is inspiring.

Sucher takes us through the emotions of a co-runner-up finish at the Travelers Championship last month, one that earned him $633,600 and erased all of that debt.

"We had some hard times after my surgery,” he recalled on the pod. “We started out this year in the hole trying to figure out how everything’s going to work, trying to pay off some credit card bills with two kids, my wife and family. So we started out the year in the hole, and me and my wife had to say, ‘We’re betting on ourselves this year. We’re going to bet that we’re going to have good play. We’re going to work harder than we ever have and trust that it will pay off.’ And really, this whole year has been the best golf of my life. The Travelers was the peak of that, having a tie for second, which opened up the doors a lot for the rest of the year.”

This week, he enters the regular season-ending Wyndham Championship at 142nd on the FedEx Cup points list, in PGA Tour purgatory knowing a strong finish could earn him full playing privileges for the 2019-20 season and a poor finish could result in him failing to have any status moving forward.

It’s just another high-pressure situation for Sucher, but as he tells us, he’s used to these by now — and once again, he’s betting on himself to succeed.

For the full interview download the latest episode of The Action Network Podcast or stream is below.