Travelers Championship
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Zack Sucher
Quick Quotes
Q. A rollercoaster of a weekend, but you finished on a high note. How about that chip-in to save what was a great back nine?
ZACK SUCHER: Oh, man, that was pretty cool. I mean, first one was awful, but that's way better than a regular up and down. Back nine was exciting. Hung in there, which is great.
Q. I know it was so important just to have competition, jut to have the flow back; being able to play right now golf is a gift right now for you. Now do you have to a chance to wrap your head around what you were able to do this week and what it might mean for your future?
ZACK SUCHER: To be honest, I'm not sure what all this does for points-wise, for next year. I don't even know how that works. I know that like two months ago we had credit card debt, so I know we don't have that anymore.
Q. I know your family is here. Just to be able to have the ability to play golf again, I could see the emotion on your face. Just to be out there and grind and compete has to be the most special part of this.
ZACK SUCHER: Yeah, I wasn't sure how I would handle it this weekend. I haven't been in a situation like that out here. Done it on the Korn Ferry Tour a few times. Yeah, this is a little. Crowd-wise everything is about ten times bigger out here, so to be honest it was so much fun.
Q. Potentially career-changing week. Doesn't get you all the FedExCup points you need, but it's a huge step in the right direction. You ride that back nine. How did you steel the nerves to close with a flourish?
ZACK SUCHER: I think the four-putt on 9 kind of got me rattled enough maybe to get over it. I didn't feel like I was putting too well before then. Felt like I had some good putts that didn't go in, but also had some pushes on holes early.
Honestly, the four-putt was great. Got me going. I made a putt on 10 and the putter felt awesome the rest of the way.
Yeah, I don't know. Sometimes it's good to get I guess upset enough at yourself to move on.
Q. Go from having a five-shot lead yesterday; ten-shot swing today. What did the range of emotions bring up?
ZACK SUCHER: It's been a lot of highs and lows. You know, honestly I can't wrap my head around it. First time I've been in this situation. Obviously I would've liked to be winning, but it gives me a huge boost of confidence knowing I can hang out here.
Q. Best finish of your career; biggest pay day.
ZACK SUCHER: By a lot. Yeah, doubles my earnings I think.
Q. What does that do for you and your family?
ZACK SUCHER: Oh, man, coming back from medical, we had seven months with no income at all coming in two years ago. During that we had to take out some credit cards, get some interest-free credit cards.
With some good Korn Ferry Tour finishes this year I got out of that, which was a huge relief. So, yeah, this is unbelievable.
Q. Just showing a lot of emotions in the interviews. Obviously a pretty huge moment. Talk about this week.
ZACK SUCHER: Yeah, I mean, it's huge. We were hoping -- I don't know. It's amazing. It's life changing, to be honest. It changes the rest of our year. We've got to change up plans and have lots of work to figure out what else we're going to do now.
All of our schedules are done. To be honest, I don't know where it puts me, but it's huge for us. It's exciting. Yeah, it's awesome.
Q. How much fun was that experience today?
ZACK SUCHER: The back nine was unbelievable. The whole thing was fun with the huge crowds. It was quite an experience, and, yeah the back nine is amazing.
Q. Play the whole 18 kind of relaxed?
ZACK SUCHER: My putter didn't feel too good on the front nine. I hit some good putts early, but holes 5 through 9 were pretty shaky with the putter.
I hit a couple pushes. I four-putted from the fringe on 9. Man, I was kind of hanging in there with the ball striking, but after that everything felt great. I think I settled in and relaxed.
The driver felt way better today. I hit it way better today. The back nine was just awesome. Couldn't ask for much more.
Q. Just from talking to you all week, you've been a really positive, upbeat guy. When you were going 13 months not being able to touch a club going through the real life non-golf stuff you were just talking about, at any point did you doubt yourself? Did you lose a little bit of hope? Question what you were doing?
ZACK SUCHER: Yeah, honestly I did. The first four months were pretty rough. I had the ankle surgery; the knee I still had to work on. I had just been cleared to do some activity at all and I tore my plantar fascia in my good foot. Back in a boot, back on crutches.
So, yeah, the first four, five months were pretty rough, but they were also kind of cool. I got to spend a ton of time with the family. Something we never get to do is go to church, which we love. We got plugged in and connected, which was amazing at Church of the Highlands in Birmingham.
After the first four months it ended up being pretty awesome time to spend together.
Q. A lot of people think of professional golfers and say, Wow, what a job. Look at all the money they make. Guys are sometimes fighting for status and it's not quite that way.
ZACK SUCHER: Oh, man. This last month and a half has been incredible. If we go back to Raleigh, which I think is only three, four weeks ago, I didn't have job security at all - not even on the Korn Ferry Tour. Nothing.
I was outside the 200. I still had to lock up top 75 on the Korn Ferry Tour with limited starts. So, yeah, I mean, that was a huge week for me. This obviously tops it by a mile.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #1 by #179 at 2019-06-23 23:43:00 GMT