Zack Sucher, the former star golfer at UAB who now makes his home in Gardendale, is one huge step closer to joining the game’s best players on the PGA Tour.

Sucher won his first ever tournament last weekend on the Web.com Tour, the developmental circuit that is roughly akin to the AAA level of minor league baseball. He took the title at the Midwest Classic, held at the Nicklaus Golf Club at LionsGate in Overland Park, Kan., by three strokes.

More importantly, the winner’s check for $108,000 not only helps pay for he and his wife Courtney — a Gardendale native and the main reason her husband ended up in north Jefferson County — to keep travelling on the Web.com tour, but also guarantees he will finish in the top 25 on the tour’s money list this year.

That distinction carries with it the prize that all young up-and-coming golfers yearn for: a PGA Tour card.

Sucher’s year started off slow, but he has caught fire this summer. In the last six tournaments, he’s finished in the top 25 in five, missing the cut in the other event.

He was fourth the previous week at the Albertson’s Boise Open in Idaho, firing a 60 in the first round before drifting back into a tie for fourth place. That was the best finish of his career to that point.

In Overland Park, Sucher opened up with rounds of 66, 63 and 64 to go 20-under par, leading by three strokes going into the final round. But he ran into trouble early on Sunday, bogeying the first two holes to trim the lead to one.

He then bogeyed the first two holes of the back nine, and found himself tied for the lead with Aaron Watkins after the 11th hole.

But Watkins faltered on the back nine, and Sucher pulled back out to his original three-shot advantage, thanks in part to a birdie on the 13th hole. He finished the round with a 1-over 72 for the victory.

Sucher’s big paycheck moves him up from 20th place on the money list to fourth. His season winnings are now at $247,318, and it’s mathematically impossible for him to drop out of the top 25 with just four stops remaining on the tour’s regular-season schedule.

Sucher began full-time play on the Web.com Tour late last year, cashing in two out of five events for $64,000 in prize money. He previously played on the tour in 2011, but cashed in just five out of 11 events with $10,773 in winnings.

Sucher now moves on to the StoneBrae Classic in the San Francisco Bay area, which begins Thursday.