Thousands of young golfers dream about playing professionally. LHHS grad Blaine Hale Jr. will be living his this year as he tees it up on the 2024 PGA Tour with Tiger, Rory, Scottie and Jordan.
Hale, a 2015 graduate, achieved his dream last month in Ponte Vedra, Florida, when he finished in third place in the final stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying School Tournament. Only the top five finishers on the TPC Sawgrass course received PGA Tour Cards.
The Advocate caught up with Hale shortly after his victory, and we asked him about golf, family and Lake Highlands.
Q: So how has your life changed already?
A: I guess the fact that I will play in a PGA tour event will be the biggest thing. This will be my first PGA Tour event I get to play in, so that has been a dream come true and something in the past I thought maybe would never happen, so I’m very excited.
Q: This final PGA Tour Qualifying event is four rounds. Were you in the Top Five going into the final round?
A: I was. I was ten under par going into the final round in solo second place.
Q: Weather postponed the tournament’s final round for a day. How did you feel having to wait an extra day to complete one of the biggest rounds of your golf career?
A: It was a long time to wait. Saturday night, I kept the same routine, had dinner, kept it pretty low-key, watched some football. I didn’t really sleep very good Saturday night, kind of started to think about the different things, but we knew there was a rainstorm coming in so I figured we would have some type of delay. We woke up Sunday, and they gave us a one-hour delay and then cancelled that day’s play and rescheduled for Monday. Then we went into: What are we going to do now? I had some buddies that had flown in to surprise me, so they FaceTimed me, and they were all in Jacksonville, and we had breakfast with them, and then I came back to the house and watched some football and then we saw a movie that night. I tried to keep my mind off golf and didn’t practice or anything on Sunday and just tried to hang with friends and not worry about what Monday was gonna bring and got ready Sunday night to get going Monday morning.
Q: Were these friends from Dallas or college or tour buddies?
A: They were some of my friends from Dallas, kids I grew up with going to church and one buddy from my church community group.
Q: Tell us about growing up in Lake Highlands and how you got started in golf.
A: I grew up in Lake Highlands. My parents have lived in the same house since I was three years old. I went to Highlander School for elementary. I went to Lake Highlands Junior High, because that’s where most of my classmates were going, and then I graduated from Lake Highlands High School in 2015. I grew up near Royal Oaks CC. We were never members there, but our high school team practiced there. We joined Dallas Athletic Club when I was in the ninth grade.
Before that, I basically just played a lot of the municipal courses around Dallas with my Dad and some of his buddies. I played in a bunch of junior tournaments during the summer.
Most of my early golf was in my backyard with plastic golf balls or at the municipal courses before I got into high school.
I was super lucky and blessed that I got a great place to play and practice in high school at Dallas Athletic Club. I am still a member there now and represent them on their young professional program. I am very thankful for them.
Q: Do you live in Dallas now?
A: My wife, Allison, and I live in Richardson near UTD.
Q: How did you and Allison meet?
A: We met in Dallas, after college, playing pickleball with some friends. We saw each other with the same group of friends over the next couple of weeks, and I mustered up the courage to ask her out on a date, and here we are!
Q: What was your high school golf experience at Lake Highlands?
A: Christopher Cole was my coach all four years. He is a cousin of my father-in-law, going back before I ever knew my wife.
In my class, Preston Dickson and I were teammates and buddies and still friends today. Braden Beasley is another good buddy of mine from the team, along with Kyle Kennedy and Parker Morgan.
High school was my first taste of team golf, having guys to practice and play with and compete and play money games and rib each other and spend time on the golf course for hours and hours on end.
I’m super thankful for them and the way they pushed me and the way that hopefully I pushed them as well.
Q: Can you share your experience playing Division 1 college golf at OU?
A: My Dad went to Oklahoma State, and I grew up a huge Oklahoma State fan. If you would have told me in high school that I was going to go to Oklahoma, I would have said you were crazy. My dream since I was five years old was to play on the PGA Tour, and the way you did that was to play at Oklahoma State. The way that recruiting worked out, OSU offered me a walk-on slot, but for some reason it just didn’t fit right. I re-evaluated some of my options and kept hearing so many good things about Coach Hybl at OU and what they were building and some of the guys that were coming in the next couple of years. I reached out to him, and thankfully he took a chance on me because they already had four guys in the class. Five guys in one scholarship class in golf is huge, so for five freshmen to come in in one class is a big ask. It was the best four years in my life, and I’m super thankful to Coach Hybl for the opportunity.
College golf for me at the beginning was a pretty big learning curve of how to practice, how to manage your time and how good the guys on the team were. You come from high school, and you’re a big fish in a small pond, and I’m immediately thrown into a huge pond, and I’m a minnow. It was a big learning curve for me at the start. I struggled my first semester and thankfully got my feet under me and started playing better my second semester and never left the line-up except for a few events from that point on.
The first year in college golf is hard. It’s not necessarily from a golf standpoint, it’s from a scheduling standpoint. My senior year in high school, I had two classes. I got out at 11 a.m. every day and went straight to the golf course and practiced and hung out. In college, I had a schedule from 6 a.m. to 8 o’clock at night of workouts, tutors, academic meetings, classes and practice. They basically plan out your whole day from Monday to Sunday.
I was not ready for that, but thankfully they do a good job of once they figure out your schedule; it becomes your schedule, and you get used to it.
Q: You won a national championship at OU.
A: That was in 2017 at Rich Harvest Farms golf course outside of Chicago. Going into that week, we didn’t play very well at Regionals at Stanford, but made it through on a late push on the last day. Much of it was because of Coach Hybl; we were a very close team that year. Basically had the five same guys travel all spring, and we were really tight-knit and wanted to win for each other. We had a fun time between Regionals and Nationals. It was right at the end of school year, so most of the students had left campus, so it was just the golfers there. We got to hang out in the dorms and park in the front row and that kind of stuff.
We got to Nationals feeling really good about our game. It was one of those weeks where everything kind of connects and clicks, kind of similar to what happened to me at Tour School where everything worked out. We had a great week.
If you looked at our matches, in the match-play portion, everybody won two matches and lost one of them. So it was really a team affair, and everybody played a crucial part in getting the win.
Q: You beat Oregon in the final, right?
A: Yes, on the score sheet it would have said 3-1-1, but Grant Hirschman who (the score sheet) says was tied was about win his match on the 18th hole, so I like to give him a point there, so I like to say we won 4-1.
Q: A lot of young kids say they want to play in NFL or NBA or want to become a professional golfer. When did it become real for you?
A: I would say golf has always been my sport. I loved everything growing up — I loved football, baseball, soccer, golf. Those were my four sports growing up. Whatever season it was, I was competitive in that sport, but I played golf all year round. I just loved the challenge, the internal struggle of how can I get better, how can I be better than my peers, how can I beat my low round, how can I beat my Dad, how can beat my Dad’s friends. For me, golf has always been my sport.
Probably when I really thought I could do something is when I got to high school my freshman year. I was pretty good my freshman year but was really small. I had a growth spurt at the end of my freshman year and turned from a short-hitting guy with a decent short game to a pretty long guy off the tee but still had a decent short game to where I was starting to beat some good players and starting to compete in some big tournaments. I started thinking that I could really do this and really do this in college.
Q: What has professional golf been for you up to this point?
A: For me, the year I turned pro was in 2019, and I played Q-school that year. Q school (qualifying school) was my third professional event, and I ended up missing by one shot. Had I made it to the finals, I would have made Korn Ferry (the golf tour below the PGA Tour but above the mini-tours) status. I wasn’t too worried about it as it was my first run and could get a year playing mini-tour stuff and I’ll breeze through next year. Well, Covid came, and the world shut down. I was actually planning on playing in China my first year as a pro, but that didn’t work out because of Covid, so I stuck to the mini-tours. They cancelled Q school that year, too, so I stayed another year on the mini-tours. I kept trying Monday qualifiers but never made it through. I kept pushing myself to get ready for Q school in 2021 and put a ton of pressure on myself and didn’t play very well my second year as a pro.
I missed in the first stage that year by one or two shots, and that was super disappointing. I came home, and that was a tough time as you realize you have nothing in front of you. You have no guaranteed tournaments. You’re going to be traveling again by yourself to mini-tour events. So I did that again in 2022 and had a much better year and felt pretty good about my game, but unfortunately missed the Q school again by one shot.
So then that whirl of emotion came again. Am I doing the right thing? Is this the right sport for me? Do I need to go get a job? All those thoughts creep into your head. This past year, I set my mind to just go compete each week. Don’t worry about what will happen at the end. Just play good golf, and everything will take care of itself in the end. Coach Hybl used to tell us all of the time: If you’re playing good golf, it doesn’t matter where you’re playing, it doesn’t matter where you’re at, it will benefit you in some way. So I just stuck to the mini-tours. I played every event I could this summer. I traveled all over the country, driving to Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Arkansas, playing as much as I could. Thankfully, I had a really good year. I was consistent and felt my game took a big step. More of my good weeks became really good, and some of my bad weeks, I still had good weeks. All that was a huge confidence-boost heading into Q school and stringing together a ton of good events this summer. I came into Q school obviously extremely nervous, but I made it through first stage pretty easy. Second stage was very difficult, but I had a good last day and obviously the third stage, when I got my card, was a dream come true.
Q: What are the ways to earn a PGA Tour card now?
A: The only ways to get a PGA Tour card now are if you are Top 125 from last year’s Tour, the Top 30 finishers on the Korn Ferry tour, the top 10 guys from the DP World Tour (the European version of the PGA Tour) that don’t already have PGA Tour status and then the top five finishers from Q-School.
Q: What are the logistics of getting from tournament to tournament over the season?
A: The tour does a pretty good job of keeping the events close together. If it’s under six hours, I’ll probably drive. If not, I’ll fly. You’re leaving Sunday evening or Monday morning, and you need to play practice rounds by Tuesday, and you need to find some time to rest as well. Flying does make things easier. I had a mini-orientation yesterday that went over how the Tour helps you with travel and booking flights and courtesy cars and all that stuff.
Q: Do you typically stay in hotels or host houses?
A: It will depend on the week. Some weeks we’ll get hotels, some weeks there might be some host houses. Other weeks, a couple of other buddies who are also playing might get an AirBnB. Typically one of these three.
Q: What changed in your game, if anything, the week of Q school to get your card?
A: The weather made it very difficult, and I had a very nice week off the tee and with the irons. I never really put myself in trouble other than the last hole on the last day! By that point I had basically locked it up, so I was all right.
I putted well, consistent all week. I made a couple of long putts here and there and made the short ones I was supposed to. It wasn’t one of those weeks where the putter was extremely hot, but it was very solid in windy conditions.
Q: What and who is your support system?
A: I am super lucky and thankful that my wife and my Mom flew out to Jacksonville Friday night. My Dad had been there since Wednesday. Just to have them around to go to dinner with and hang out with off the golf course was huge. I had friends who came in and surprised me on Sunday. Anytime that you have friends who will travel halfway across the country to come watch you play golf is a blessing.
We got home Tuesday night (the night after he qualified) around 10:30 from our flight, and there were about 30 of my friends waiting to surprise me at the house back in Dallas.
I am extremely blessed to have great friends and people around me who love me and support me, and I felt that this week (the week of qualifying). Even last week, at the second stage, I got texts and calls and people congratulating me.
Q: How do you handle the stress of playing professional golf where every shot counts?
A: For me, when I’m on the course, it’s a routine. When everything is spinning, you have to fall back on something that’s solid. For me, my pre-shot routine, before I hit a shot, I try to keep very consistent. It helps to calm your mind and get channeled over your shot versus not moving too much or thinking about it.
Off the course is where I feel the stress comes more into play. Just running scenarios through your head. And truthfully, I try to keep it similar to on the course. I try to do similar things at night, similar things in the morning to calm my mind. Just trying to use all my energy on the golf course rather than off of it.
Q: Describe the dynamics of playing with other professional golfers, all direct competitors  trying to make a living on the PGA Tour.
A: Just like in life, you have your friends out there who you like to spend time with and guys you don’t spend as much time with because you’re not close. For me, I’m excited to be out there with friends from Dallas and guys I met playing golf the last few years. There are probably six or seven guys who will be at most events that I hang out with. I just treat it like any other thing in life, when you have people you enjoy being with you just spend more time with them.
Q: Who were your favorite players growing up and what is it going to be like when you are paired with them for the first time on tour?
A: Guys in my generation grew up with Tiger and Phil leading the charge. Unless I’m playing in LIV events, I won’t see much of Phil. I might see Tiger here and there, which will be pretty amazing. The closest I got to him was when I was hitting balls near him at the U.S. Open when I was an alternate in 2018. It will be a cool experience to see him. Those are two guys who I watched play golf for many many years. Adam Scott, Tiger, Zach Johnson, Luke Donald were some of the bigger names growing up for me.
Q: What are your goals for your first year on the PGA tour?
A: I’m not sure yet. I need to sit down and think about that coming up.
I’ll need to sit down with Allison and talk about those things, because we’re expecting our first child in May, so that’s a life-changing event as well. We’re super-excited, and that will throw another thing in that we have ahead of us. Big year ahead! I’ll be father and on the PGA Tour.
Q: How many events will you be able to play this year?
A: Depending on how I play, I would like to think maybe 25 PGA tournaments.
Q: What hat are you going to wear on the Tour?
A: I’m not sure. I’ve been wearing the Lee Trevino Super Mex hat most of this year. Hopefully, I can keep doing that, but if not, someone will come calling.
Q: Will there be more sponsorship opportunities now that you have your card?
A: There are few sponsors that I’ve had for the past couple of years. I hope I can continue with them, because they’re the guys who got me started and got my career going. I’m a big believer in giving back to the people who got me to this point. I would like to stay with them and add a couple more here and there, and off we go.
Q: What do you think about the PGA Tour vs. LIV golf controversy?
A: It’s sad, because you want the best players in the world playing against each other. I think that will only happen in majors (Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship) now. I imagine they will get together and figure this out sooner or later, if I was going to guess. I don’t know the politics that goes along with all that. I’ve been worried about playing mini-tour golf for the last few years, so I might be the least-qualified guy to talk about LIV-PGA drama.
Q: After playing high school, college and professional golf, what are the top three golf courses you have played?
A: In no particular order, three of my favorites are Eugene Country Club in Oregon, where I played my first college championship; a great parkland style course with huge, gorgeous trees and great greens. Boot Ranch in Fredericksburg , Texas, is a favorite, and then probably Southern Hills in Tulsa.
Q: Have you seen Scottie Sheffler out on the range at Royal Oaks?
A: Oh yeah, Scottie and I are buddies, and he has been a big help for me the last couple of years.
