A former La Grande High School golfer is one step — or rather, one swing — closer to fulfilling a dream he’s had since he first started playing the sport.

LHS and Eastern Oregon University graduate Tim Hall recently completed the first leg of the Web.com Tour’s Qualifying School by placing 13th in a pre-qualifying tournament in Coto de Caza, California, from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1. It was one of six pre-qualifying tournaments across the country, according to pgatq.bluegolf.com.

It’s the first step in Hall’s quest to qualify for the Web.com Tour, which is the professional golf tour below the PGA Tour and serves as the developmental tour for the PGA.

“It’s three tournaments. The first one is three rounds. The next two will be four rounds,” Hall, 28, said. “Typically there’s somewhere around 100 golfers (in each tournament). The top third of the field after the four days moves on to the next stage.”

Hall made it through the opening tournament by shooting a 1-over 217 during the tournament in Coto de Caza. Two of the three rounds he was under par, shooting 71 in both Rounds 1 and 3. He carded a 75 in the second round.

His 13th-place finish was well above the cutoff. In fact, 38 golfers qualified for the next round of the Qualifying School, or Q School.

Hall was a latecomer to the sport. He didn’t start golfing until he was 16 years old, and said he was talked into joining the LHS golf team.

“I only did it because my buddies on the high school basketball team played golf, too,” he said.

But he was instantly hooked.

“I just got completely bit by the golf bug. I practiced every chance I could get,” Hall said. Hall noted he took an open period during his last class of the day as a senior in high school to get extra time on the course in.

He quickly found success in the sport. As a senior at La Grande, Hall tied for 11th in the Class 4A state championships in 2007.

He subsequently went to college at EOU, but with the school not having a golf team, he practiced and played on his own time, and worked with Cody Goodin, who at the time was the head pro at the La Grande Country Club. He’s also worked with golf coach Paul Weyland in Boise, Idaho.

“I was a member at the country club in town,” Hall said. “I practiced and I played in amateur events across the Northwest. I was playing amateur tournaments and working.”

Hall’s full-on pursuit of a professional golf career started shortly after earning his master’s degree in business in 2013.

Shortly after, he was competing as a pro.

“(In) 2014, I played my first tournament as a professional,” he said. “I’ve just been playing mini tour events and small scale professional events across the Northwest, Phoenix and across California.

“This is my first year attempting to quality for the big tour.”

Hall, who now resides in Scappoose, was given a Tour Hopeful membership by Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club just north of Beaverton in 2016.

“It’s a membership that the golf course has given to me to kind of help prepare me to try and make it on tour,” Hall said.

Hall has a couple of weeks until he takes the tee for the next tournament in the Q School. He’s up next Sept. 26-29, and will play at a First Stage event at Southern Dunes Golf Course in Maricopa, Arizona.

He needs to be in about the top-third at Maricopa to advance to the Second Stage. If he does so, Hall would play either Oct. 31-Nov. 3 or Nov. 7-10 at one of any five locations throughout the southern United States. If he reaches the top 25 there, and he would make the finals Dec. 7-10 in Chandler, Arizona.

Hall said the golfers who reach the finals qualify for the Web.com Tour. The finals, then, are used to rank them. A higher ranking gives them a greater chance of playing in more events in 2018.

The top 25 golfers in the Web.com Tour at the end of each year advance to the PGA Tour. Golfers who win three events in a year are granted an automatic promotion to the PGA, as well.

Reaching the finals could also coincide with another major life-changing event for Hall. His wife, Megan, is expecting the couple’s first child November 13.

“There’s some added incentive (to do well),” Hall said.