Headline: Bay State Natives Fran Quinn and Kirk Hanefeld Make Most of Opportunities at Allianz Championship

For Immediate Release: February 12, 2017

Fran Quinn (top) and Kirk Hanefeld

Norton, MA — While two youngsters were moving up the leaderboard at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Championship, a duo of veteran Bay State natives were making a statement on the PGA Champions Tour.

Fran Quinn and Kirk Hanefeld delivered impressive performances at this past weekend’s Allianz Championship, which was held at The Old Course at Broken Sound, Boca Raton, Florida.

Quinn – the 1990 Massachusetts Open Champion and a Holden resident– posted a score of 11-under par 205 for a T20 finish.

On the final day, Quinn stormed up the leaderboard following a third-round score of 7-under par 65. It was a finish which moved him up 20 spots on the leaderboard.

The journey to this past weekend has been an especially long one for Quinn, who just last summer returned to Worcester Country Club to compete in the 2016 Massachusetts Open Championship where he was T6.

For the past two years, the now 51 year old who resides in Holden has been trying to play his way into PGA Tour Champions events by competing in Monday qualifiers and taking advantage of sponsor exemptions. Even though he played in just nine events last season, he managed to win $274,196 which ranked 57th on the money list.

His big break for 2017 came in December when Quinn sank a four-foot birdie putt on the first sudden-death playoff hole at Disney World’s Magnolia Course in Lake Buena Vista, Florida to secure fully-exempt status into the 2017 PGA Tour Champions.

The Allianz Championship represented his first full-field tour event of the year.  

Hanefeld, the director of instruction at Salem Country Club, secured a top-50 finish thanks to a second-round score of 6-under par 66. The Allianz Championship marked his first appearance in a PGA Tour Champions event in nearly two years.

For Hanefeld, this promising finish marks what he hopes will be a memorable summer. After all, his current home club in Peabody is set to host the 38th U.S. Senior Open Championship from June 26 through July 3.

Hanefeld is hoping that he will not just be working that week… but playing.

“I’ll hopefully be ready to give it another shot in late May or early June,” said Hanefeld, who is enjoying his second season as Salem CC's director of instruction.

Hanefeld was recently featured as part of a 2017 U.S. Senior Open Championship “player spotlight” feature.

CLICK HERE to read more about Hanefeld, his playing background and his hopes for competing for a USGA Championship title on his home turf this summer.

For complete results from the Allianz Championship, click here.