FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK)\u2014During the week, Quinton Allen helps tell the stories of Collier County Public Schools, but on the weekends, he trades his headset for a set of clubs.<\/p>\n
Allen’s weekend doesn’t begin until he hears the sound of clubs in his bag and a club striking a ball. He has played recreationally for 14 years.<\/p>\n
“During a five-day regular work week, I’m a communication specialist slash producer for the Great School District of Collier County,” Allen said. “But come the weekend, it’s all about golf.”<\/p>\n
Allen’s competitive career began at Eagle Ridge. Two years ago, he was randomly paired with an amateur tour member who encouraged him to join the Southwest Florida chapter.<\/p>\n
The very next Saturday, Allen entered his first tournament. The tour separates amateur golfers by skill level, offering live scoring, prize money and a pro-style experience.<\/p>\n
“When you get up on that first tee and Steve calls out your name, it gives you the chills and gets you ready to go,” Allen said.<\/p>\n
Allen arrived that day with no expectations. He left as a champion.<\/p>\n
“He comes out and he’s like, ‘Oh, Q! I think you got it,'” Allen said. “And I was like, ‘Huh? I was like, ‘What do you mean? I got it. You know what I mean?’ He’s like, ‘Oh, you won.'”<\/p>\n
There it was on the leaderboard\u2014Quinton Allen in first place.<\/p>\n
“I was like, ‘Shut the front door!'” Allen said.<\/p>\n
Steve Hasenfratz, SWFL chapter director for the Amateur Players Tour, witnessed Allen’s first victory.<\/p>\n
“There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing somebody like Quinton win for the first time, and the joy that it brings them to get that trophy,” Hasenfratz said.<\/p>\n
Now in his second season, Allen has added another victory and earned enough points for an invitation to the national tournament in Arizona. He can’t attend this year because of a prior commitment, but his next goal is set.<\/p>\n
“I got next year to try to do it again, and I’ll achieve it again next year,” Allen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK)\u2014During the week, Quinton Allen helps tell the stories of Collier County Public Schools, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[1017,358003,19625,79187,358007,358005,2808,427,358009,99346,358002,358004,16645,99,358006,358008],"class_list":["post-846125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-arizona","tag-chills","tag-collier","tag-collier-county","tag-communication-specialist","tag-director-for-the-amateur-players-tour","tag-florida","tag-golf","tag-great-school-district-of-collier-county","tag-producer","tag-quinton-allen","tag-school-worker","tag-southwest-florida","tag-sports","tag-steve-hasenfratz","tag-swfl-chapter-director"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}