Student Entrepreneurs Passion for Golf is on Par with His Passion for Business

Hill models apparel for Iliac Golf, a company he now leads as CEO

“Business gets done on the golf course” is an old, familiar saying, but Quentin Hill is a living example. 

At the age of 15, Hill, now a student at San Diego State University’s Fowler College of Business, began golfing with his grandfather and soon realized his enthusiasm for the sport. He joined his high school golf team and even got a job at a golf apparel shop near his home in Dana Point, California. His work in the shop involved cleaning, appraising and selling used golf clubs, but he saw an opportunity to create his own business where he could do the work quicker, more efficiently and for more money. 

At first, Hill purchased second-hand clubs through a variety of sources to refurbish and resell through eBay and other online markets. Word of his quality products and workmanship soon spread, so he built his own website and established a business, Convenient Clubs, to showcase his inventory and keep up with demand. 

As the company grew, so did his passion for business and golf. He began thinking about attending a college that would allow him to combine the two. As fate would have it, SDSU alumnus and head men’s golf coach, Ryan Donovan (’01, public administration), met Hill at a golf recruiting camp and he encouraged Hill to take lessons to develop his game. Hill took Donovan’s advice, and it paid off. “By the time I was a high school senior, he offered me a spot on the team,” said Hill. “His investment in me as an athlete along with SDSU’s location made my choice of colleges a no-brainer.” 

The fact that SDSU also has an outstanding business school further confirmed Hill’s choice. Since he was initially undecided as to what major he wanted to pursue, he enrolled at SDSU’s Fowler College of Business as a general business major. During his junior year, he realized he’d made the right choice since the business major offered him skills in a variety of disciplines to help him manage all the organizations in his growing enterprise. 

Hill’s displays some of the reusable water bottles he plans to distribute to the homeless

Yes, you read that correctly: Hill, now 22, operates Qhill Enterprises which consists of three for-profit businesses and a charity. 

In addition to Convenient Clubs, Qhill Enterprises consists of non-profit organization, Jesus In A Bottle;  sports apparel company, Hidden Gems; and iliac Golf which designs, manufactures and markets luxury golf accessories and apparel. 

True to his nature, Hill became friends with the founder of iliac Golf while the two were golfing in 2016. When the founder wanted to move on to another business venture, Hill, his father and SDSU finance professor, Stephen Brincks purchased shares in the company in January of 2022. “When Quentin talked to me about the ideas he had for iliac Golf, I realized that he naturally possessed the leadership skills and business experience to run the company, even at his young age,” said Brincks. “With his exceptional knack for business and passion for golf, I was more than happy to sign on as a partner, since I am confident in his ability to successfully grow the company’s profitability and product line.”  

Hill is the sole proprietor of Hidden Gems and Jesus In a Bottle, which were both established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. “Hidden Gems was founded when I saw how companies were ordering sporting apparel from overseas, but when it arrived late due to pandemic-related port and delivery issues, customers would cancel their orders and businesses had to hold the excess inventory,” he said. “I built the company by purchasing this excess inventory and offering the product to consumers through various online third parties, such as eBay.”

Shown here in 2021, SDSU student athletes write inspirational messages to be attached to water bottles Hill plans to give to individuals in homeless shelters

Some of the inventory from Hidden Gems is donated to Hill’s charity, Jesus In A Bottle, established when he and his sisters wanted to reduce the number of plastic bottles in the environment and help local homeless populations simultaneously. “My sister Jaden is a sustainable development major at Columbia University, which is how we came up with the idea of implementing reusable water bottles,” he said. Hill put together a business plan, and the three siblings reached out to companies to donate protein bars, masks, and apparel which were packed along with the bottles and handed out to various shelters and to individuals in need. 

This year, Hill worked with SDSU’s athletics department to add a hand-written inspirational message from SDSU student athletes to each of the water bottle packages which are then distributed to San Diego County homeless shelters and needy individuals on an annual basis. “To date, we’ve been able to hand out well over 5,000 bottles,” he said. 

With school, his businesses and his passion for golf taking up much of his time, something had to give. That something was his spot on SDSU’s golf team, which Hill reluctantly gave up at the end of his junior year. 

Though his days as an SDSU student-athlete are behind him, Hill is still passionate about golf and the businesses he built that focus on sports products. Soon, he will have more time to hit the links, since it is now only a matter of days before he earns his degree from SDSU’s Fowler College of Business. He knows he will not only have hands-on entrepreneurial experience that comes from running those businesses, but also the education that offers him a thorough understanding of most vital business operations.

“I chose to pursue a business major because I knew I wanted to cover all my bases and be as knowledgeable as possible in the realm of business,” he said. “Looking back, I couldn’t be more grateful to the SDSU business program. I’ve taken a wide array of classes from coding, to accounting, to rhetoric and writing courses. Each one of my classes has helped me to build and operate my businesses more efficiently.”