September 26, 2021 | BY JEFFREY JC CALLAWAY
The journey for the African American Tour Quest (AATQ) team’s travel to Marietta, GA from Northern California began with a phone call to the African American Golf EXPO & Forum founder Jim Beatty from Preston Pinkney, President/CEO of The Pinkney Foundation and founder of the African American Tour Quest (AATQ) program—designed to provide assistance for pro golfers who aspire to compete regularly on the PGA Tour.
Pinkney made the call to Beatty in August of 2020 to introduce himself, and to make possible arrangements to participate in the event—which was scheduled initially for February 2021. Of course, COVID-19 caused that date to be postponed, which eventually commenced on August 20, 2021—that date was actually a better one for the AATQ team to attend because the newly upstart organization wasn’t ready financially to support team attendance at the event in February—until businessman & AATQ Board Member At-Large, Anthony Keeton, stepped into the picture.
Keeton is the president of Keytone Productions, and Keetone Tax Services. He became a board member at-Large for The Pinkney Foundation (which includes the AATQ as one of its professional development programs) in 2019. Keeton was informed about the African American Golf Expo & Forum, and immediately contacted Beatty to find out specific information about AATQ possibly becoming a sponsor and active participant for the event.
Keeton and Pinkney worked together to secure a booth as part of the sponsorship package—and that sealed AATQ’s commitment to the Inaugural African American Expo and Forum. Keeton, then contacted AATQ director of player development Jeff JC Callaway, and informed him to notify the AATQ Athletes and tell them to schedule airline tickets to Atlanta so that they would be present to represent AATQ—to meet & greet golf enthusiasts and industry leaders who attend the Expo & Forum. In addition, the athletes would also be there to showcase their golfing skills while competing – as a team – in the event’s scramble tournament.
“Keeton’s main mission from the very beginning was to win-the-tournament and bring-the-flag back home, so I emphasized that point to our athletes,” said Callaway.
Keeton’s master plan also entailed that all of the Foundation’s board-of directors attend the event in order to have a complete AATQ delegation at the event. Unfortunately, not all board members could attend; so, flight arrangements were made for board members Pinkney, Keeton, and Aaron Grant III (board secretary), as well as Callaway. However, the team soon found-out that it wasn’t going to be a problem-free, nor a quick-trip to Atlanta as they expected; and particular challenges would test their desires & commitments to attend the event.
Firstly, Pinkney received a call at 12:30 a.m. from AATQ amateur athlete Adrian Davis, to inform him that their 5:30 a.m. flight that same morning from Oakland, CA to Phoenix, AZ was cancelled, and they would have to book another flight. Afterwards, Pinkney called Keeton, who called Callaway, who was scheduled to depart from Sacramento International Airport at 5:30 a.m.—though his flight wasn’t cancelled, the team was supposed to join-up in Phoenix and fly together to Atlanta. Of course, the early morning change-of-plan was nerve-wracking for everyone.
The administration team – led by JaVonnie Pinkney and Renee Daniel-Keeton – went directly to work on rescheduling flights for Pinkney, Keeton, and Davis who would eventually fly the “friendly skies” to Atlanta together; but not without going through another ordeal that would, once again, test their desire to attend the Expo.
They eventually found another flight available that would take them from Oakland-to-Chicago-to-Atlanta: Once the men landed in Chicago on time after a 30-minute delay, they were delayed once again for another 45-minutes so that the plane leaving from Chicago-to-Atlanta could be refueled. This made Pinkney nervous because he had scheduled a rental car, and the rental car location in Atlanta was scheduled to close at 11:59 p.m. and the plane from Chicago was scheduled to arrive at 11:45 p.m., which meant that Pinkney would have only 14-crucial-minutes to get to the car rental location at one of the biggest and most-crowded airport in the world. Pinkney explained the situation as follows:
“…It really had me nervous, especially because I was recovering from [leg] surgery, so I wasn’t really walking too well, and I had to get off the flight, run and get my rental car, then come back and swoop everybody up. In a way it was kind-of-uncomfortable and a little stressful, but we knew we had to be there, and we knew we had to do what we had to do to get there, so [no] not being there was not an option; because it was the Inaugural African American Golf Expo and Forum, and we had already made the commitment to be there.”
The other members of the team included AATQ athlete Edd Hackett—who’s flight from Oakland to Atlanta was cancelled, so he had to travel from Oakland International Airport to San Francisco International Airport to catch a Delta Airlines flight, which was scheduled to arrive in Atlanta at 11:00 p.m. Meanwhile, AATQ board member and secretary Aaron Grant III experienced a 3-hour delay with his flight from Oakland and had to get to the hotel on his own because of the delays with the Pinkney crew.
Although Jeff JC Callaway didn’t experience any flight delays, he arrived on time—but also had to make his own way to the Marietta Hilton Hotel and Conference Center. However, when he arrived at the hotel, he was told by the front desk receptionist that there was no room booked for him—although he had just spoke to Keeton five-minutes earlier who informed him that he booked rooms for the entire team and that his room had been booked and was ready for him.
Callaway eventually got in touch with AATQ administrator Renee who spoke to the receptionist and solved the issue. Withstanding all the set-backs, everyone eventually arrived at the hotel: Pinkney, Keeton, Davis, and Hackett didn’t arrive in the rental car until 4 a.m. Saturday morning after stopping to gget something to eat—while celebrating the AATQ’s team arrival in Atlanta to participate in the Inaugural African American Golf Expo & Forum.
Once the team was intact, they begin to focus on their mission. Their presentation booth was set-up with good-looking backdrop banners that feature photos & bios of AATQ Athletes as well as one that featured Jeffrey JC Callaway as the author of his republished classic golf book, Invisible Golfers: African American’s PGA-Tour Quest. [Callaway was provided a spot to sell and sign his books.] ATTQ brand apparel such as shirts and pull-overs were laid-out and displayed on the tables for sale. Aaron Grant III, Edd Hackett, and Adrian Davis were at the booth to meet & greet event participants and manage merchandise sales—while Pinkney and Keeton networked with other vendors and industry leaders.
On the morning of the scramble tournament, Aaron Grant III (aka “AG III”) joined the AATQ Tournament Team replacing AATQ Athlete Tre Craig—who had to cancel his trip to the Expo due to him contracting the COVID-19 Virus the day before. In addition, Callaway replaced Ace Kids Golf Junior Amateur Champion, Marlon Jones—who didn’t make the trip for personal reasons. Meanwhile, Pinkney and Keeton had teamed-up with AJGA directors Stephen Hamblin and Jason Miller.
The AATQ Team started off with eight consecutive birdies before they parred a short par-3. After making that par, team-captain Callaway told Hackett to check the “Golf Genius” app to view the leaderboard. [The team had assumed that they were running away with the tournament at that point, and Callaway wanted to see validation for that assumption.]
“Mr. Keeton just knocked in a shot for an eagle, which puts us two-shots back,” Hackett announced calmly to the team while looking at his cell phone. “He’s trying to win the flag himself! I guess he doesn’t trust us!” proclaimed Callaway in his well-known excitable voice. “We’re two-back. If his team beats us, we’ll never hear the end of it from him and Pinkney. We better get more focused and take it to another level if we want to win, and I want to win this tournament,” he declared.
Suddenly, each player began to focus more intensely on every shot, and their social-golf-type characteristics began to vanish—it became apparent that the team had returned their focus to their primary mission of “bringing the flag home.” The team was behind by one-stroke at the last hole—which was a short par-5. Adrian Davis knocked the team’s second shot pass the pin which came to rest just off the back-side of the green, directly behind-the-hole, which was the team’s best shot—but they were left with a runaway downhill chip on a very slick green.
Callaway’s chip-shot came to rest six-feet above-the-hole which was the team’s best shot—so they were left with a must-make and delicate straight-putt for a 1st-place tie with the Keeton group; and the putt demanded an unwavering skillful touch. Callaway, who had previously been in a horrendous putting slump, told his young teammates with full-confidence of an experience team-captain and seasoned golf veteran, “You guys can put your putters away, I got this,” he told them: And then, he preceded to putt-the-ball straight into the hole. [Ironically, it was with a putter that Keeton had given him to use because he had previously told Keeton he needed a heavier-weighted putter so his putting could improve.]
Afterwards, at the awards ceremony, it was announced that the “Official AATQ Team” consisting of Aaron Grant III, Edd Hackett, Adrian Davis, and Jeff JC Callaway, were the tournament winners (based on a card-match) to become the first team to win the African American Golf Expo & Forum “Scramble Golf Tournament.”
Later that evening, Callaway and Hackett were hanging-out together in the Hilton hotel lobby, when they met Stanley Campbell, owner of Martin Downs Golf Club (Florida): He is one of a few Black golf course owners in the country—and he took the time to discuss with them the details that were involved with purchasing his newly owned course.
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Campbell spoke to them for more than a half-hour as he explained, in-depth, the processes he went through in order to acquire the property, the ongoing challenges he faced relating to upgrades and maintenance—as well as plans for building a Five-Star resort in the area while selling semi-private membership: He also talked about his golf game, and areas that need improvement.
“I learned so much about the details and depth of golf course operation during our conversation with him,” said 24-year-old Hackett. “I was fascinated by the vision he had for the golf course. It was a great learning experience listening and talking to him,” he concluded. Callaway was also enthralled with the vast information and the articulate and comprehensive way Campbell explained his story, the process, and future plans.
“He’s an excellent and elegant speaker, and he explained the process for purchasing, upgrading, and maintaining his golf course in such a way that he made it easy for a layman like myself to understand,” said Callaway. It was around midnight when Campbell was educating them, and he was scheduled to speak to Expo attendees about Golf Course Ownership at one of the conference meetings at 9:00 a.m. that morning. Afterwards, Callaway and Hackett discussed with each other about the unexpected meeting with Mr. Campbell—and both agreed that it was an “eye-opening” learning experience that highlighted their overall Expo & Forum experience.
Each team member of the AATQ expressed their personal experiences which beams a positive light on the overall quality of the event. Preston Pinkney stated: “If you’re an avid golfer, if you’re into supporting minorities in golf, especially African Americans in golf, it’s the place you want to be at. There was so much networking, so much camaraderie, the vibe and the atmosphere was so pleasant, and so upbeat, so uplifting, it almost reminded me of a church revival because there was so much love in the room. If you missed it, you should definitely go to the next one, it would be a great experience for you and the entire family.”
Anthony Keeton, expressed his Expo experience as follows: “The Expo itself, was a gathering of vendors, products and services. The display was awesome. The opportunity to spend quality time with the industry leaders was invaluable. Several of the vendors left a great impression. Our major event was the forum featuring inclusion and diversity. They expressed their pleasure at the meeting, and they are a dedicated group that allows them to implement more activities and programs to grow more interest in the game.” He concluded by stating, “For all of those interested in prosperity and diversity, join us at the next Expo.”
