I didn’t fall in love with golf by watching a ball fly. I fell in love with the people this sport allowed me to meet.
When I first became interested in golf, I wasn’t a golfer.
I knew neither the rules nor the courses.
I didn’t yet know what a birdie or a bogey represented.
And yet…
Something was already drawing me in.
I simply didn’t yet know what it was.
At first, I thought it was the beauty of the landscapes.
The fairways.
The trees.
The calm.
That feeling that time flows differently.
All of this resonated deeply with me.
Then I began meeting the people who bring this world to life.
And I understood that it wasn’t the landscape that moved me most.
It was the human element.
I met passionate directors.
Greenkeepers with remarkable standards.
Craftspeople.
Teachers.
Amateur players.
Professionals.
Volunteers.
They all had different backgrounds.
Different stories.
And yet, I often found something they had in common.
A form of respect.
Consideration for others.
A love of a job well done.
The desire to pass it on.
I remember coming home after some of these encounters with a very simple thought.
“This sport says something far greater than itself.”
He wasn’t talking only about golf.
He talked about patience.
Humility.
Commitment.
Respect.
Trust.
All the qualities that make a company a more pleasant place to be.
Even though the very first idea for Je Peux Pas J'ai Golf was born in a smile, while joking with a dear friend who managed an estate, in front of a T-shirt bearing the words “Je peux pas…”, I believe JPJG’s true identity revealed itself much later.
Through these encounters.
That was when JPJG truly began to take shape.
Not in front of a computer.
Not by designing a logo.
But as the conversations unfolded.
Handshakes.
Looks.
Stories we share.
I then thought that it might be possible to create a brand that would not speak only about golf.
A brand that would use golf to highlight the human qualities I had been fortunate enough to discover.
I do not claim that golf makes people better.
No sport possesses this power on its own.
But I believe it creates an environment where certain qualities naturally find their place.
Patience.
Listening.
Respect for others.
Respect for the place.
Self-respect.
And it deeply touched me.
Even today, I sometimes smile when I think about that paradox.
I was not a golfer when I envisioned JPJG.
And yet, golf changed the way I look at certain things.
It reminded me that the true wealth of a world lies not only in what it allows us to do.
It lies in the people we meet there.
When people ask me why I created JPJG, I could answer that it is a clothing brand.
But that would not be the truth.
The truth is much simpler.
JPJG was born because I met women and men who made me want to share what they embody.
The clothing came afterward.
The story already existed.
If someone ever asks me what golf has given me that is most precious, I probably would not speak of a course or a score.
I would speak of faces.
Conversations.
Handshakes.
Smiles.
Because deep down, I believe golf gave me what all the most beautiful journeys offer us one day.
The encounter.
And it was this encounter that, one morning, gave birth to JPJG.
Continue reading the Journal: Encounters that give travel meaning