UNconventional Golf is a bold and revealing series produced by passionate golfers who want to share the lesser-known stories and anecdotes. It aims to spark a cultural change by making golf accessible to wider audiences and better understanding the infrastructure needed to further broaden the sport’s reach and inclusivity.
We were fortunate enough to contribute to the project and got to spend plenty of time with the man behind the idea: Maxime Charron. This past summer, he and his team stopped by different courses including Club de golf de l'Île de Montréal, Club de golf Le Blainvillier and Golf Ste-Rose with cameras in tow. Here’s the very first episode of UNconventional Golf featuring hiatus golf, an interview with Maxime and some exclusive photos.
Episode 1 - UNconventional Golf x hiatus golf
Interview with Maxime Charron from Un Golf.
What’s the idea behind UNconventional Golf? Tell us more about it.
With golf becoming more and more popular since the pandemic and with me consuming more and more YouTube golf content, I was really inspired and motivated to dedicate resources to exploring the market. Meeting Branden and Shauheen of Nakhjavani Golf, a golf coaching and performance studio in Montréal, set things in motion.
In 2021, we developed projects together, and I started creating content for their business and performance centre. Together, we produced training videos for the Core Golf app and some promos and drills with the coaching team. I had the opportunity to follow the two brothers around California to produce content with Callaway, which is their sponsor. My childhood dream!
In talking with Callaway, I quickly realized there was space for more quality content in the northeastern US and Canada. That’s what launched UNconventional Golf.
UNconventional brings together content production and strategic talents at Les Productions HERD and Flair. In the simplest terms, we want to support golf brands, businesses and organizations as they grow. Through branded content and collaborations with broadcasters, we also want to become a quality media outlet. We’re about opportunities and partnerships that’ll enable us to produce relevant content that reflects who we are and tells our stories as golf extends its reach.
Why launch UNconventional now, with the Presidents Cup in town?
Last June, I got in touch with my good friend Olivier Châtelain at Flair to finalize the project’s structure. We both love golf, and I knew he’d be on board. We brought in our teams and decided September 2024 would be our target for the launch. We wanted to take advantage of the media momentum surrounding the Presidents Cup to activate our platforms.
The 2024 phase of the project was like a spec campaign—a fake-real approach to prove what we could do. Even before the launch, we got a lot of attention, support and interest from key partners. It was a solid endorsement that legitimized the energy we’d been investing.
And now, we have an amazing list of products to round out 2024, and our 2025 initiatives are very bold, which is how I like things to be! We know next year, which’ll be our first full year, is going to be incredible.
Producing is clearly your passion. Why golf content?
Most of my content features different artists and creators. Their approaches and outlooks often structure the narrative aspects of the campaigns, and those elements can be transposed to golf content. Without relying on too many euphemisms, passion is what guides the hearts of artists, entrepreneurs and golfers. Passion and nostalgia are two elements that translate easily to the screen. The narrative canons of golf are forged from those two concepts, and that makes my job super easy. The downside is that since I’ve started making golf content, I’ve never played so little golf!
How important is golf in your life?
When I was a teenager, golf was my summer camp. After a hiatus (ha!) of nearly 15 years, I got back into it. Today, it’s an opportunity to take a break from work and everyday life and escape for a few hours every week. I try to be in the moment and not look at my phone. I can’t really turn it off because you never know when a call will come in from your kid’s daycare!
Golf in Québec, what’s it missing?
It needs to get out of its solitude. Overall, I find the market and culture very closed. But the influx of a younger clientele that’s more aware of what’s going on culturally outside Québec is starting to move the needle. Initiatives by people and organizations like hiatus and, hopefully, UNconventional are great examples that there’s space for a new status quo.
.jpeg)
What inspires you?
Doers inspire me. People who have a vision and hustle their way up. It’s motivating to look at them and say: if they can do it, why couldn’t I?
How do golf and entrepreneurship intersect?
In production and in golf, you have to be ready to react to the unexpected. On the course and on the set, when the shit hits the fan, it’s your problem. You have to stay calm, find solutions and get back to your game plan quickly. The same goes for good and bad seasons. Embrace the good business and golf seasons. And when the season’s bad, it’s time for some honest introspection to understand why things are going the way they are. The important thing is always to get back to the basics, which, in my opinion, is all about having fun.
What’s your hope for golf over the next few years?
More diversity on the courses and more mixed events on the tours.
What’s your favourite club in your bag?
My sand wedge. It gets me through a lot of situations and distances without too much trouble. I also hit my only hole-in-one with it, so that makes me like it even more.
Tell us about the best time you’ve had on the golf course.
My golf trip with The Golfer’s Journal to Cabot Cape Breton last July. I love the magazine, and Cabot had been on my bucket list for a long time. It was right before my daughter was born, so it was a good compromise since my dream trip to Scotland couldn’t happen. Ask me again after I’ve gone to Scotland. My answer might be different!
