Kaminski Award: Chad Allen

Chad Allen might just be the very best of us.

If he isn’t, he’s at least the very best of us who are active on turf social media.

The Club at Chatham Hills golf course superintendent promotes his team and his course more than he ever promotes himself on his @BentgrassWizard X account and professional LinkedIn page. He reads and he learns, he adapts and installs, he teaches and pays everything forward.

And one year after winning a Super Social Media Award for Best Idea Shared, he is now the recipient of the 13th annual John Kaminski Award for Social Media Leadership, the top honor for turf social media.

Allen will be honored along with other social media award winners on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at the Social Media Celebration at Aquatrols booth #2747 during the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in Phoenix. The event begins at 2:30 p.m., with winners being honored around 3 p.m. The event is open to all and includes free drinks.

Allen will celebrate there, of course — “I learn the most about people when I meet them face to face,” he says. “Social media can only give you so much.” — but he plans to really celebrate one night later this year, when his wife and daughter attend a Taylor Swift concert with friends and he remains at home. “It’s during the heat of the season, so it will be a nice reprieve,” he says with a laugh.

How has your approach to social media changed over the last year?

I’m pretty consistent. I’m a firm believer in being yourself. I’m a newbie in this industry and on Turf Twitter, and what I’ve seen is just continued exponential growth of sharing and open-mindedness and conversations. There’s always going to be negativity but that doesn’t change the way I approach anything. You’re not going to win everybody over, and that’s not my goal. The first and foremost goal of any post I make is to praise and give gratitude and glory to the people who make it happen — our staff. The No. 1 thing for me is to make sure the attention is paid to the right people.  

Who do you enjoy seeing and talking with on social media?

I can’t tell you how much I love John Reilly. I’ve never even met him and I’m so excited to meet him at the show. The way that he just approaches everything to the nth degree, my gosh, what a guy to represent what we’re doing out there. Anything he puts out there, I would like 1,000 times. Matthew Wharton, (Chris) Tritabaugh, Micah (Woods), they are the people I look to whenever I’m trying to advance what I’m doing out here. They’re always pushing it, they’re always asking questions, they’re succeeding, they’re failing, and they’re letting you know. Whatever they’re putting out there, I’m picking up right away.

How do you approach both professional and personal social media?

I learned about how important all this is at Green Start (Academy) from John Cunnigham. He was talking about how much social media can have an impact on not just your career but your understanding of the industry. That’s when I got into it, and I made a commitment that I would use those two social media platforms for business purposes only. Sometimes I’ll put a little family stuff on there. I don’t veer from that. I don’t go on Instagram, I don’t go on TikTok, I don’t do Snapchat or anything like that, just because I spend a lot of time on these two platforms already. I’m an all-in or all-out guy. I have to make sure that when I’m using these, I’m using them responsibly, I’m not just flipping through them all the time. Those two have the greatest impact and can touch the broadest base of people I’m looking to connect with. For me, two is plenty.

What are you looking forward to about turf social media in 2024?

I hope we can continue to keep this thing going and for people to continue to share and know that there are people out there who care and want what’s best for you. It’s up to us to continue to push positivity and let people know that this is an open-minded platform where professionals can come and be who they are, and we’ll support them along the way.

Matt LaWell is Golf Course Industry’s managing editor.