2025 Kaminski Award: Jayson Griffiths

A 45-minute chat with Jayson Griffiths meanders into analytical and experiential perspective about the golf industry, agronomics and life. A 45-second scroll of his X feed demonstrates how Griffiths deftly uses measured thoughts and observations to share concise, consumable, behind-the-scenes glimpses at the hows and whys of high-level agronomics.

Griffiths’ ability to consistently infuse his feed with thoughtful words and images enlightens London Hunt and Country Club members and industry peers. His communication prowess and persistence have landed him the Kaminski Award, the highest honor bestowed on a turf leader as part of the annual Super Social Media Awards presented by Golf Course Industry and The Aquatrols Company. 

The London Hunt director of agronomy will be joined by his wife and biggest supporter, Jennifer, during the 2025 Super Social Media Celebration at the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in San Diego. The celebration is at 2:30 p.m. PT, Wednesday, Feb. 5, at Aquatrols booth #4025. The event is open to all. Free drinks will be served before, during and after the ceremony.  

Griffiths is the second Canadian to receive the Kaminski Award in the celebration’s 14-year history. London Hunt, where Griffiths has worked since 2012, is a private club in London, Ontario, a city between Detroit and Toronto with more than 400,000 residents.

A reality of living and working above Lake Erie led to Griffiths joining the turf Twitter community in 2014. The winter of 2013-14 proved punishing and caused severe winter damage at hundreds of Ontario courses, including London Hunt, which was scheduled to host the 2014 Canadian Women’s Open. The club’s general manager, Jon Nusink, suggested Griffiths use social media to illustrate and document recovery efforts.

“Our general manager is very supportive, and he said, ‘Jayson, there’s a thing called Twitter. Maybe you should do that,’” Griffiths says. “I initially thought, ‘Another thing I have to do.’ I was doing four newsletters, a clippings enews, direct news and I’m a very hands-on superintendent. I’m around the first tee, and I love to be out there with the crew. I told him, ‘Sure, I’ll try it.’ Once I was on Twitter, I learned it was a great opportunity and I focused my thought process on who I was speaking to: the greens chair, the greens committee and the membership.”

Griffiths views the platform as a digital journal, pairing brief descriptions with images. He remembers a lesson from his mentor and Ontario turf legend Ken Wright while drafting posts. “He used to say, ‘A short pencil is better than a long memory,’” Griffiths says. “That has always stuck in my brain.”

London Hunt successfully hosted the 2014 Canadian Women’s Open — one of Canada’s signature sporting events — and Griffiths continued using social media. “I’m a very visual person,” he adds, “and I take pictures every day of something that triggers my brain of what we are doing that day or the next day and process it, and then I figure out how can I tell a story about this.”

Our fascinating conversation with Griffiths as part of his award yielded terrific advice for peers seeking to effectively use social media for work purposes.

What makes for an effective social media post?

For me, this has to be a bit of artistry. Some pictures of mine are purely an artistic image. Things like fog or a red flag with a background. It’s a grab, so you have to have a photograph that tells a message about what you want to say in a short period of time. You need to have an interesting photograph. There are so many pictures of mundane. And then you think about tying a picture with a small video. How do you do that? You get a clip. It can’t be too long. It has to be just to the point. People are really fascinated with videos. On top of that, I sometimes tend to add links and the links that I add are usually to research. I don’t really repost, but I’ll link something within the message so you can get more information about the topic. You have to get a quick message across.

How do you fit such thoughtful social media use into your schedule? 

There was an image I just saw about clarity and being stoic and just having three or four things each day and focusing on those. If you do that, you’ll be more successful. I’ve always been more observational. It’s ingrained in me, I suppose. I’m just always aware of the weather. Weather drives the ship, and I’m always looking at the clock, and what’s coming next and what should we do. Even this week, we have three contractors here on site, I know the Masters is coming up soon and we have onboarding. We recently just hired a new second assistant superintendent, which is exciting. How do you message those things? It’s just being observant of what the day brings. I don’t want to put something out like, ‘Oh, we had 6 inches of snow today,’ because I don’t think that will get a lot of traction. I don’t have a special plan about what I’m going to post. Some days I think I’m not going to do this anymore; I’m just going to stop. I’ve taken breaks for a three- or four-day period, or when Jennifer and I take winter vacation with the family. I’ll observe, I won’t do much. It then comes back to me. It’s my nature. It can be a cyclical industry, and you just want to show effort. It’s knowing there’s a slow, steady process daily and sometimes it ebbs and flows.

How has being on social media helped you and the golf course?

It’s not an inexpensive activity looking after a large, private facility. We have a big practice facility, plus trap and skeet, and it’s dynamic. We value every dollar we are given. We don’t take that for granted. To have that relationship with our golf director and our general manager, and it trickles to all the board levels. They are aware of what we are doing. I think that’s the biggest thing … our greens chair, the standards committee, they know what’s going on. It’s just part of being visible to know they have assurances we are looking after their best interest.

Guy Cipriano is Golf Course Industry’s publisher + editor-in-chief.