By Tim Hartin
Jim Pavonetti, certified golf course superintendent and director of golf course and grounds at Fairview Country Club was slightly skeptical about social media when one of his assistants introduced it to him in 2013. But through the years, Pavonetti has embraced the virtual social scene, enjoying the opportunity to learn from others and share bits of knowledge that can help fellow superintendents.
“I didn’t realize there was this whole golf turf community that basically interacted with each other and bounced stuff off each other, like a big brotherhood,” says Pavonetti, who has been at the Greenwich, Conn., club since 2008 and earned the MGA’s Arthur P. Weber Environmental Leader in Golf Award in 2019. “So, it was kind of a neat, eye-opening experience. I’ve learned a lot of things, shared a lot of things, and helped a lot of people along the way.”
Pavonetti is active on LinkedIn, and more recently Instagram, but most often enjoys the conversational interactions generated on X (formerly Twitter).
He also enjoys finding honest, first-hand feedback if he’s researching a new product, while he’ll provide the same insight to help others.
“Maybe you want to try this new mower, or new product, or fertilizer and you can just put it out there,” says Pavonetti, who last summer joined the Board of Directors for Audubon International. “People will come back and there’s no filter. They can say it’s no good, or it’s the best thing they’ve added to their program.”
Pavonetti has around 4,600 followers on X, where he goes by @jim_pav and has had some far-reaching posts. He recalls two that gained a lot of traction: one featuring a video of his team using a unit to roll fairways and one showing sensors mounted to his cart that map out moisture levels on fairways, aid in dialing in irrigation, and in the end help the club save water. The topics continue to generate conversations and even phone calls when he posts about them.
About the fairway moisture sensors, Pavonetti says, “Whenever I post, it’s guaranteed I’m talking to people in Minnesota, California, Florida, Texas, all over the place, who are interested in how I use them.”
Of course, Pavonetti’s border collie Ruger gets lots of love, too, often shown patrolling the property. As social media would have it, another superintendent in Georgia noticed a striking similarity between Ruger’s gait and that of his own border collie – it turned out that the dogs are siblings, both bought from a small farm in Connecticut. You never know what you’ll get on social media.
For Pavonetti, his foray into the platforms has served him well in more ways than one, and he encourages others in the profession to take advantage of the opportunities that it provides.