Charlotte, N.C. (April 17, 2015) – Jacobsen, a Textron Inc (NYSE: TXT) company congratulates Superintendent Gerald Flaherty, CGSA and Golf Professional Jamie Sharp from The Valley Club in Hailey, Idaho for winning the first-annual Excellence in Innovation Award presented by Turf Republic.
This award aims to recognize men and women in the turf industry who are using innovative new ideas to save time, reduce costs, and create a better experience for players. The pair won it for their creation of the TaskTracker, a web-based application for tracking labor costs.
“After working at numerous courses around the country, I came to the realization that more often than not, we focus on tracking equipment costs, but don’t have any consistent way of tracking labor costs,” said Flaherty. “I noticed that when labor was tracked, it was usually done on a whiteboard that would get erased at the end of each day. This struck me as very inefficient, wasteful and frustrating.”
This understanding led Flaherty to trade out his whiteboard for a TV monitor and electronic charts, where he recorded all course jobs and the associated costs. Soon after, he reached out to the course’s golf professional, Jamie Sharp, who had more extensive knowledge of data management tools.
After a month of programming, the TaskTracker was born. This web-based application can easily store and retrieve labor data from all areas of turf maintenance including bunker maintenance, green speed, hand-watering fairways and even tennis court maintenance. In addition to recording data, the application can provide financial analysis and reports.
Within the first year of the launch, the TaskTracker has grown to over 150 users worldwide. Users can adapt the application to their specific needs, which makes it a truly global application for superintendents.
“Jacobsen is proud to sponsor Turf Republic’s Excellence in Innovation Award and we congratulate Gerald and Jamie on their novel idea,” said David Withers, President of Jacobsen. “It continues to amaze me how creative and innovative superintendents can be. This is a great example of how one idea can spread and help superintendents around the world.”
About Jacobsen
With over 90 years of experience in the turf maintenance industry, Jacobsen has built a legacy of precision craftsmanship, legendary quality-of-cut and unmatched expertise. Dedicated solely to delivering perfectly groomed turf, Jacobsen equipment is used on some of the finest golf courses, sports fields and other formal turf areas across the United States and the world, through an extensive distribution network and the international Ransomes brand. Additional information about the company can be found at www.jacobsen.com/americas.
About Textron Inc.
Textron Inc. is a multi-industry company that leverages its global network of aircraft, defense, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna, Beechcraft, Hawker, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO, Greenlee, and Textron Systems. For more information visit: www.textron.com/.
For further information please contact:
Adam Slick, Manager, Public Relations and Communications
11108 Quality Drive, Charlotte, NC 28273
Tel: 704-504-4867
Email: aslick@textron.com
Gerald Flaherty (left), Superintendent of the Valley Club, was presented with the Excellence in Innovation Award at the 2015 Golf Industry Show in San Antonio, Texas by Jacobsen President David Withers (right).
The TaskTracker, shown above, allows superintendents to better track and report on labor data at their courses.