Changes in Version 10.0 Edition
What's new in HandicapMaster 10.0
- Handicapping
- HandicapMaster Editions
- World Handicap System Handicapping
- Course Rating and Slope Rating
- Calculating Course and Playing Handicaps
- Competition Results Reports
- Changes in terminology
- 'Plus' Handicaps
- Limit on number of Tees to use in a competition is removed
- Scores now sent through to WHS Platform automatically
- Changes to the PUBLISH wizard
- Course Scorecards
- 'Out of Region' Players
- Mandatory Handicap Allowances
- Viewing Handicap Scores
- Viewing 'Away' Scores returned by your members
- Viewing Playing Conditions Calculation (PCC) report
- Types of scores that may be recorded
- Downloading latest Handicap Indexes of Members
- CONGU Handicapping facilities removed
- Local Handicapping
- Reference Score and Course Difficulty
- Calculating Tee Handicap and Strokes Received
- Competition Results Reports
- Changes in terminology
- 'Plus' Handicaps
- Limit on number of Tees to use in a competition is removed
- Archive of Past Handicap Records
Handicapping
In this version, support for the following handicapping systems is removed:
- CONGU Unified Handicapping System,
- European Golf Association (EGA) Handicap System, and
- Society handicapping.
The following handicapping options are introduced:
- World Handicap System® (England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland).
- Local Handicapping.
'Local' handicapping replaces 'Society' handicapping, offering organisations unaffiliated to national golf unions and federations the capability to run handicapping based upon an 'average of player's best recent scores' system.
HandicapMaster Editions
HandicapMaster editions are renamed as WHS and LOCAL and are available as 'SILVER' or 'GOLD' in either.
Existing HandicapMaster editions are renamed as follows:
- 'Club' edition becomes 'WHS-SILVER',
- 'Premier' and 'Network' editions become 'WHS-GOLD',
- 'EGA-Club' and 'Society' editions become 'LOCAL-SILVER', and
- 'EGA-Premier', 'EGA-Network' and 'Society-Network' editions become 'LOCAL-GOLD'.
A new Tournament edition is introduced for organisations in England and Wales, who are not an affiliated club, but who are authorised to operate WHS Handicap Counting competitions. This edition includes a facility for organisers to request access to WHS Platform Course Details from clubs where they are due to play their events.
World Handicap System Handicapping
The WHS editions are modified so that the Handicap Index calculations are performed by the external services run the UK and Ireland Golf Unions. In these editions, HandicapMaster no longer calculates handicaps or maintains a handicap record; this function is performed by the services operated by the Unions (their 'WHS Platform').
Course Rating and Slope Rating
All WHS editions now use Course Rating and Slope Rating for courses as the basis of calculating Handicapping values. Use of 'Standard Scratch Score' is removed.
Calculating Course and Playing Handicaps
All WHS editions now calculate player's Course Handicap and Playing Handicap, based upon the Slope Rating for the tees played from, and the Handicap allowance applied.
When entering, or viewing an entered score in an opened competition, you may elect to view the calculations that have been applied when calculating the player's Course and Playing Handicaps. An additional button is added to the scorecard screen in the HandicapMaster app for this purpose.
When viewed, a report of the calculations will be displayed:
Competition Results Reports
With Handicap adjustments no longer being undertaken in HandicapMaster for WHS editions, handicapping data is no longer displayed on competition results reports.
The following changes in terminology have been applied:
- Exact Handicap becomes Handicap Index,
- Playing Handicap becomes Course Handicap,
- Strokes Received becomes Playing Handicap,
- Supplementary Scores become General Play Scores.
'Plus' Handicaps
Where a handicap index is mathematically below zero, this is known as a Plus Handicap.
Plus handicaps are now shown with a plus symbol, rather than as a negative number. These index values may be entered in a format such as '+1' or as '-1' as previous.
Limit on number of Tees to use in a competition is removed
You are no longer limited to two Tees per gender when configuring the Tees to be available for players to choose from in a singles competition.
Scores now sent through to WHS Platform automatically
You no longer need to 'Publish' from HandicapMaster to send scores to the WHS Platform. Scores will be sent automatically (in the background), typically within 5 minutes of being entered into HandicapMaster.
This helps to ensure scores are received by the WHS Platform prior to midnight on the day they are entered.
A new item Scores to be Submitted is added to the Handicapping place. This allows you to see any outstanding scores that have not yet been sent to the WHS platform, or have been sent but have been rejected by the Platform. You may cancel a problem score from being submitted from here.
A new handicapping report Handicap Score Submission Log is added. This provides a log of the scores that have been sent through to the WHS Platform, including details of any errors that have occurred.
Changes to the PUBLISH wizard
The behaviour of the Publish wizard (in respect to the WHS service) is modified to send membership data updates to the WHS only. It no longer sends handicap or score data, and is dependent upon the region.
For England and Scotland, it will send Name, Gender, Date of Birth and E-mail addresses, where required, to the WHS Platform.
Wales Golf and Golf Ireland do not provide any facility for HandicapMaster to update membership data on their WHS Platforms. There is no longer any requirement to run the Publish wizard for WHS reasons if you are based in Wales or Ireland.
Course Scorecards
In order to ensure consistency between competition scoring and handicap index calculations, the Golf Unions require the course details to be entered into their WHS Platform. The values entered into the WHS Platform have to be downloaded and these values used in HandicapMaster, when sending any scores for handicapping purposes.
Existing Course Scorecards that you have in HandicapMaster will now be declared as 'Not for Handicap Counting'. You may only use these 'not for Handicap Counting' courses for competitions where the scores are not deemed as acceptable scores for WHS handicapping.
Where your scores are to be sent to the WHS Platform for adding to player's handicaps, you must use course scorecards downloaded from the WHS Platform.
Whilst you may add and update 'Not for Handicap Counting' courses, you cannot edit course scorecards downloaded from the WHS Platform. The data for these must be amended on the WHS Platform first, and then subsequently re-downloaded to HandicapMaster.
'Out of Region' Players
A new option to declare a player as Out of Region is added.
This is for the situation where the player holds a WHS handicap in a territory that the local WHS service does not have a link with (for example an overseas player), and therefore access to the player's WHS handicap online is not available.
You may enter a Handicap Index for a player declared as out of region, and manually update this index when required.
Important:
- The handicap index held in HandicapMaster is not recalculated or automatically updated after scores are entered for an out of region player.
- Scores entered for out of region players are not sent to the WHS server and will not be returned to the player's country for adding to their record. The player will need to take a paper copy of their score and return this to their home club.
Please refer to your National Union for a list of countries that the local WHS service has links with.
Mandatory Handicap Allowances
UK and Ireland Golf Unions are introducing mandatory handicap allowances for various formats of play (such as 95% Handicap for singles play in competitions). Where these allowances have been defined, competition templates and competitions already opened are adjusted to use the mandatory allowances.
Viewing Handicap Scores
You may display the twenty scores that count towards the calculations for a player's Handicap Index.
Select Reports drop-down menu, then Player Records, then Playing Record. Select the player and click OK. The Handicap Record tab will display the player's 20 scores. The best scores that will count towards the player's index are highlighted in bold yellow.
Important: In some regions, the National Union has elected not to make this information available.
Viewing 'Away' Scores returned by your members
You may display an Away Handicap Scores report showing any recent scores that your members have returned away from your course.
Under the WHS system, away scores are applied directly to player's handicaps (overnight) and therefore it becomes important that Club Officials have ready access to this information.
Important: In some regions, the National Union has elected not to make this information available.
To run this report, select Reports drop-down menu, then Handicapping Reports, then Away Handicap Scores. Choose a date range and click OK.
Viewing Playing Conditions Calculation (PCC) report
You may display a report showing the dates when the Playing Conditions Calculation (PCC) for your courses resulted in a handicap adjustment (that is, was not zero).
Important: In some regions, the National Union has elected not to make this information available.
To run this report, select Reports drop-down menu, then Handicapping Reports, then Playing Conditions Calculation. Choose a date range and click OK.
Types of scores that may be recorded
In addition to competition scores, the following types of scores may be recorded through HandicapMaster:
- Cards to obtain an initial Handicap Index,
- General Play scores, and
- Penalty scores ('Artificial' scores).
It is no longer possible to enter scores returned at another venue, due to WHS licencing restrictions by the UK and Ireland National Unions.
Downloading latest Handicap Indexes of Members
When you start HandicapMaster for the first time each day, the latest Handicap Indexes of your members are downloaded.
If you leave Player Entry running, the latest Handicap Indexes of your members will be downloaded overnight.
CONGU Handicapping facilities removed
With the closure of the CONGU Unified Handicapping System and the centralisation of handicap records under WHS, the following facilities are removed from HandicapMaster:
- Annual Review,
- Continuous Handicap Review,
- Recording 'Away' scores,
- 'Competition' handicap status ('c' Handicap Status) and
- Suspending and Restoring Handicaps.
Local Handicapping
Reference Score and Course Difficulty
All LOCAL editions now use Reference Score and Course Difficulty for courses as the basis of calculating Handicapping values. Use of 'Standard Scratch Score' is removed.
You will need to enter Reference Score and Course Difficulty values where you have upgraded from the previous HandicapMaster 'Society' edition.
Calculating Tee Handicap and Strokes Received
All LOCAL editions now calculate player's Tee Handicap and Strokes Received, based upon the Course Difficulty for the tees played from, and the Handicap allowance applied.
When entering, or viewing an entered score in an opened competition, you may elect to view the calculations that have been applied when calculating the player's Tee Handicap and Strokes Received. An additional button is added to the scorecard screen in the HandicapMaster app for this purpose.
When viewed, a report of the calculations will be displayed:
The following changes in terminology have been applied:
- Exact Handicap becomes Handicap,
- Playing Handicap becomes Tee Handicap,
- Strokes Received is unchanged.
'Plus' Handicaps
Where a handicap is mathematically below zero, this is known as a Plus Handicap.
Plus handicaps are now shown with a plus symbol, rather than as a negative number. These handicap values may be entered in a format such as '+1' or as '-1' as previous.
Limit on number of Tees to use in a competition is removed
You are no longer limited to two Tees per gender when configuring the Tees to be available for players to choose from in a singles competition.
Archive of Past Handicap Records
A new report option Handicap Record Archive is added, giving access to player's handicap records from previous editions of HandicapMaster.