Since our last communication, Scottish Golf have met with a number of Golf Clubs through various meetings and regional forums. A key topic of discussion was about the upcoming implementation of the World Handicap System (WHS) in 2020.
A common piece of feedback was about the proposed solution from Scottish Golf to push handicap/scoring data from the WHS system to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in order for them to continue administering club competitions and publish results. However, ISVs were concerned about the technical challenges this presented and some Golf Clubs preferred a solution that supported continued use of recently purchased ISV software / hardware products.
As the national governing body, it is our duty to work in the best interest of our affiliated clubs and the end users. With this in mind the decision has been taken to allow accredited ISVs access to pull player handicaps from the Central Database of Handicaps (CDH) for competition purposes only. This solves the technical challenges raised and supports some Golf Club’s requests to continue using their current system.
It is, however, important to note that Scottish Golf are the only authorised body responsible for affiliated members’ handicaps and therefore all competition scores must be sent to the WHS CDH for handicap processing. Any golfer can review their handicap record via the Scottish Golf platform on any of the following available sources: Scottish Golf App, Scottish Golf iPad, or Scottish Golf website.
No ISV will be licensed to present any handicap data to affiliated members via any other source.
The above covers competition results only and where it comes to General Play scores being submitted for handicapping purposes, members will need to use a Scottish Golf iPad supplied to Clubs free of charge (i) by Scottish Golf or via the Scottish Golf App. General play scoring is a new requirement under WHS that means any golfer can submit a score for handicapping at any golf club on any day as long as they have pre-registered their intent prior to submitting a score. This will ensure that players get a consistent interface when entering general play scores as they travel around the country.
We would like to thank all clubs who have contributed to this process, and we look forward to the implementation of WHS in November 2020.
(i) These iPads are optional for all affiliated clubs.
