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Central Database of Handicaps (CDH)

Scottish CDH Now Live
We are delighted to advise that the Scottish CDH is now live and accepting uploads from affiliated golf clubs.

Individual Member Access
Individual members of affiliated golf club will only be able to access the CDH once their ‘home’ club has uploaded to the CDH and advised you of your own individual, unique CDH ID Number. Once a member receives their own CDH ID Number they can access and register on the CDH at: www.scottishgolf.org/go/cdh_members
(Please note the underscore between cdh and members in this URL).

The Individual CDH Guidance Pack in the Related Documents section provides details of how individual golf club members can register on the CDH and view their own handicap and full player handicap record.

Affiliated Golf Club Access
Affiliated Golf Clubs are able to view the CDH infrastructure before uploading their membership data using the Username and Password recently issued – if any handicap administrators have not received or had access to your club CDH username/password for any reason, please email Fiona Hastie at the SGU offices at f.hastie@scottishgolf.org who can issue a reminder.

To access the CDH Login page, using your allocated username/password, please go to:
www.scottishgolf.org/go/cdh

The Club CDH Guidance Pack in the Related Documents section provides details of how clubs can register and then navigate your way around the information available on the CDH.

The CDH Project
The Scottish Golf Union, Scottish Ladies’ Golfing Association and Golf Union of Wales (GUW) have committed to developing and producing a Central Database of Handicaps (CDH) for golf clubs and their members in Scotland and Wales.

Aimed at providing a wide and vitally important range of benefits to golf club members, affiliated golf clubs, handicapping administrators and the governing bodies, the CDH project will be delivered by the Unions as a service to affiliated clubs.

Whilst this is still a work in progress, we are very keen to keep clubs and software suppliers appraised of progress and to answer any questions that may arise.
Please click on the related documents section to access a summary of the key benefits that the CDH aims to deliver.

CDH UPDATE (November 2011)

Centralised Database of Handicaps – Now Live!
We are delighted to advise clubs that the Central Database of Handicaps (CDH) is now live and operational, with clubs now uploading to the CDH, in conjunction with their handicapping software suppliers.

Once golf clubs receive their 2012 handicapping software updates this process will accelerate with affiliated clubs being offered the opportunity to upload directly to the live CDH. Some handicapping software providers plan to provide their client clubs with step-by-step guidance to enable club to easily administer their own uploads to the CDH.

In addition, once clubs have uploaded to the CDH, please click on the related document to view the SGU/SLGA step by step guidance on how clubs can:
• access the CDH as and when required,
• register on the system
• use the functionality available to handicap administrators

Prior to uploading, we would strongly encourage clubs to consider cleansing out their handicapping databases before uploading to the CDH thus removing any resigned members and/or those members who have unfortunately passed away, to avoid allocating CDH Unique ID numbers that will not be used. Also, to ensure that all club members have access to the benefits provided by the CDH, we would urge clubs to ensure that every golfing member is present in the handicap software at the club.

To recap the CDH will deliver the following benefits to clubs and individual golfers:

Benefits to Golf Clubs
• Your club will receive automatic returns of your members’ Away Scores, which can be selected and updated with a simple click onto your local club handicap records;
• This functionality should substantially reduce the time required by Committees to administer Away Scores and the updating of your members’ handicaps;
• Automatic return of Away Scores via the CDH will now also include the correct CSS and Stableford/Nett Double Bogey Adjustments for every Away Score received by a Home Club;
• Competition administrators will be able to access and authenticate individual golfer’s handicaps via the SGU website for tournament entry purposes;
• Committees will no longer need to manually return Away Scores to the Home Clubs of visiting competitors as this will be automated when closing down your competitions.

Benefits to Individual Golfers
• Golfers will have access to view their Exact and Playing Handicaps on-line via the SGU and SLGA websites and confirm when their Handicap was last updated on the CDH;
• Golfers will also have access to their Playing Handicap Record with all competition results recorded allowing individuals to fulfil their individual handicapping responsibilities under the CONGU® Unified Handicapping System;
• Your members will also be able to opt in to receive SGU/SLGA e-communications featuring special offers, preferential green fees and other additional golf club member benefits.

Next Steps:
We look forward to working with affiliated golf clubs during the coming months as we work towards achieving a critical mass of clubs being registered on the CDH before the start of the next playing season.

CDH UPDATE (July 2010)

We are currently putting finishing touches to the CDH services and will soon be ready to begin uploading club data. Clubs will be invited to upload in a controlled manner taking into account the time of season and allowing time for any necessary trouble shooting (this is not expected to be significant). In readiness for uploading, clubs are requested to do 2 things:

1. Wherever possible, ensure that as many of your members as possible have a full date of birth on your club handicap software so that this will upload to the database (see Q&A for more information about why we need date of birth).
2. Wherever possible, ensure that all members, irrespective of whether they have a handicap or not, are included in your handicap software database (again, see Q&A for more information).

We will provide regular updates over coming weeks which will include detailed instructions and background information.

CDH UPDATE (March 2010)

As presented at our SGU Club Seminars at the end of 2009, the development of the Scottish/Welsh CDH is now reaching its final phases.

We are now in the final stages of development. All CONGU^® licensed independent handicapping software providers (ISVs) have been offered the opportunity to test their data interface with the Scottish/Welsh CDH platform. To date (18/03/10) three ISVs have completed testing and their feedback on this process has been excellent. We have worked together with the CONGU^® licensed ISVs to simplify the interface process, providing these positive results. Once ISVs have completed their testing and software adaptations, which we are urging all to do as soon as possible, ISVs will then in a position to support their clients, our affiliated golf clubs, in processing their initial upload of data onto the CDH.

We plan to start uploading member data onto the CDH over the next few months, in conjunction with affiliated golf clubs and their respective ISVs. This process will be supported by GolfBox to assist the successful upload of data into the database and this will continue throughout 2010. Therefore, the CONGU^®Unified Handicapping System requirement (Clause 8.10) for individual players to return all their 'away' Qualifying Scores remains key in ensuring that players master handicap records are complete and we would appreciate you reminding members of this requirement details of which can be accessed at www.scottishgolf.org/go/handicapping/player-obligations. We will shortly be inviting affiliated golf clubs to provide their member data, as previously intimated, for upload to the CDH. The data that will be requested is:

Member's Name

Member's nominated 'home' golf club (and details of any 'away' club of which they are a member)

Gender

Date of Birth

Player's Handicap Record (for current year and two previous years)

Some golf clubs may not hold some of these data fields, however, it is important that the initial upload provides as much of this data as possible. Once received, the data will be reconciled using our best endeavours, to ensure that any members of the same name and those in membership of more than one golf club are only allocated one unique lifetime CDH ID number. Implementation of the CDH is intended to assist clubs and their handicap administrators by automatically returning player's 'away' scores to their 'home' golf clubs, ensuring the integrity of the CONGU^® Unified Handicapping System's application. The data will also allow the governing bodies to analyse demographic and participation trends within golf, informing our decisions of where to best invest our resources to develop the game and importantly encourage growth in golf club membership.

Regarding compatibility between the Scottish/Welsh CDH solution and the EGU's CDH, all respective parties involved have legally contracted to adopt the same data transfer protocols between club and CDH within our final solutions. We have also agreed that the governing bodies will work together with our IT companies and the CONGU^® licensed ISVs to manage any future development of our respective CDH solutions, in a consistent manner. This enables the transfer of scores across the whole of mainland UK, facilitating cross border golf scenarios and the returning of 'away' scores to the 'home' club of the player, irrespective of which country the 'home' club is located in.

We would like to reiterate some of the original and fundamental principles of the CDH being developed:

The respective Boards of the SGU, SLGA and the Golf Union of Wales (GUW) have agreed that the development of the CDH will be fully funded by the SGU, SLGA and GUW as a service to affiliated golf clubs and from within existing resources.

All golf clubs currently with online access, using a CONGU^® licensed version of handicapping software will be able to interface with the CDH, without any additional purchase of hardware or software. For clubs currently not online we will work closely together to identify the best solutions to enable these clubs to transmit scores to the CDH.

Under no circumstances will any third party commercial organisations be allowed access to any of the personal data contained within the CDH.

As referred to above, a comprehensive list of benefits that the CDH will provide for individual golfers, golf club handicap administrators, Areas/Counties and National Unions/Association is available in the Related Documents section for your information and future reference.

Any queries should be referred to either Kevin Weir on Tel: 01334-466489 Mob.: 07769-671181 or Andy Salmon on Mob: 07825-671466.