GHIN
THE CHANGE IS COMPLETE
After months of talk, weeks of regional training sessions, and much anticipation, Southern California’s six fully licensed USGA golf associations have joined their three counterparts in the northern part of the state, 66 other state/regional golf associations, and 2.2 million golfers nationwide in having their Handicap Indexes and ancillary electronic handicapping services provided by GHIN, a USGA non-profit service.
In January 2010 for the first time in a generation all of California’s fully USGA licensed golf associations will be using the same handicap vendor.
Other items to remember as we approach the new era:
1. You have been unable to post scores between December 22 and January 5. In order to accommodate the changeover the system must be completely shut down for that period. Golfers may keep track of rounds played during this “posting holiday” and enter them into the new system after January 5.
2. GHIN is expected to be fully functional January 6.
3. Your PLGA number will change; however for 96% of the Association’s membership, that means only that GHIN will create their unique 7-digit GHIN number by placing a “9” in front of their existing 6-digit number. The remainder will be issued new 7-digit numbers.
4. Golfers who already have GHIN numbers in Northern California or anywhere else in the nation will retain that number. Please contact the PLGA office as soon as possible, so that come January 2010 we can make sure that your PLGA file and existing GHIN file can be merged.
5. Handicap Revisions will now be twice monthly – on the 1st and 15th of every month. All scores transmitted by 9:00 PM the day prior to the 1st and 15th of every month will be included in the following morning’s Handicap Index revision – a real-time feature not now available. a 12-month Low Handicap Index (LHI) will be made available with each revision.
6. You can receive that “live” Handicap Index revision on the morning of the 1st and 15th of each month via e-mail through a new e-revision / e-newsletter feature. If you already receive your Index via e-mail you need do nothing; you will receive this new and improved service with e-newsletter. If you do not currently receive the e-mail feature, notify the PLGA office of your e-mail address by sending us an e-mail at lcloud@covad.net. The Public Links Golf Association and the USGA have a strict policy of NEVER giving access to any party, third or otherwise, to their e-mail lists for any reason whatsoever. You and your members never need worry about that.
7. Online posting – if your club currently permits online score posting, that service will be transferred to GHIN as well; you will be able to resume Internet posting on January 6.
8. Scores posted at a GHIN facility will be transmitted to the GHIN server at least once per day, allowing for scores to populate throughout the entirety of the GHIN system in no more than 24 hours – on-course computers, web sites, every portal.
9. Golfers will no longer be restricted to posting only where they play; away scores can be posted on a member’s home course computer, or any GHIN computer for that matter. Play away; post at home – something we have never been able to do in Southern California.
10. The USGA’s superb Tournament Pairing Program (TPP), which is accessible and compatible with the entirety of the GHIN membership data base, will be made available to the clubs in spring 2010, as will a series of geographically diverse USGA-led training seminars re the program. Clubs will have access to as many copies of the program they desire at no charge whatsoever – not the first copy, nor the additional ones.
11. The e-clubhouse and e-golfer programs, which provide simple web sites and golf stat tracking systems to clubs at no charge, will be made universally available in summer 2010.
On January 6, 2010 Southern California’s electronic handicapping system became truly seamless. That is, every course computer in the region and every association web site will carry identical information regarding posted scores. Combine that with real-time functionality, significantly improved technology, and somewhat lowered costs, and you just could conclude that Southern California’s allied golf associations made a wise choice when they unanimously agreed to change vendors.
