The South African Golf Association (SAGA) and Women's Golf South Africa (WGSA) has awarded Albatros Golf Solutions (Albatros) the Central Handicap Server tender, it was announced today.

The Central Handicap File Server will act as a repository for scores recorded by amateur golfers at golf courses affiliated to provincial unions who are members of the SAGA and WGSA. The server will be programmed to calculate current handicaps and make this information available to golf clubs and players.

"After nearly four months of evaluation the SAGA and WGSA concluded that Albatros' submission was the best fit for amateur golf," said Enver Hassen, President of the SAGA. "We intend going live with the Central Handicap Server from 1 February 2010," explained Hassen.

"We are indeed honoured to be awarded the tender," said Volker Schorp, Managing Director of Albatros.

Albatros is a German company that has specialised in golf IT since 1986. It is based in Karlsruhe, Germany. "In June last year we opened an office in South Africa," said Schorp.

"Albatros and its partners currently provides the interface in various parts and formats in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and the operation for a central handicap file server in Russia and now South Africa," pointed out Gareth Beesley, Executive Manager of Albatros in South Africa. Other countries in which Albatros operates are France, Italy, Benelux (The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg), Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey.

"The WGSA and SAGA were looking, through the tender process, to work with a company that had experience in the provision of services through a central handicap server. Albatros not only displayed this but also provided added benefits that will assist us in developing business opportunities to our mutual benefit," said Erica Lefson, WGSA President.

Hassen pointed out that further detail on the roll out of the services envisaged, through its partnership with Albatros, will be provided in due course. "We plan to hold workshops with stakeholders over the coming weeks in which the detail regarding roll out to clubs will be concluded and thereafter communicated."

Article from the SAGA Website

Compleat Golfer magazine has recently blogged about Virtual Clubs. The Mole has some thoughts, and we think everyone should get in on the debate.

Have a look at the article on Compleat Golfer here

Our response in part:

"Here are some statistics for all clubs thinking "Virtual" members are sucking the life out of respectable clubs.

We have taken the number of games our members have played at from 7 random clubs that Skukuza members have played at.
Below you will see Club Name - Games Played - Rands club earned @ per game is around R200
Wanderers - 588 games - R117 600.00
CMR - 841 games - R 168 200.00
Randpark - 1321 games - R264 200.00
Silver Lakes - 560 games - R112 000.00
Nelspruit - 487 games - R97 400.00
Krugersdorp - 806 games - R161 200.00
Leeuwkop - 1345 games - R269 000.00

In total, the games registered by Skukuza members are 67 774. At an average of R200 per game thats R 13 554 800.00

Now take into account not every game has been registered (about half), so you're looking at way more than R 26 000 000 the clubs have earned from the "Virtual" members.

Add their spending on halfway house and the compulsary pint at say R 50.00 per person that is an additional R 3 000 000, we get to R 29 000 000

That is income from people who were not members of clubs, plays once a month or less and never would have started playing if not for Virtual Clubs.

And the clubs conveniently forget the number of virtual members, who have subsequently joined their local club, as they were beginning to enjoy golf.

If that doesn't pay for some upkeep of the golf courses, I don't know what does."

Dear Members,

Due to a situation between the South African Golf Association and the NGN regarding the status of Affiliation to clubs, without one having an NGN card, has become an issue!

Accordingly, as it stands, we are not sure what the exact ramifications are in respect to affiliation of our members to SAGA and are making representation to SAGA for an urgent amiable resolution to the situation.

Therefor, certain clubs could raise this issue with you and all we can suggest, at present, is to refer it to SAGA. After all, SAGA did write us a letter dated 30th January 2009, which clearly states that one does NOT require an NGN card to prove affiliation.

Download the official SAGA document

We regret that this situation has arisen, but this is completely beyond our control.

23/01/09 - New Clubs to become a member of
Global Handicaps have added two new clubs for you to become a member of. Tanglewood Golf Club in Natal as well as Tanglewood Golf club in Gauteng. More information about the benefits of these clubs can be viewed on The Tour

07/05/08 - View Messages sent to you!
We have implemented a system where you can view all the correspondence we have sent to you. Log in to your account and you will see:

The game of Golf keeps on becoming more and more popular and new players are participating every day.

This creates a problem in the game as there are now many players out there who are unable to produce a recognizable handicap which can create unhappiness with handicapped players when playing in the various competitions offered by clubs and companies.

Then again, new players, who want to obtain an official handicap, may be hesitant in paying high joining and annual membership fees if they may not even know if they will still be playing in a years time or will be playing sufficient games in a year to justify such an expense.

Global Handicaps have the solution to this and are offering really affordable memberships (under R 700.00 p.a.) which will provide you with an Official Handicap. Avoid the unpleasantness of not being able to produce a handicap and join either Skukuza or Port St Johns and start enjoying the game. And sure, when in the future you want to join a club near you, your handicap will be transferred.

Take the Tour to see the options available or click on the Join Now button.

Global Handicaps are pleased to be able to provide membership to both Tanglewood Golf Club Kwazulu Natal as well as Tanglewood Golf Club Gauteng. You can now choose to become a member of either club by registering with us.

Take the tour of Tanglewood Golf Club for more information.

Global membership allows you to purely track your handicap on our website. You will not receive a membership card. This service is offered free of charge.

Register for Global Membership

Introduce a new member to Port St John and we will credit your account with R 100.00 against your next debit. How can you lose?

Just make sure that the new member quotes your GH Number and make sure you receive the credit note. As simple as all that. Enjoy your golf.

We have an online Support Ticketing system for all issues such as:

1. Account Queries
2. Adding Scores
3. Technical/Website related

You can access our Support site by clicking here

Take the Global Handicaps Tour of all our clubs available to you. This shows you what each club offers, what are your benefits and other essential information.

Click here for the tour