Yesterday, [The Natal Mercury] reported on plans to introduce a computerised affiliation card for golfers which would help curtail the incidence of golf ringers.
Additional information has since come to light concerning a mechanism which is already in existence through MTN`s National Golf Network -which uses `tried-and-tested` magnetic stripe technology. With some 25 000 of South Africa`s golfers already registered on the system, the MTN sponsored system has been restricting the activities of golf cheats since September 1996.
Nico Spence, director of Business & Design Software - the company which developed the system, says the project was initiated in Gauteng at the beginning of last year and has already begun to spread to golf clubs in the both the eastern and western Cape regions as well as Kwazulu/Natal.
"We are currently on a recruitment drive in the Durban area," he says, "have signed up one club and expect to have two more on our books by the week-end." Elaborating on the benefits of the National Golf Network, Spence says that it was a natural extension to - and integrated into - his company`s Fairway BOSS green fee collection and membership system.
Jenny Forbes, marketing manager says that the cellular network provider fully supports the National Golf Network as an extension of its activities in the golfing world. "Our support of the project includes funding of a number of Golf Development initiatives," she says, "which provide disadvantaged players with opportunities to receive professional coaching."
Interestingly, Spence points out that more than half of South Africa`s 100 000 registered golfers already have their handicapping calculated by the Fairway BOSS system. "Many [golf] clubs purchased their membership management systems before the concept of a national handicapping system was mooted," he says, "so not all the clubs using [Fairway BOSS] have installed the upgrade to link their members to the MTN National Golf Network."
Elaborating on Business & Design`s approach he says that the company is of the opinion that, the decision to link to the national network should remain entirely at the discretion of individual clubs. "We would never try to force clubs to adopt our system," he says, "simply because such an approach is more autocratic than democratic."
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