Contents - Index

Utilities Functions

The Utilities Menu provides access to a number of handicapping tasks.  Handicaps Recalculation (Revision) is a required task that you must do on a regular basis per the Revision Schedule of your governing golf association.  These schedules vary among associations; they are typically every two weeks or every month.  

The other Utilities functions relate to tasks that are part of managing your handicap system, provide interfaces to the GTM Tournament Management Program, and provide for backup and restore of you handicap databases.  All of the Utilities functions are described below with accompanying illustrations of your interaction with them.




Handicap Recalculation (Revision)
When you select this menu item you are presented with the Group Selection Screen for selection of the player(s) for whom you wish to recalculate handicaps.  You will usually select All Players for a regular handicap revision, but there may be some cases where you wish to do otherwise -- e.g. for an Individual Player who has just joined your club or for whom you've made a correction to a score, for a certain Group Code whose handicaps are revised on a different schedule, etc.  When you've made your selection the re-calculation is done automatically and must not be interrupted until it is complete.  At the conclusion of each revision, if any of your players has received a Handicap Adjustment a message box informs you of the situation.  If you have adjusted players we recommend that you print the Handicap Index Adjustment Report from the Reports Menu for a list of the platers and the reason for the adjustment.

Print Handicap Cards/Labels
Handicap Card printing from the Utilities Menu is done on a bulk basis for multiple players (as opposed to the single-player basis from the Player Maintenance Screen and  the Player Scores Entry feature).  As illustrated, you can choose to print cards for All Players, Men or Ladies for everyone or for groups of players within Last Name or Player ID ranges.  The Handicap Cards topic describes the type of forms and printers that can be used for handicap card printing.

Note: If you print handicap cards/labels for a large group of players be sure to have a sufficient supply of forms loaded in your printer.










Print Handicap Scores Posting Sheets
Posting Sheets are printed forms on which players can record scores for posting to the handicap system by the staff.  The sheets consist of an alphabetic list of players with their current Handicap Index and Course Handicap, and an area of boxes for recording up to 12 scores per player.  Headings are provided for the information to be provided for a score: Score, Date, Course Rating and Slope Rating.

The Posting Sheet forms can be printed on any type of printer.  As illustrated, there are several options available to you for specifying the players to be included, specifying the handicap information to be printed for 9-Hole Players, and for arranging the printed output.

Inactive Players Management
As described in the Player Maintenance topic you may designate players as Inactive and/or Unpaid.  This Utilities Menu item provides capabilities for managing these players.  Submenu items allow you to Remove Inactive Players permanently from the handicap database, Reactivate All Inactives, and Mark Unpaids as Inactive.  The removal of Inactive Players can be done on a global basis (all Inactives) or selectively.  If you choose selective removal your Inactive Players are presented one at a time in a window (not illustrated) and you can remove or retain each player.  Note that you do not mark players other than Unpaid Players as Inactive with this Utilities function; that is done via the Player Status button on the Player Maintenance Screen.

Update GTM Master Player List
This function creates a new Master Player List for use with SportsWare's Golf Tournament Management (GTM) Program.  We recommend that you use it immediately after performing a Handicaps Re-Calculation (Revision) to ensure that your Master Player Lists are current with the latest official handicaps.

The Master Player List consists of the Player ID, Player Name, and Handicap Index for all the players your choose for inclusion via the Group Selection Screen that is presented when you choose the menu item.  You are also prompted via an input box for the Tournament Number for which you wish to create the Master Player List.  You can create the list for only one of the 10 GTM Tournament Numbers with each use of this function.  If you wish to create Master Player Lists for more than one Tournament Number you must do so one at a time.  

Add Scores From GTM Program
If you wish you can automatically import Tournament Scores from tournaments scored with the GTM Program to your handicap system via this function.  An input box is presented for your specification of the Tournament Number from which the scores are to be added.  Note that to use this feature you must specify in GTM that you wish to have the scores exported; this is done when you end scoring in the GTM Program.

Some users take advantage of this feature to ensure that Tournament Scores are always posted; other users prefer to have the players themselves or the staff post the scores.  If you use the feature, be careful about the possibility of double posting.

Remove Players From Group Codes
As described in the Adding New Players topic, you may define up to 10 Group Codes for special subsets of your players.  This Utilities function allows you to "clear" an entire Group Code, which you may wish to do if the player group is no longer applicable, or if all 10 groups are being used and you wish to substitute a new group for an existing group.  When you select this menu item you are presented with the Group Selection Screen on which you can deselect the check box(es) for the Group Code(s) you wish to clear.  Note that this function does not remove individual players from a Group Code; that is done via the Change Info button on the Player Maintenance Screen.

Backup Databases
One of the most frequent (and best) pieces of advice given to computer users is to back up their computer files to avoid loss of data in the event of a hard drive failure.  This advice is certainly applicable to handicap system databases where a loss of data can lead to lost scores and inaccurate handicaps.  We recommend that you back up your handicap databases no less frequently than once a week and doing so daily is a good idea.

Database backups can be done to a variety of media, e.g. Diskette, Zip Drive, CD, or a separate Hard Drive folder.  This GHM feature provides backup capability ONLY for simple file copying to Diskette, Zip Drive or another Hard Drive folder.  We recommend a device other than your hard drive as protection against a hard drive failure.

If the total size of your databases exceeds 1.4 megabytes, this feature cannot be used with Diskette media; to use diskettes you will need to copy files individually to multiple diskettes.  Also, because copying files to CD involves special software capability outside the scope of GHM, this feature cannot be used to copy files to a CD.  However, Windows XP and commonly available third party programs provide easy to use capability for copying files to CD.

Restore Databases From Backup
Restoration of handicap databases backed up via the GHM backup facility is easily accomplished via this Utilities Menu item.  You are presented with an input box to confirm that you wish to do the restore.  Ensure that your backup media is available in the appropriate drive and respond Yes (Y) to the input box prompt; the restore is then done automatically.  Depending on how much time has elapsed since you did a backup you may need to recover and enter scores for the interim period.  Restoration of handicap databases from CD is described in Windows or third party documentation.

Text File of Handicap Information
This feature creates a comma-delimited text file named HCPINFO.TXT and places it in the folder where the GHM Program is installed (e.g. in C:\GHM if you've used the program's default installation folder).  You can specify inclusion of All Players, Men Only or Ladies Only via the Player Selection Screen that is presented when you choose the menu item.  Each record in the file contains six fields in the sequence listed below:

     Player ID: the 5-character Player Identification
     Player Last Name
     Player First Name
     Player Gender: 1 character - the letter "M" for Men or "F" for Women
     Player Type: 2 characters - "18" for 18-Hole Players or " 9" for 9-Hole Players
     Handicap Index: 4 characters with a leading blank for Indexes less than 10.0

There are two records for players designated as a 9-Hole Player - one with the 18-hole Handicap Index immediately followed by one with the 9-hole Handicap Index.