New Features and Updates in Version 13.0

Most recent version is 13.0.14, released on 23rd April 2024.

Update 13.0.15 - 30 April 2024 - Interim Update Package 1515 - Available upon request

• AMEND - Online Score Entry; When selecting to deduct fees at sign-in online, a check is added to ensure this has been fully configured before the settings are saved.
• AMEND - Player Entry Settings Profile; When selecting to operate a callback, a check is added to ensure the callback has been fully configured before the profile is saved.
• AMEND - Tees; Additional space is now given to the Tee colour names on some selection lists, to allow for extended Tee Colours descriptions being received from WHS servers.
• FIX - ClubWebsite; Error 'The client and server cannot communicate because they do not possess a common algorithm' will be reported on computers running versions of Windows prior to Windows 11.
• FIX - Configure Competition; When re-configuring an opened competition to change it to a Scratch (no handicap) competition, the change was not saved to the competition.
• FIX - Letters; Unexpected error 91 ('Object reference not set to an instance of an object') may have occurred when running a letter.
• FIX - Manage Competition Fees; When operating a competition purse and then selecting 'Manage Competition Fees...', Unexpected Error 5 ('InvalidArgument=Value of '-1' is not valid for 'index'.') occurred.
• FIX - Record General Play score; When recording a General Play score played at an 'away venue', it was possible to record the Adjusted Gross Score as 'No Return', causing message 'INTERNAL ERROR: Adjusted gross score as NR not processed - SocialScore_Main' to occur and HandicapMaster to exit (LOCAL handicapping only).
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; When an opened Re-entry competition was reconfigured to change the Tees to play from, between some players signing-in and before any players had entered scores, the tee selection for those signed in was not updated.
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; When an opened Re-entry competition was reconfigured, some attributes were not updated on Master Scoreboard for online score entry, such as a change in Tees, and more.

Update 13.0.14 - 23 April 2024 - Update Package 1514

• FIX - Send Scores to WHS Server; Unexpected error 102 ('Incorrect syntax near '^'.') could occur sending scores to the WHS server (WHS Editions).

Update 13.0.13 - 23 April 2024 - Update Package 1513

• NEW - Handicapping Reports; A new report 'Playing Handicaps Chart (for singles Competition)' is added to WHS editions, and a similar 'Strokes Received Chart (for singles competition)' is added to Local Handicapping editions.
• AMEND - ClubWebsite; Program now uses TLS v1.3 for secure communication where the computer support TLS v1.3.
• AMEND - E-MAIL; When sending to non-members the fields will be replaced by the recipient's name, and will be replaced by the recipient's e-mail address.
• AMEND - Four Ball Scores for Handicapping; The Golf Unions have requested a change to the way Four Ball score data is sent to their WHS systems. This change is implemented. Also, any Four Ball scores previously sent are reprocessed and re-sent at the Golf Union's request (WHS Editions, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland only).
• AMEND - HandicapMaster; Some minor adjustments to colours used in HandicapMaster screens, to improve the experience of using HandicapMaster on a Windows computer that has been configured to use a 'High Contrast' display Theme.
• AMEND - Player Entry; When signing in for a competition or General Play score, or operating the My Course Handicap facility, the player's unrounded Course Handicap/Tee Handicap value (to 3 decimal places) is now also displayed on the screen, in addition to their rounded Course Handicap/Tee Handicap.
• AMEND - Player Hole-by-Hole Analysis report; This report now includes scores from re-entry competitions, where the re-entry competitions have been closed.
• FIX - Local Handicapping; When running Local Handicapping using incremental handicapping, and after undoing a score from a player's record, the count of number of scores in that player's handicap record could be recorded as zero in error, affecting some handicapping functions (LOCAL editions only).
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; Unexpected error 5 ('SqlConnection does not support parallel transactions') was reported on one occasion, when creating or updating a re-entry competition.

Update 13.0.12 - 10 April 2024 - Update Package 1512

• NEW - Subscriptions Option; A new report 'Subscriptions Assigned to Letters' is added to list Subscriptions assigned to each letter.
• AMEND - Course (Tee) Handicap Chart; The total Par for the course is now included in the heading section of the chart.
• AMEND - KO Match Handicapping; Calculation of strokes received for Greensomes competitions is amended to use unrounded Course Handicaps.
• AMEND - Subscriptions Option; If letter has been assigned to one or more subscriptions it is no longer possible to delete that letter, to retain data integrity.
• FIX - Configure Competition; if a Team competition with option 'For scoring, Use Pars and Stroke Indexes from' set to Men's Tees or Ladies Tees was reconfigured to a Singles competition, and a new selection of Tees was also made, unexpected error 91 ('Object reference not set to an instance of an object') could occur.
• FIX - Course Handicap calculation; When running a team competition from mixed tees and scoring is using the Pars and Stroke Indexes from one course scorecard (such as a mixed Foursomes competition using the Ladies' Pars and Stroke Indexes), the wrong Par value could have been used when adding 'Course rating minus Par' to Course Handicaps (WHS Editions).
• FIX - Send Scores to WHS; Unexpected error 91 ('Object reference not set to an instance of an object') could occur sending a Four Ball score for handicapping where one of the player's Handicap Index was unknown or reported as not valid (WHS Editions, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland).

Update 13.0.11 - 3 April 2024 - Interim Update Package 1511 - Available upon request

• NEW - Course Scorecards; A system alert message is added warning when there are potential changes to Course Scorecards awaiting to be downloaded from the WHS Platform (WHS Editions, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland only. Not Tournament edition users.).
• AMEND - Convert Competitions to Handicap Counting; The windows displayed on start-up when one or more Four Ball or short course competition templates or opened competitions exist and are not flagged as counting for handicapping are no longer be displayed once the OK button is selected (WHS Editions, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland only).
• AMEND - Error reporting; The screen displayed when an unexpected error occurs is updated.
• AMEND - Re-entry Competitions; When emailing a results report for a re-entry competition, the 'competitors in the competition' distribution list is now populated with applicable e-mail addresses.
• AMEND - Score Submission Log; When reporting a Four Ball score sent for handicapping, the report now also considers whether the team scored 42 points and therefore met the threshold to be considered for handicapping (WHS editions, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland).
• AMEND - Send Email; Size of text displayed in the body of the email when composing the covering text for an email is set slightly larger, for improved usability.
• AMEND - Sending Scores to WHS server; Where Four Ball scores have been entered through older HandicapMaster or Player Entry software that is not conformant to the latest requirements of the WHS handicapping server, these scores are no longer sent to WHS and instead show with message 'Score entered using out-of-date software. Contact Support. Score not submitted' (WHS Editions, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland only).
• FIX - Find a Player on WHS Platform; In many cases, the description 'FROZEN' was being displayed alongside the player's Handicap Index in error (WHS Editions).
• FIX - Get Course Handicap; When running the Player Entry system in 'kiosk' mode with the 'Get Course Handicap' option, the instructions on the front screen were displayed in the wrong colours (especially when using the darker green colour scheme), making the details difficult to read.
• FIX - Local Handicapping; The 'Position-based Adjustments' competition report was showing '--Unknown--' as the section title for adjustments for players unplaced in the competition, in error (LOCAL Handicapping editions only).
• FIX - Player Entry; When a visitor entered their National ID and there was no record in the HandicapMaster database for this ID, and then a check on the WHS platform for the player returned the player's record but with a different National ID, duplicate entries for this player could be created in the HandicapMaster database (WHS Editions).
• FIX - Program Start-up; In some rare cases the following FIX may have prevented HandicapMaster starting: FIX - E-Mail; Other recipient entries may have been duplicated within the HandicapMaster database, which caused issues with managing members in 'Other Recipients' distribution lists.

Update 13.0.10 - 20 March 2024 - Update Package 1510

• NEW - Export to Golfdirecto; Customers in Spain may now export start sheet times and also competition scores to files, ready for importing into the Golfdirecto system, for onward sending to the WHS system in Spain (Local Handicapping editions only).
• NEW - Re-entry competitions; An option to 'Use Stroke Indexes of 1 to n for holes in play' is added to the Re-entry competition wizard (when competitions are being played over less than 18 holes each round). When selected, this adjusts the Stroke Index table for this competition so that the lowest stroke index values are allocated to the holes in play. The ordering of Indexes, for these holes in play, are retained from the original Stroke Index table saved in the Course Scorecard.
• NEW - Score Submission Log; The Score Submission Log is converted to an interactive list, providing access to further information about scoring data sent to a CDH. For Four Ball scores, this includes an estimate of the points that will be calculated under WHS Rules of Handicapping, rule 5.10.
• AMEND - Find a Player on WHS Platform; Where the WHS Handicap server reports a player's Handicap as 'Frozen', this will now be displayed on screen when using the Find a Player on WHS Platform facility (WHS Editions, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland only).
• AMEND - Handicapping; Terminology used to identify whether scores count for handicapping is updated to 'Scores are acceptable for Handicap purposes' (WHS handicapping editions) and 'Scores count for Handicap purposes' (LOCAL handicapping editions).
• AMEND - Import scores from external system; This deprecated facility is now removed.
• AMEND - Player Entry; When using the Sign-in service for a competition, player's handicaps and strokes received are now always displayed in the confirmation message that a player has completed sign in. The Settings Profile option to turn off this behaviour is removed.
• AMEND - Playing Handicaps List (For Competition) report; Access to this report is added to the 'Opened Competitions' right-click menu (WHS Handicapping Editions).
• AMEND - Publish to Master Scoreboard; Amended to improve the removal of out-of-date Re-entry competitions from Master Scoreboard.
• AMEND - Reports; Improved readability of 'Officer Contact Summary' and 'User-defined Notes' reports.
• AMEND - Start Sheets reports and Playing Handicap List (for Competition) report; These now take account of the handicapping regulations in force on the date of the competition, not the current date.
• AMEND - Strokes Received List (For Competition) report; Access to this report is added to the 'Opened Competitions' right-click menu (LOCAL Handicapping Editions).
• AMEND - WHS Handicapping; Score data to be sent to WHS for Four Ball competition scores is amended to send scores as Stableford Points off Full Course Handicap, in place of Gross Scores, at the request of the Golf Unions (WHS Editions, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland only).
• FIX - E-Mail; Other recipient entries may have been duplicated within the HandicapMaster database, which caused issues with managing members in 'Other Recipients' distribution lists.
• FIX - Letters; Unexpected error 13 ('Input string was not in a correct format') occurred running a letter that contained images.
• FIX - Match-Play Knockouts; The calculation of handicap strokes in a Foursomes match was applying 50% to team aggregate handicaps before calculating strokes received, in error.
• FIX - Publishing to Master Scoreboard; Unexpected error 91 (' Object reference not set to an instance of an object.) occurred if there were no closed competitions in the database.
• FIX - Re-entry competitions; After reconfiguring a 'short-course' re-entry competition, 'picked-up' scores could be recorded for holes not in play, within player's scorecards, in error.
• FIX - Re-entry competitions; The data included in the 'Scorecards from a Competition' report could be incorrect for re-entry competitions in some situations.

Update 13.0.9 - 26 February 2024 - Update Package 1509

• NEW - Handicapping Reports; New report 'Handicap Records (All Recent Scores)' listing all scores added to home player's handicap records in the last month, is added (WHS Editions, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland only).
• AMEND - E-mailing Reports; When e-mailing some reports, the wording warning that the full report will be sent to all recipients is amended. Also, the warning is excluded from being displayed when e-mailing some formats of reports.
• AMEND - Handicapping Reports; Reports 'Handicap Records (Away Scores)' and 'Handicap Records (General Play Scores)' are enhanced to offer additional information about each score (WHS Editions, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland only).
• AMEND - The help icon on the course Scorecard screen now displays appropriate help details (Local Handicapping editions only).
• AMEND - WHS Handicapping; Support is added to England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland to allow a Four Ball competition template to be set up (from 1st April 2024) so that scores will count for handicapping and be sent to the WHS server (WHS Editions, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland only).
• FIX - E-mailing Reports; When e-mailing some reports such as the Handicap List report, unexpected error 91 ('Object reference not set to an instance of an object') occurred if no text was entered into the body of the covering e-mail.
• FIX - Publish to Master Scoreboard; When publishing to Master Scoreboard, a message window with a number as the only text (typically '0') could be displayed, in error.
• FIX - Re-configure Booking Arrangements; Where a Booking Template has been used for a competition that has one of more times deselected from being available, and the re-configure wizard was used to make a time available, the time was not made visible on the booking sheet.
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; Where a re-entry competition was being played over less than 18 holes, the holes not in play were being recorded as 'picked up' holes in error, disrupting the count of holes picked up in the Analyse Scores Entered list.
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; Where a score for a re-entry competition was entered using HandicapMaster or Player Entry software earlier than version 13.0.8, Unexpected error -2147221503 ('Invalid use of Null (Query -53794, Column 'IS_GROSS_SCORES_BY_STROKES')') could occur when subsequently publishing to Master Scoreboard. (Cloud, Hosted and Network edition users only).

Update 13.0.8 - 20 February 2024 - Update Package 1508

• AMEND - Analyse Scores Entered; When viewing the list of scores entered for a Re-entry Competition, the heading above the list of players and their scores now includes a count of the number of members represented in the competition.
• AMEND - E-mail; Improve deliverability by replacing 'Bare Line Feed' characters in e-mail body text as some e-mail recipient domains cannot accept these characters. Bare Line Feed characters are not part of e-mail body text created within HandicapMaster, but may be pasted in some rare cases.
• AMEND - Match-Play Competitions; Following new guidance from CONGU for handicapping of Team Match-play competitions, the calculation and display of handicapping information for each match is amended.
• AMEND - Re-configure Bookings Arrangements; When amending the number of places available for a Tee Time, the view of the list of times no longer resets back to the top of the list after each amendment.
• AMEND - Re-configure Bookings Arrangements; When re-selecting a tee time to be available in the list of times (by ticking the box alongside a time), the default number of Places for that tee time is now based on a better assessment of Places used in that booking sheet.
• AMEND - Start Sheets; When setting a Tee for each player to play from, the default selection is now the left-most available Tee colour for each player, as listed on screen.
• AMEND - Stripe Payouts Report; The Stripe payments Payouts report is enhanced with additional information about each payment.
• AMEND - Subscriptions Option; Remove duplicate footers on invoices.
• AMEND - Subscriptions option; The 'Competition Purse Income Received' and 'Income Received' reports now split competition purse deposits into those paid 'online' through Master Scoreboard and those paid 'In Person'.
• FIX - Analyse Scores Entered; When showing the Analyse Scores Entered list for a closed 'multi-column scoring' team competition (e.g. Four Ball, Am-Am, etc.), an additional column heading ('Play H'cap') was being included in error.
• FIX - Competition Winners Report; Unexpected error 5 ('Column 'REENTRY_SERIES_ID' does not belong to table MyDataset') occurred running the report when one or more Re-entry competitions were in the closed competitions list for the period analysed by the report.
• FIX - Player Entry; Network, Hosted and Cloud edition systems may have shown an incorrect count of players signed in and/or scores entered.
• FIX - Record Away Score; When recording an away score played in 'Par/Bogey' format, an incorrect Adjusted Score would be calculated when applying the score to the player's Handicap record (Local Handicapping editions only).
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; After publishing the competition results to Master Scoreboard website, then undoing the re-entry competition and re-publishing to Master Scoreboard, the players scores for that competition could no longer be published to Master Scoreboard.
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; Message 'Before proceeding, please 'Open a New Competition'' was displayed in error when accessing a re-entry competition listed in the opened competitions list when the only competitions opened were all Re-entry competitions. This prevented access to 'Enter Scores' for the competition through HandicapMaster.
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; When listing twos returned on the competition results report, the date of when each two was recorded was incorrectly reported.
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; When the 'Form of Play' was changed for a re-entry competition after some scorecards had already been entered, this was not recorded in the submitted scorecards data, potentially causing the wrong type of results to be generated.
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; When viewing the Closed Competitions list and using the right-click context menu to change whether the competition results reports for a competition were published to Master Scoreboard, the change was not actioned if the competition was a Re-entry competition.
• FIX - Reports; Unexpected error 5 ('Value cannot be null. Parameter name: text') in function 'AddFormattedText_WithNonBreakingSpaces' may have occurred in rare cases when running some reports.

Update 13.0.6 - 7 February 2024 - Update Package 1506

• FIX - Player Entry; Previous fix 'FIX - Player Entry Kiosk Mode; When configured as a touch screen and the visitor option 'Do you Know your Handicap Index' is displayed the tapping of either option did not work.' introduced an issue which prevented the Yes and No buttons from operating when not operating in Kiosk mode.
• FIX - Results Reports; Unexpected Error 5('Incorrect syntax near ')'') was reported on one occasion when generating a results report as part of publishing to Master Scoreboard.

Update 13.0.5 - 6 February 2024 - Update Package 1505

• AMEND - Maximum Score Competitions; The range of options for a Maximum Score competition is expanded to include setting the maximum score on any hole to Thirteen, Fourteen or Fifteen strokes.
• AMEND - Re-entry Competitions; You may now choose the Handicap Allowance to be applied for the competition, from a selection of alternatives.
• AMEND - Scores Entered; The 'Explain Handicap Values' ('Hi') button displayed on the scorecard screen in HandicapMaster is extended for closed and re-entry competitions to display the calculations of a player's Course Handicap/Tee Handicap.
• AMEND - Start Sheet Report; if the 'Show Home Club' option is selected this now enhanced to includes the home club of away members. Previously this option was limited to visitors.
• AMEND - Tees; When displaying the set of Tees for a competition in the 'opened competitions' list and in the Start Sheet wizard, the ordering of Tee colours is now based on course ratings/reference scores for those tees.
• FIX - Analyse Scores; When attempting to Analyse Scores for a re-entry competition, and the competition was limited to a single gender, and the HandicapMaster user account had custom access which was also limited to the same gender the message 'You have not been granted access to view this competition.' was displayed in error, and access was prevented.
• FIX - Housekeeping; When running housekeeping to 'remove Subscription and Payment records up to a chosen date', the opening balance for the Subscription purse was not always correctly set.
• FIX - Letters; Unexpected error 5 ('InvalidArgument=Value of '-1' is not valid for 'index'.') may have occurred when using the letter Writer in HandicapMaster.
• FIX - Player Entry Kiosk Mode; When configured as a touch screen and the visitor option 'Do you Know your Handicap Index' is displayed the tapping of either option did not work.
• FIX - Player Entry; When a competition score was recorded through Player Entry and the Player Entry option to require players to report who marked their card was not in operation, the marker was recorded as 'Player not listed' in Analyse Scores Entered list, in error.
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; Suitable divisional boundaries were not set when the option to generate results based upon 'auto-balanced' divisions was selected.
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; The number of players signed in or entered scores in opened re-entry competitions were not being counted on the Player Entry display.
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; Unexpected error 91 ('Object reference not set to an instance of an object') occurred when reducing the Playing Handicap/Stroke Received for a player's score in a re-entry competition.
• FIX - Re-entry Competitions; Where a re-entry competition was configured to be played over 10 to 18 holes and a player's sign-in or score entry was performed through the HandicapMaster app, the Course Handicap/Tee Handicap was mis-calculated as if the competition was a 9-hole competition, in error.
• FIX - Upgrade from version 9; When upgrading from version 9, unexpected error 5 ('The INSERT INTO statement contains the following unknown field name: 'MEMBER_ID_PARTNER_1'') occurred.

Update 13.0.4 - 23 January 2024 - Update Package 1504

• NEW - KO Match Results; The option to enable members to be able to record Knock-out Match results through Player Entry and Master Scoreboard website is extended to all editions of HandicapMaster.
• AMEND - Applying Scores; Increase database timeout to cater for longer processing times when network roundtrip times are greater than 1 second.
• AMEND - HandicapMaster Help; Add help text for option 'Where two or more players tie, share available points equally' option in Order of Merit wizard.
• FIX - Installer; When installing HandicapMaster on a Windows 7 computer, the Microsoft .NET Framework software was not being installed successfully.
• FIX - Player Entry; Screen text 'Record result of this match?' was not being displayed on the KO Match Result Entry screen, when using the 'Green' screen colour configuration.

Update 13.0.3 - 15 January 2024 - Update Package 1503

• NEW - Subscriptions Option; A new report that provides a Subscription Purse Account Statement Summary for one or more members for selected date range is added.
• AMEND - Edit member; Resetting a member's Master Scoreboard password now supports minimum length of 8 characters and also supports symbols.
• AMEND - General Play Scores; When configuring Player Entry and Online Score Entry for the submission of General Play scores, more space is made available on screen to display the name of Tee Colours where these extend to multiple words.
• FIX - All Members list; The 'No. Scores' column value was not correctly calculated when using incremental handicapping (LOCAL Handicapping only).
• FIX - Closed Competitions list; The count of number of competitions displayed above the list of closed competitions was always showing as '0 listed', in error.
• FIX - Housekeeping; Past competitions were not being deleted from the database when Housekeeping was run.
• FIX - Recording Scorecard Marker; It was not possible to select a player as a marker for another player's score who had already had a score entered themselves.
• FIX - Subscriptions option; In same cases a member's subscription may not have been marked as overdue when partial payments were recorded against the subscription.
• FIX - View competition results; Unexpected error 91 ('Object reference not set to an instance of an object') occurred when choosing to view competition results but then clicking 'cancel' when selecting the competition to be viewed.

Update 13.0.2 - 4 January 2024 - Update Package 1502

• NEW - Competition Bookings; When re-configuring booking arrangements for a competition being booked by players selecting a tee time, you may now adjust the number of places on offer on a per-tee time basis. For example, you may now have some tee times with 3 places available to book and some tee times with four places available (WHS-GOLD and LOCAL-GOLD editions only).
• NEW - Player Entry 'My Tee Handicap' service; A 'My Tee Handicap' service is added to the Local Handicapping editions, similar in nature to the 'My Course Handicap' service in WHS editions. Is limited to using course scorecards associated with the 'system home club'.
• AMEND - Letters - Subscription fields; where there are no values available, the text displayed now defaults to the font and size used in the body of the letter rather than the salutation font.
• AMEND - Re-entry Competitions; When creating a new re-entry competition, the 'Count for Handicapping' option will no longer be pre-ticked.
• FIX - Letter Writer; In some cases the font size in the toolbar did not update when moving the cursor within the body of the letter and there was a change of font size.
• FIX - Unexpected error 5 (' Value cannot be null.') may occur when displaying the 'Opened Competitions' list.

Update 13.0.1 - 15 December 2023 - Update Package 1501

• FIX - Competition Winners Report; Winners from Re-entry competitions are now included in the report.

Update 13.0.0 - 14 December 2023 - Update Package 1500