CSI launches Golfingindex.com for golf’s ‘nomads’

Free-to-use Golfingindex.com is designed to be the on-line home for unattached golfers and is said to provide essential and valuable tools which enable them to experience, analyse and compare their golf to a hitherto unavailable degree. It is hoped the system will help clubs that are increasingly reliant on visitor green-fees.

Using a complimentary, digital ‘Signinbook’ clubs retain details of visiting golfers and are able to communicate directly with them. It is hoped this will make visitors feel more attached to the clubs and help reverse the trend of falling club memberships while also helping to remove the stigma often associated with being a ‘nomadic’ golfer.

The Golfingindex is produced and hosted by HowDidiDo, Europe’s largest golfing community, which already holds the handicaps, results and scores of more than 1,300,000 UK golf club members, The system is powered by Club Systems International (CSI), which provides administration software for around 2,000 UK&I golf clubs.

Golfingindex uses the same technology and processes that power HowDidiDo. Visiting golfers are encouraged to sign the club’s digital visitors’ book, which then generates a Golfingindex card, to be used on subsequent visits to the club or any other club using the ‘Signinbook’. Clubs are then able to build up their own database of genuine golfers enabling them to market green-fee offers, products, lessons and even memberships to people they know have visited the course previously, and to have an assessment of their ability level.

For the unattached golfer, the benefits of Golfingindex include the mechanism to build a profile of one’s own game; post round scores; garner advanced statistics; to compare performance with like-minded friends; and to read and post course reviews. Golfingindex can also be used by golf society organisers who can use it to communicate with society members; manage and publish the results; create a standard society ‘handicap’ calculation for each member; review courses; create single or multi-round trips; and provide an online portal and home for each individual society.

Richard Peabody, managing director of CSI explained, “It is conservatively estimated there are more than one million unattached golfers in the UK and Ireland alone, with many putting the figure as high as three times that. This has always been an issue for clubs, but the launch of Golfingindex changes that. Clubs can now communicate with visiting golfers in much the same way they do with their members, which means unattached golfers use the clubs more often and feel valued – ultimately, they may see membership as something to aspire to.

“All golfers – be they members or visitors – need courses to play and this tool enables those clubs to target golfers directly. It’s much more focussed and cost-effective than local advertising, not least because it doesn’t cost anything to operate. What’s more, the clubs will also be able to access the database of golf societies that will prove comprehensive through day-to-day use of the system.”

Signinbooks are available free-of-charge to clubs utilising SwingSure insurance services and anybody registering a Golfingindex card goes into a monthly draw to win a holiday from partner Your Golf Travel. More at: www.golfingindex.com