WELCOME TO GOLFCALC FOR WINDOWS THE GOLF HANDICAP CALCULATION SYSTEM Version 2.0 Copyright (c) 1996 - All rights reserved by Tamalpais Technologies Todd Schopp P.O. Box 125 Larkspur, CA 94977 (415) 927-0333 ------------------------ Contents -------- 1. Introduction 2. New In This Version 3. Installation 4. How to Use GolfCalc for Windows 5. Index, Course Rating and Slope Rating 6. How An Index Is Computed 7. Course Handicap 8. Adjusted Gross Score 9. Shareware 10. Ordering 11. Satisfaction Guarantee 12. Disclaimer 1. Introduction --------------- GolfCalc provides you with a quick and easy way to keep track of the improvements you make in your golf game. It can be used by golfers of all levels, the avid and the occasional. It allows you to store all your scores from all courses. These scores are then used to calculate your index and your course handicaps. In comparison to the old-fashioned handicapping method of just averaging your 10 best scores, indexing is a more accurate evaluation of your playing level since it takes into account the difficulty of the courses you play. By using indexes and course handicaps, you can compete equally with golfers of any skill levels at any course. GolfCalc uses U.S.G.A. standards for all calculations. HOW IT ALL STARTED There are a few guys that I play golf with regularly. Of course, all golfers play at different levels and the same holds true for our group. This presented a problem to us whenever we tried to compete against each other to see who could score the best. The same people would win each time. This was especially a problem for me, because I would never win. Therefore, we decided to find out how to calculate what our handicaps were so we could compete more evenly. I took it upon myself to do the research and discovered the indexing system that the U.S.G.A. now uses to handicap golfers. With a little more research, I found all the formulas involved in the indexing system. The work involved in tracking everyones scores and indexes seemed a little overwhelming for me to do without the assistance of my trusty computer. So, I started out to "quickly" write a little program to track our indexes for us. Six months later, the DOS version of GolfCalc was a full-fledged Index Calculation System and I got such a great response from everyone who used it that I decided to release it to the rest of the world. Now, four years after the first release of GolfCalc for DOS, I have completed the Windows version. A lot of requests were coming in for a Windows release, so I figured the time had come to get to work on it. I think it turned out pretty good. Hopefully, I'll get a lot of feedback from you the users on how to make it better. Give me a call or send an email if you have any comments or questions. 2. New In This Version ---------------------- The primary goal for the first release of GolfCalc for Windows was to incorporate all of the features of the DOS version into the Windows environment. Along the way, a few new ideas were implemented. These include: 1) Long golfer names. Golfer names can now be up to 40 characters long. You can setup the long names in the "Edit Golfers" section. 2) Hole-by-hole score tracking. You can enter the scores you make for each hole on the course, including the number of putts. The "Edit Courses" section also allows you to enter the pars for each hole on a course. A future release will contain reports that will take advantage of the hole-by-hole scoring. For example, "Greens in Regulation" and "Average Number of Putts". 3) Deleting Golfers. Yes, the long awaited ability to easily delete golfers is available in the "Edit Golfers" section. and more ... 3. Installation --------------- GolfCalc for Windows is very easy to install and use. The system requirements are an IBM PC or compatible running Windows 3.x or Windows 95. To install GolfCalc for Windows, just run the installation program by following the directions below. FOR GOLFCALC FOR DOS USERS (Ver 1.6 and earlier): It is recommended that you backup your existing GolfCalc files before installing the Windows version. You can never be too safe in these situations. You can install GolfCalc for Windows directly into your existing GolfCalc directory and your golfer and course files will be converted automatically to the new format. Follow one of the install procedures below. FOR WINDOWS 3.x USERS: From the Program Manager "File" menu, choose "Run". Then, in the Command Line box, enter either 1) the drive letter of your floppy drive (if you are installing from a floppy) or 2) the hard drive letter and name of the directory you are installing from (if you are installing from your hard drive). Follow that with the name of the installation program, "install.exe". For example, a:install.exe or c:\download\install.exe FOR WINDOWS 95 USERS: Open either My Computer or Windows Explorer, go to your floppy drive or the directory on your hard drive where the installation program resides and double click on the "install.exe" The installation program will guide you from there. SPECIAL NOTE FOR WINDOWS 95 USERS: The GolfCalc for Windows installation program will NOT create a shortcut for GolfCalc on your Start menu or on your desktop. You will need to do this on your own. Consult your Windows 95 manual for instructions or run GolfCalc for Windows from My Computer or Windows Explorer by double clicking on the "gcwin.exe" file. Here is an explanation of the files included in the GolfCalc for Windows software package: gcwin.exe - This is the executable part of GolfCalc, it is definitely required and can reside in any directory. .tgp - These are the GolfCalc golfer files. There will be one golfer file for each golfer you enter in the system. Golfer files are automatically created whenever a new golfer is added to your GolfCalc system. All golfer files must reside in the same directory as 'gcwin.exe'. No golfer files are required on initial start up, although some sample golfers have been provided with your initial package. golfers.tgc - This is the golfer long-name file. This is where the data for the long golfer names is stored. sample.tgc - This is a sample courses file that is only used of no other courses file is found. courses.tgc - This is the GolfCalc courses file. This is where the information on the golf courses is stored. There should be only one courses file and it should also reside in the same directory as 'gcwin.exe'. No courses file is required on initial start up, although some sample courses have been provided with your initial package. (This file will not exist in the release package, it will be created automatically from the sample courses file when the program is first run unless another courses file already exist.) order.bat - This is a program that will print an order form for you to use when ordering a registered copy of GolfCalc. An order form can also be filled out and printed from within the GolfCalc program. order.txt - The order form that is printed by "order.bat". fileid.diz - This is a description file used by shareware distributors. install.exe - GolfCalc for Windows installation program. install.ini - Configuration file for "install.exe". readme.txt - That's this file. 4. How to Use GolfCalc ---------------------- In the GolfCalc folder, double click on the GolfCalc for Windows icon. From there you can Edit Golfers, Edit Courses or Enter Scores. Edit Golfer This section allows you to add, modify and delete golfers. It is in this section that you set up the long names for golfers. Edit Courses This section allows you to add, modify and delete courses. It is in this section that you set up the hole-by-hole par data for the courses as well as the course rating and slope. Enter Scores This section provides a scrolling pick-list of all existing golfers and a selection of function buttons that do the following: Add a Score - Allows you to add a new score for the current golfer. Add Group of Scores - Allows you to easily add scores for a group of golfers who play at the same course on the same day. Edit/View Scores - This selection will display a screen with a list of all the scores for the currently selected golfer. You can Add, Modify and Delete scores from this screen. Calculate Index - Pops open a window that displays the index data for the current golfer. Course Handicap - Brings up a screen where you select which course you wish to see the course handicap for, then it displays the course handicap for the current golfer. You can switch courses to quickly see different course handicaps. Print Scores - Allows you to either print or send to a file the list of scores for the current golfer. Print Handicaps - Brings up a screen where you select which course you wish to print the course handicaps for. You can then select one, some or all of the existing golfers from the pick-list. A course handicap list will be printed with one line for each selected golfer. You can also print handicap card-style listings of handicaps. 5. Index, Course Rating and Slope Rating ---------------------------------------- What do all of these terms mean? An index is a number that is calculated based on your scores and the ratings of the courses that you play at. Every course that you play should have two rating numbers that were given to it by experts who rate all the courses based on how difficult they are to play. These numbers are called the Course rating and the Slope rating. The Course rating is the evaluation of the playing difficulty of a course for expert golfers and takes into account yardages and obstacles and how they affect scoring ability. The Slope rating reflects the relative playing difficulty of a course for golfers with handicaps above scratch. The ratings should be posted in the club house at each course, or you may have to ask a course employee to find out what they are. Sometimes they are printed on the score cards. When you enter a new score into GolfCalc for Windows, you will also enter the Course and Slope ratings along with the name of the course that you played. 6. How An Index Is Computed --------------------------- The index calculation begins by first calculating differentials for each score. A differential is the difference between the adjusted gross score and the Course rating, multiplying the difference by 113, dividing the resulting figure by the Slope rating and rounding off to the nearest tenth. See the section below for more on the adjusted gross score. The next step in calculating an index is to find the lowest 10 differentials of the golfer's last 20 rounds. Then take the average of these 10 differentials, multiply by 96% and round to the nearest tenth. The resulting figure is the golfer's index. If fewer than 20 differentials are available, then the number used in the calculation is adjusted as follows: Available Used Available Used 1-4 No index issued 13 or 14 Lowest 5 5 or 6 Lowest 1 15 or 16 Lowest 6 7 or 8 Lowest 2 17 Lowest 7 9 or 10 Lowest 3 18 Lowest 8 11 or 12 Lowest 4 19 Lowest 9 If all of these calculations seem confusing, DON'T WORRY! Just enter your scores into GolfCalc for Windows and it will do all the calculations for you! 7. Course Handicap ------------------ A course handicap is the number of handicap strokes a golfer receives at the course being played. The score that a golfer "should" hit at a particular course is the golfer's course handicap + par-for-the-course. A golfer's course handicap will be different at each course. A course handicap is determined by one of two methods: either by selecting the "Course Handicap" option on the GolfCalc "Enter Scores" screen and choosing the course you wish to see the handicap for, or by applying the golfer's index to a course handicap conversion chart located in the clubhouse of the course to be played. Either method uses the following formula: Course Handicap = Index * Slope Rating / 113 (rounded to nearest integer) The value 113 in the above formula is the national standard for Slope ratings and is used to weight differentials. When competing against another golfer, you can use your course handicaps to make the competition more equal. The golfer who scores the most strokes under or the least strokes over their course handicap + par-for-the-course is the winner. Here's an example: Joe, who has a course handicap of 15, is playing Frank, who has a course handicap of 24, on a course that has a par of 72. Using GolfCalc, they determined their course handicaps to be 87 for Joe and 96 for Frank. Joe ended up with a score of 89 and Frank a 95. Since Joe was 2 OVER his handicap and Frank was 1 UNDER his, Frank is the winner. 8. Adjusted Gross Score ----------------------- The score that you enter when adding a new score into the GolfCalc system should be your Adjusted Gross Score. Your Adjusted Gross Score is your actual score adjusted downward for Equitable Stroke Control as follows: If your Course Handicap is ... 9 or less - Maximum score of 6 on any one hole. 10 to 19 - Maximum of 7 on any one hole. 20 to 29 - Maximum of 8 on any one hole. 30 to 39 - Maximum of 9 on any one hole. 40 to 49 - Maximum of 10 on any one hole. 50+ - Maximum of 11 on any one hole. As an example, a golfer with a 23 course handicap would be allowed a maximum score of 8 on each hole independent of what the par for each hole is. On any hole where the golfer scores above 8 strokes, the score for that hole should be counted as 8 when figuring the Adjusted Gross Score. 9. Printing ----------- There are two printing options available from the "Enter Scores" screen. The first is "Print Scores". This choice allows you to output the scores and index data for the current golfer to either your printer or into a file. If you choose to output to a file, the filename will be the golfer's short name with the '.tgo' suffix (ie. 'frank.tgo'). If output is to a file and the file already exists, the file will be overwritten. The second option on the Print menu is "Print Handicaps". This feature allows you to print a list of handicaps for the selected golfers with the output being one line per golfer. Here's how it works: First, you will select which course you want the handicaps for. Next, you can either double-click on the desired golfer names or highlight each golfer name and press the right-arrow. Either method moves the golfer names from the left column to the right column. It is the golers listed in the right column that will have their handicaps printed. Then, you will press either the "Print List" or "Print Cards" button on the bottom of the screen depending on which type of output you desire. The "Print List" option will ask you to choose the output type, either to the printer or to a file. If you choose to output to a file, "hdcplist.tgo" will be created and any previously existing copy will be overwritten. 10. Shareware ------------ GolfCalc for Windows is a Tamalpais Technologies shareware product. Shareware means that you are free to try it out and to share copies with your friends, but it is NOT freeware. You are allowed a 30-day free trial. If you wish to use GolfCalc for Windows beyond the 30-day trial, you must send us the $34 (US Dollars) registration fee, plus $2 for shipping and handling. By registering, you will receive: - the most current version of GolfCalc (customized with your name and without any annoying register messages), - a printed manual, - notification of new releases, - unlimited free phone support. This version of GolfCalc for Windows has in no way been crippled or had any functionality removed, but new features are continually being added. All registered users will be informed when new versions are available. We also eagerly accept all suggestions for new features and enhancements. The success of the Shareware system relies on registrations. Without the registrations fees, there is no inspiration for programmers to provide first class software products for you to try out before ever having to pay for them. 11. Ordering ----------- The registration price for GolfCalc for Windows is $34 plus $2 for shipping and handling (US dollars). To order a registered version of GolfCalc, you have several options. You can: 1) Print the order form by either typing 'ORDER' at the DOS prompt or printing the order form from with the program, then either mail it to us with a check or fax it with your credit card number, 2) Call us and order with your VISA or MasterCard number, 3) Register through Compuserve's Shareware Registration system by entering GO SWREG and following the instructions. Make sure to include your name, address, phone number and what size diskette you would like it on. Here's our information: Tamalpais Technologies Voice: (415) 927-0333 GolfCalc for Windows Reg. Fax: (415) 927-4619 P.O. Box 125 BBS: (415) 759-5529 Larkspur, CA 94977 Webpage: http://www.well.com/user/tamtech 12. Tamalpais Technologies Complete Satisfaction Guarantee ---------------------------------------------------------- The GolfCalc for Windows Handicap Calculation System comes with a 60 day money back guarantee. If you are unhappy with the product for any reason, Tamalpais Technologies will refund your money in full. Simply call or write TamTech within 60 days of registration. 13. Disclaimer -------------- This software has been thoroughly tested and is believed to be free of problems, however, software is one of the most complicated kinds of products produced by humans. No person can be absolutely and completely certain that any piece of complicated software will work in any given machine and environment. Therefore, you, the user, are completely responsible for determining the fitness of this program and Tamalpais Technologies and it's staff are not liable for any damages to your computer hardware, software, or data files. Four out of five golfers surveyed recommend using GolfCalc to enhance your golfing experience.