On June 12, 2019, the Federation of Golf Clubs circulated a memorandum to all its member clubs which stated that on June 11, 2019, the Unified National Handicapping System (UNHS) service provider Silicon Computer Telecoms Inc. (SCTI) “unilaterally and without justification, terminated its service of providing handicaps for individual golfers belonging to the member golf clubs of the Federation of Golf Clubs Phils. Inc. (Fedgolf) effective immediately.”
Fedgolf accused SCTI of discontinuing their service “despite serious efforts to negotiate and prevent the current situation and after settling all outstanding accounts.” The memo went on to say that, “since the system has again been hostaged (sic) by an external service provider, your Fedgolf board has decide to set-up and adopt a proprietary and internal handicapping system accredited with the USGA and R&A which will provide a reliable and independent golf handicap to all individual golfers of its member clubs.”
The Philippines is unique in the world of golf in that we have two bodies that claim the right to govern the game in the country—the National Golf Association of the Philippines (NGAP) and Fedgolf. How did we get into this mess in the first place?
Perhaps a history lesson is in order to gain perspective.
The NGAP is the recognized governing body of the game in the country and has been since the game was formally organized in the country. It is the national sports association (NSA) recognized by the Philippine Sports Commission, the Philippine Olympic Committee, the USGA and the R&A as the administrator of all matters golf in the Philippines.
The Federation of Golf Clubs came into being in 1996 when the government was formulating measures to raise taxes under the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP), which proposed a tax on water usage by golf clubs. The general feeling then was that the law, although referring to private sports clubs in general, specifically targeted golf clubs because of the high-value transactions in the trading of shares, which the government viewed as a good source of tax revenue.
So it was that Alabang Country Club headed by then-president Rogelio “Ogie” Manalo and Manila Golf Club represented then by Ricardo “Richie” Garcia ably assisted by their respective general managers, Atty. Romeo D. Laig of Alabang Country Club Inc. and Jose P. Crespo of Manila Golf & Country Club Inc. invited other private clubs to band together to fight legislation inimical to the clubs and the golf industry as a whole.
They fought the proposed law; when the CTRP, otherwise known as Republic Act No. 8424, was passed into law in 1997, the provision, which would’ve revoked the income-tax exemption of nonprofit private sports clubs was indeed removed. With the initial battle won, Fedgolf turned its sights on other matters, chief among these were to assist and promote safeguarding of the environment and ecology of the golf courses and the surrounding communities, fostering collaboration between the clubs to solve common management and operational issues.
The NGAP, then known as the Republic of the Philippines Golf Association (RPGA), was mired in politics at the time and was doing little for the game of golf. Their inaction opened the door for the Federation to provide essential services to the golf clubs, chief among them was providing credible handicaps to the golf clubs.
Fedgolf commissioned Information Professionals Inc. (IPI) to create the first computerized, national handicapping system for its member clubs. Fedgolf looked at the NGAP with contempt. Since the NGAP was struggling with internal matters, Fedgolf believed them to be unsuitable to lead the game in the country. Fedgolf went so far as to petition the USGA and R&A to withdraw their recognition of the NGAP so they could assume its responsibilities as stewards of golf in the Philippines. Both the USGA and R&A refused to have anything to do with the Federation.
The feuding continued until both the Federation and the NGAP came to terms in 2012 and agreed to work together for the betterment of the game in the country. The announcement was made during the November show of the Golf Distributors Association of the Philippines (GDAP) and welcomed by all Filipino golfers.
The Unified National Handicapping System (UNHS) was established and Silicon Computer Technologies, Inc. won the right to establish and administer the system for the two governing organizations besting four other service providers. SCTI won by completely underbidding its rivals by proposing a 30 percent share of the P250 revenue sharing with both NGAP and Fedgolf.
SCTI, in effect, did not ask for an up-front hardware cost and charges a paltry P75 per golfer per year to maintain our handicaps. Most of its competitors were proposing P1,500 or more per year (plus a hardware cost up-front) to approximate what the USGA charges golfers to maintain their handicaps in the United States.
How did SCTI manage to underbid its rivals so comprehensively? We spoke to Rodel Mangulabnan, SCTI’s chairman and CEO, about this. He said that his bid to set up and manage the national handicapping system was born out of love of the game and the nature of his business. SCTI owns dedicated high-speed servers with much more capacity than is needed for a simple handicapping program.
SCTI’s standards are such that in January 2018, SCTI replaced its battery of dedicated servers as part of its practice to upgrade its hardware every five years without asking to raise handicap fees.
SCTI has so much bandwidth that it essentially donated its services for the UNHS. Being able to help Philippine golf was a matter of pride for Mangulabnan. It was payment enough to be of service to the game he loves so much.
So why would SCTI withhold services to the Philippine golf community?
In 2017, Fedgolf raised the handicap fee from P250 to P500 and persuaded the NGAP to do the same. NGAP agreed and pursuant to their arrangement with SCTI, increased their remittances to the service provider accordingly.
The Federation refused to do likewise. Fedgolf had, in fact, been remiss, not only in failing to remit the agreed-upon fees to SCTI, but they neglected to inform SCTI of their plans to increase the handicapping fees. The Federation just settled a portion of their obligations to the service provider for the years 2013-2018 as of June 24 of this year.
Since Fedgolf had been in arrears for all these years, it was only because of Mangulabnan’s love for the game and his compassion for his fellow golfers that he continued to provide the service, despite the non-full payment of his fees. But like all good things, Mangulabnan’s patience wore thin by the Federation’s steadfast refusal to pay SCTI what it was due.
The Federation didn’t stop at refusing to pay SCTI. It contacted the NGAP and asked them to cancel the agreement with SCTI. The NGAP refused, as they were satisfied with SCTI’s services and the Federation threatened to pull out of their 2012 agreement.
All these bring many questions to light. The clubs pay the annual handicapping dues directly to the Federation. Why have they not remitted the proper fees to SCTI? What has become of the money? Can Fedgolf make good on their threat to create a “new and proprietary handicapping system” to replace the UNHS?
The USGA and R&A recently announced a World Handicapping System (WHS) that will be implemented in January 2020. This new handicapping system will allow a golfer’s handicap to be more representative of how the golfer is currently playing, a major difference from the current system which endeavors to measure a golfer’s potential. There are other differences, but what the index measures is the greatest among them.
The formula for computing the handicap is proprietary to the USGA and R&A and will only be shared with each country’s governing body of the game. The formula for the current system is public domain, which enables anyone with expertise with a spreadsheet program to create a means to compute handicaps acceptable to the current standard.
The Federation achieved relevance by championing best interests of golf in the country and was aided by the NGAP’s inaction at the time. But today, the NGAP has a dynamic leadership that is completely transparent and intent on upholding to the organization’s objectives.
The Federation may have just shot themselves in the foot. By going it alone, they’ve alienated themselves from both the USGA and R&A and will have to give up any revenue they hoped to obtain from providing handicaps to their member clubs.
Fedgolf has other fires to fight. The Federation Men’s League had been so poorly administered that conflicts resulting from the competition have remained unresolved and interest in the competition has been cut by 50 percent. Two years ago, a conflict between the Federation’s board of directors and the captains of each of the clubs led to the outright cancellation of the event. NGAP is now exploring a new team competition to fill the void left by the Men’s Federation League.
Just as this article was being written, we received the news that the Federation had settled with SCTI in full for the arrears dating 2013 to 2018. Perhaps it was the realization that if they pulled out of the agreement, there would be nothing left of the Federation and its projects except the Senior Care Program. It would be, effectively, the end of the organization.
To his credit, even after they suspended services to the Federation, Mangulabnan never took down the handicapping database, but merely suspended the updates to clubs associated with the Federation. By agreeing to settle, they acknowledge that they were on the wrong side of the issue all along. The system is back online, and all golf clubs now have access to the database.
By their actions, the nonpayment of the handicapping service provider, the false accusations they leveled at Mangulabnan and SCTI in the memo to the clubs of June 12, 2019, and the attempts to persuade the NGAP to join them in canceling SCTI’s contract, they proved to all Filipino golfers that they care more about power and the money they can make than being the champions of the game that they set out to be.
The clock is ticking for the Federation. At the end of the year, their agreement with the NGAP will effectively come to an end as the terms of the WHS are so restrictive that only each country’s national sports association will have the license to use it. That will be the death knell for the Federation. All that will be left to do is for the NGAP to pick up the pieces and move on. The Federation’s time is almost done.
1 comment
Too much politics. Follow the Australian handicaping system (Golf link) accurate and real time. Fix it don’t ruin it for us golfers