SAGA and NGN to formalise contract buy out

At a meeting of the South African Golf Association’s (SAGA) National Executive Committee, held in Benoni on Sunday (6 December), it was agreed to conclude a contract with National Golf Network (Pty) Ltd (NGN), in terms of which the SAGA would buy out the agreements NGN has with individual golf clubs for the provision of handicapping services and systems, pursuant to which NGN’s existing agreements will be assigned to the SAGA, with the various golf clubs’ consent, where necessary.

“It is intended that this will come into effect as from 1 January 2010, although the implementation of the SAGA’s Handicap Server is likely to be early in February 2010,” said Enver Hassen, SAGA President.

“We are really pleased to have secured an important property belonging to amateur golf,” explained Hassen. “Every golfer has a handicap determined by the SAGA Handicap System. The formalising of our negotiations with NGN means that we not only determine how handicaps are calculated but how they are implemented.”

“NGN and the SAGA have been working on this solution for the last couple of weeks. We are also pleased that the SAGA have reached this agreement. We look forward to working with the SAGA and our clients in ensuring a smooth transition to the SAGA Handicap Server early in the new year,” said Paul Smulders, the Chief Executive Officer of NGN.

“What this agreement effectively means is that the SAGA undertake to fulfil NGN’s obligations, through the implementation of its SAGA Handicap Server,” explained Hassen. He went on to say that this change should not have any detrimental effect on the golfer. “The only evident change to the golfer will be the look and feel of the terminals at golf clubs and how a player captures scores on these terminals,” concluded Hassen.

“We are busy preparing a more detailed communiqué for stakeholders in the golf industry in which we will explain this agreement in more detail. This should be ready for distribution by Wednesday,” explained Hassen.