Rhinehessen golfclub
Putter access only with a keycard
"Sport is best in a club." Although 40 years old, this motto of the German Olympic Sports Federation has lost none of its relevance to this day – especially in relation to golf. According to statistics, over 673,000 people in Germany (as of 2021) play the sport. In 2011, the German Golf Association (DGV) recorded a good 624,000 players, compared to 399,000 in 2001. Incidentally, according to statistics, the "typical golfer" is male and over 61 years old – but that's just a side note. According to the association, there were exactly 720 golf courses and more than 800 golf clubs in Germany in 2021. One of these is Golfclub Rheinhessen, Hofgut Wißberg St. Johann e.V., which was founded in 1988. The special thing about this club: since mid-2019, it has been using electronic locking cylinders from WILKA in combination with the "easy Basic" software solution. So it's time to take a look at how things are going.
A total of seven electronic cylinders were installed. Four at the entrances to the caddy rooms and three more cylinders on the changing rooms.
The golf club boasts a fantastic location south of Mainz and has around 1,100 members. Today, members can conveniently use their membership card as a "key", as the chip integrated into it is easily recognised by the WILKA easy cylinder as an identification medium. Guests also receive a card with a transponder that grants them access to the changing rooms for the duration of their stay. Members, on the other hand, have unrestricted access to the facility.
Board member Markus Jastroch explains why the golf club decided in favour of the electronic locking system from WILKA and what advantages are expected: "Our buildings were equipped with a mechanical locking system including a master key. Over the years, it became impossible to identify which keys had disappeared or had not been returned. This is a big security risk, as break-ins with so-called "black keys", i.e. keys that nobody knows about, would not be detectable, as there is no damage to the door, lock or cylinder. The issue of access control also became problematic due to the many lost keys."
Fortunately, that's different now. Today, all members have round-the-clock access to the caddy and changing rooms via their membership card. The transponder can be used to track which card was used to open which room and when. The cylinders "report" every locking process to the central management software installed on the secretary's computer. This is also where staff programme the cards and grant or cancel access.
The customised "easy Basic" software solution was specially designed for small to medium-sized systems. The easy-to-use programming software allows users to be assigned to individual doors with the help of a lock plan matrix. Access can be customised in terms of both space and time. This is useful if, for example, tradesmen or cleaning personnel need to visit the club's premises. Lock operations are documented for each door with the date and time, together with the user's details, and can be read using a portable programming device and visualised in the software. Up to 1,024 doors and over 5,000 users can be managed in one system.
"This process gives us an extremely high level of security and minimises the risk of vandalism and break-ins. Of course, we always respect the privacy of our members. It therefore goes without saying that the necessary conformity with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is ensured for hazard prevention and property protection," emphasises Markus Jastroch.
Decision in favour of electronics
The lack of security that ultimately led to the many lost keys prompted the club to contact a local security specialist and obtain information about electronic locking systems. This is how the company Steinborn Sicherheitssysteme from Wöllstein was brought on board, as owner Timo Steinborn has many years of experience in this field. The main arguments in favour of the electronic locking cylinders from the Velbert-based manufacturer were their durability and robustness. "Time and again, people bump into the cylinder knob with their golf bags. WILKA products can handle this without any problems," explains Markus Jastroch.
Replacing the old mechanical cylinders was child's play. In just one day, the firm Steinborn changed the cylinders and familiarised the club's employees with the "easy Basic" software.
From the club's point of view, however, there was yet another reason in favour of the WILKA solution. "One of the decisive factors was the ability to use the existing DGV membership cards (format: Mifare Classic, 1K). We can also use transponders as a guest ID medium. The simple differentiation of access rights for members and guests can be realised exactly as we wanted. The loss and creation of magnetic cards/transponders can also be easily managed. For the future, there is a route for migration from the current "easy Basic" software version to the "easy Hotel" version, which can also handle writeable identification media (e.g. DGV ID card in the Mifare DESFire 4K format) without any hardware changes," explains Jastroch.
The WILKA solution is popular with both members and guests of the Golfclub Rheinhessen, Hofgut Wißberg St. Johann e.V. "In particular, guest players from other golf clubs with the same problems at their club, i.e. with respect to access control, are always looking to discuss the selection criteria," says the board member.
And Matthias Kersten, Sales Field Service at WILKA, can report that other clubs – in North Rhine-Westphalia and elsewhere – are already relying on electronic locking system solutions from WILKA.
