Highlighted differences between IMGA API and the new LD Golf API

Overview

Use this page as a migration summary.

It highlights the main differences between IMGA and LD Golf API behavior.

Technical differences

• Authentication uses JWTs from Common IAM Guide.

• WebSocket clients must send Client.Heartbeat every 30 seconds.

• Live event WebSocket streams support Client.Init after connect.

• WebSocket messages use a CloudEvents envelope. REST responses do not.

Timestamp fields have different meanings:

• time is the envelope generation time.

• data.created_at is the event or state version time.

• data.payload.event_time is the on-course event time.

See General Information and Live Events.

Static data differences

• Tournaments, rounds, and holes keep the same high-level structure.

• Core entities now align with SR identifiers across products.

• Responses include both SR IDs, such as sr:stage:12345, and numeric IDs.

• Request paths use numeric IDs only.

• Field names follow current LD Golf API naming, such as snake_case.

• Teams and players are modeled as competitors, while the API still returns squad, team, and player structures.

• The players endpoint is limited to tours in scope.

• Tournament status is exposed through GET /golf/rest/v1/tournaments.

• There is no separate live tournament status endpoint.

• Hole distances originate in meters. Yardage values can differ slightly because of conversion and rounding.

For valid tournament statuses, see Tournaments list.

Live events differences

• Stroke play live events are scoped to a round.

• Match play live events are scoped to a match.

• There are no separate live event streams per team or player.

• The same live event resource is available through REST history and WebSocket streaming.

• UPDATE and DELETE replace the old IMGA correction workflow.

• Consumers should replace or remove stored events by data.id.

• Event identifiers are UUIDs, not sequence numbers.

• Provisional Ball is not sent as a standalone event.

• Use Stroke and Penalty context instead.

• Zone for stroke events is an enumerated value.

• RoundEnded includes references, not full player objects.

• blindshot is not available.

• The probabilities table is not available.

• BallDropped has no drop type.

• BallDropped and Penalty do not include a provisional index.

• Penalty reason is not available.

• Disqualification is sent as end_reason: DISQUALIFIED in HoleEnded.

• Obstruction data is attached differently than in IMGA.

• Distance and coordinate fields can show rounding differences after unit conversion.

See Live Events and DELETE/UPDATE approach.

State and status differences

• Score state is not updated on BallHoled.

• Score state updates when HoleEnded is produced.

• scoreToWin is not available.

• A dedicated round official event is not sent.

• Official status is reflected through status values such as CONFIRMED.

• Hole-ended score pending is not available.

Tournament status values:

• NOT_STARTED

• IN_PROGRESS

• INTERRUPTED

• CANCELED

• ENDED

• CONFIRMED

• MAINTENANCE

• SUSPENDED

See State (leaderboard, scoreboard, hole-by-hole).

Client and visualization notes

• The first Live Data client iteration does not include stroke animations.

• Dedicated statistics coverage is out of scope for the first iteration.

Related pages

• General Information

• Common IAM Guide

• Live Events

• DELETE/UPDATE approach

• State (leaderboard, scoreboard, hole-by-hole)