Codeigniter first attempt - codeigniter

Question

I'm new to MVC and Codeigniter, but I have something working although not as I'd like and wondered if someone could help me?
I have 2 pages in my website (league, players) in a codeigniter sub-directory and currently my URL to get to them are 'http://www.mydomain.co.uk/codeigniter/index.php/golf' and 'http://www.mydomain.co.uk/codeigniter/index.php/players'
1) How to I remove the index.php from the URL? I've tried $config['index_page'] = ''; in config/config.php and set the .htaccess file, but no luck.
2) I only want to point my default controller in routes.php to golf controller and let the controller handle whatever page is being asked for.
3) Have I set this up correctly or if not then what is the proper way? One controller OK?
.htaccess
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|images|robots\.txt)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ codeigniter/index.php/$1 [L]
config/routes.php
$route['default_controller'] = 'golf';
$route['players'] = 'golf/players'; <-Don't really want this entry!
config/autoload.php
$autoload['libraries'] = array('database');
$autoload['helper'] = array('url');
controllers/golf.php
<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');
class Golf extends CI_Controller {
public function __construct() {
parent::__construct();
}
public function index() {
$this->load->model('league_model');
$data['league'] = $this->league_model->get_League();
$data['title'] = 'League Table';
$this->load->view('templates/header', $data);
$this->load->view('templates/menu');
$this->load->view('league', $data);
$this->load->view('templates/footer');
}
public function players() { //Runs because of entry in config/routes.php
$route['players'] = 'golf/players';
$data['title'] = 'Players';
$this->load->view('templates/header', $data);
$this->load->view('templates/menu');
$this->load->view('players', $data);
$this->load->view('templates/footer');
}
}
?>
models/league_model.php
<?php
class League_model extends CI_Model {
public function __construct() {
}
public function get_League() {
$this->db->from("player");
$this->db->order_by("name", "asc");
$query = $this->db->get();
return $query->result_array();
}
}
?>
views/league.php
<p><?php echo $title; ?></p>
<?php foreach ($league as $item): ?>
<p><?php echo $item['name']." : ".$item['handicap']." : ".$item['bbnetbirdie']." : ".$item['bb4p'] ?></p>
<?php endforeach ?>
views/players.php
<p>This is players</p>

Answer 1

You .htaccess should look like this
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase codeigniter/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^system.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^application.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
And in config $config['index_page'] = ''; this is perfect

Answer 2

A simple .htaccess file i use :
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule .* index.php/$0 [PT,L]
and on the config.php file, removing any reference to index.php
$config['index_page'] = ''