Index page redirects users to another page

I've taken over a site to do SEO work on and I had thought that the
page it was pointing to (the-stairhopper.php) was set server side. But
then I saw while working on the site that the index.php just forwards
to the-stairhopper.php. I was pretty sure I read that this is not the
way to do it (forwarding) for any page, not just the index. It might
also help show why they aren't doing very well in the searches. But I
where I couldn't find the article, I figured I would pose the question
here.

Set server side yes?

I've attached the index.php code below, as otherwise you will never
see the index page. I had always thought google frowned on this
method. Especially on the index page. But if the server itself pointed
to the-stairhoppers.php page, then that method was acceptable.

Where I am making a google sitemap and adding other google webmaster
tools, I wanted to make sure that by putting in the domain name on its
own wouldn't hurt the SEO with the index.php page code below.

<?php
header( 'Location: the-stairhoppers.php' ) ;
?>

Server-side or is the above acceptable under google's rules?

Thanks,

Glen

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