Wentworth Club is a privately owned

golf club A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety ...

and

country club A country club is a privately owned club, often with a membership quota and admittance by invitation or sponsorship, that generally offers both a variety of recreational sports and facilities for dining and entertaining. Typical athletic offe ...

in Virginia Water, Surrey, on the south western fringes of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, not far from

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

. The club was founded in 1922. Beijing-based

Reignwood Group Reignwood Group () is a Chinese investment company owning brands and companies in China, the rest of Asia, the UK and the US. It was founded in 1984 by Chanchai Ruayrungruang (aka Yan Bin), a Thai-Chinese businessman. Reignwood's businesses inclu ...

bought the club in September 2014 and implemented a new

debenture In corporate finance, a debenture is a medium- to long-term debt instrument used by large companies to borrow money, at a fixed rate of interest. The legal term "debenture" originally referred to a document that either creates a debt or acknowle ...

membership structure, starting at £100,000. The debenture is now estimated at £175,000.

History

The 19th-century house the ''"Wentworths"'' (now the club house for the club) was the home for the brother-in-law of the

Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...

. It was purchased in 1850 by exiled the Spanish Carlist captain-general Ramón Cabrera, 1st Count of Morella (Carlist title) and 1st Marquis of Têr (Bourbon title) and his heiress wife. Wentworth

After his death, his widow, née Catherine Anne Vaughn-Richards, bought up the surrounding lands under The Cabrera Trust to safeguard the meadows, brooks and the trees planted from her travels on the continent with her gentrified husband to form what has become the heart of the

Wentworth Estate The Wentworth Estate is a private estate of large houses set in about woodland, in Runnymede, Surrey. It was commenced in the early 1920s. It lies within a gently undulating area of coniferous heathland and interlaces with the Wentworth Gol ...

. In 1912, builder W. G. Tarrant had started developing St George's Hill,

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...

– a development of houses based on minimum plots based around a golf course. In 1922 Tarrant acquired the development rights for the Wentworth Estate, getting

Harry Colt Henry Shapland "Harry" Colt (4 August 1869 – 21 November 1951) was a golf course architect born in Highgate, England. He worked predominantly with Charles Alison, John Morrison, and Alister MacKenzie, in 1928 forming Colt, Alison & Morrison L ...

to develop a golf course around ''"Wentworth"'' house. Tarrant developed the large houses on the estate to a similar Surrey formula used at St George's Hill. Development of Wentworth Estate ground to a halt due to the Great Depression in the late 1920s. In 1931 when the banks asked for repayment of a large debenture, Tarrant was forced to declare

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

cy. The ownership of the land passed to Wentworth Estates Ltd, which came under the control of Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co Ltd. In 1988, Elliott Bernerd's property investment company Chelsfield bought Wentworth Golf Club for £17.7 million (also reported as £20 million). Bernerd sold 40% of the club to Japanese investors, raising £32 million, in 1989. In 2004, Chelsfield sold the remaining 60% share, as fashion industry entrepreneur

Richard Caring Richard Allan Caring (born 4 June 1948) is a British businessman. He initially built a business, International Clothing Designs, supplying Hong Kong-manufactured fashion to UK retailers. After surviving the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, he div ...

bought the club for £130 million. In 2014 Caring sold the club for £135m to Beijing-based Reignwood Investments (a holding company associated with billionaire Yan Bin), which has made the club more exclusive by cutting the number of members and raising the fees. Current debentures cost £175,000 and the annual fees is £16,000.

Today

Wentworth Club is best known for its associations with professional golf. It has three eighteen-hole courses: the famous

-designed West Course from 1926, the earlier yet lesser-played East Course which was also designed by Colt in 1924, the recent Edinburgh Course designed by John Jacobs, and a nine-hole par-3 executive course. The headquarters of the

PGA European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fif ...

are located at the club, and each year it hosts the Tour's

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

. It was the venue of the 1953 Ryder Cup and of the World Match Play Championship from 1964 until 2007. The club is surrounded by and entwined with the

, one of the most expensive private estates in the London suburbs, which was built at the same time, where many top golfers and other celebrities have homes. One of them is

Ernie Els Theodore Ernest Els (; born 17 October 1969) is a South African professional golfer. A former , he is known as "The Big Easy" due to his imposing physical stature (he stands ) along with his fluid golf swing. Among his more than 70 career victor ...

, who became the club's "world-wide touring professional" in 2005. Over the winter of 2005-06 Els, who was developing a

golf course design A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". ...

practice, made alterations to the West Course, lengthening it by and adding 30 bunkers. Wentworth also has a tennis and health club. The Wentworth Tennis and Health Club consists of a gymnasium, dance studio, health spa, ozone swimming pool and Jacuzzi, crèche facilities, changing rooms, and a café. The extensive facility was completed in 1999 for £9 million by architects

Broadway Malyan Broadway Malyan is a global architecture, urbanism and design practice. It was established in 1958 by architects Cyril Broadway anJohn Malyan Among its incorporated businesses globally, it owns or is closely associated with the English incorpora ...

Golf courses

West Course

*Opened: 1926 *Architect:

(redesigned from 2005 to 2017 by

) *Par: 72 *Length: *Course Record: 62,

Robert Karlsson Robert Karlsson (born 3 September 1969) is a Swedish professional golfer who has played on the European Tour and the PGA Tour, and now plays on the PGA Tour Champions. Early life Karlsson was born in Katrineholm, Sweden where his father Björn ...

Thomas Bjørn Thomas Bjørn (born 18 February 1971) is a professional golfer from Denmark who plays on the European Tour. He is the most successful Danish golfer to have played the game having won fifteen tournaments worldwide on the European Tour. In 1997 he ...

Alex Norén Alexander Norén (born 12 July 1982) is a Swedish professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour and the European Tour. He has won ten tournaments on the European Tour, including the BMW PGA Championship, the Aberdeen Asset Management S ...

*Key tournaments: HSBC World Match Play Championship, 1964 – 2007:

BMW PGA Championship The BMW PGA Championship is an annual men's professional golf tournament on the European Tour. It was founded in 1955 by the Professional Golfers' Association, and originally called the British PGA Championship. History The BMW PGA Championship ...

, 1984 – present: Ryder Cup, 1953:

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

1956 ''West Course Scorecard''

East Course

*Opened: 1924 *Architect:

*Par: 68 *Length: *Course Record: 62, Doug N Sewell *Key tournaments: inaugural

Curtis Cup The Curtis Cup is the best known team trophy for women amateur golfers, awarded in the biennial Curtis Cup Match. It is co-organised by the United States Golf Association and The R&A and is contested by teams representing the United States and ...

, 1932; friendly match between US and GB&I (forerunner to Ryder Cup) 1926. ''East Course Scorecard''

Edinburgh Course

*Opened: 1990 *Architect: John Jacobs (with

Gary Player Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...

and

Bernard Gallacher Bernard Gallacher, OBE (born 9 February 1949) is a Scottish professional golfer. Early life and amateur career Gallacher was born in Bathgate, Scotland. He took up golf at the age of eleven. In 1965 he won the Lothians Golf Association Boys C ...

) *Par: 72 *Length: *Course Record: 67,

Gary Orr Gary Hamish Orr (born 11 May 1967) is a Scottish professional golfer. Career Orr was born in Helensburgh, Scotland. He turned professional in 1988 and became a member of the European Tour in 1993. His two wins on the Tour both came in 2000, at ...

*Tournaments held: Wentworth Senior Masters ''Edinburgh Course Scorecard''

Executive Course (9 Holes)

*Par: 27 *Length:

References

External links

* {{coord, 51, 23, 48, N, 0, 35, 45, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Golf clubs and courses in Surrey Golf clubs and courses designed by Harry Colt Ryder Cup venues Curtis Cup venues