Wentworth’s golfers revolt over £100,000 charge

Outraged members at renowned course threaten legal action over fee to rejoin their own club

MEMBERS of one of Britain’s most prestigious golf clubs have threatened legal action against their new foreign owners over plans to introduce a £100,000 fee.

Reignwood, the Chinese conglomerate that bought Wentworth, in Surrey, for £135 million, also wants to reduce the number of members from 4,000 to 800.

Those invited to rejoin the club will be charged a one-off payment of £100,000 while annual fees will rise from £8,000 to £16,000.

In a 15-page legal letter sent last week, Wentworth’s new owners were given an ultimatum to backtrack or face court action.

It follows a breakdown in talks between the owners and members in a dispute that has become increasingly acrimonious. The letter claims the planned changes to the club’s member- ship will breach a legal trust agreement in place for 50 years, contravene consumer and equality laws, and possibly break Chinese laws on joining golf clubs.

“The proposed membership structure will fundamentally change the nature and character of the club and the Wentworth estate and is unacceptable. It must cease,” states the members’ letter.

The golf club, one of the most famous in the world, is at the heart of a private estate in Virginia Water, and is surrounded by multi-million-pound houses built in the 1920s.

Members include Sir Bruce Forsyth and Sir Michael Parkinson.

Hostilities broke out after Richard Caring, a restaurateur, sold the club to Reignwood – which is owned by Chanchai Ruayrungruang, a Thai billionaire based in Beijing – in 2014.

Members have clubbed together to form a legal fighting fund and employed a specialist litigation practice to resist the changes.

The law firm claims the reforms breach a 50-year-old trust document, which is said to guarantee the character of the club.

It also argues that estate residents’ rights of access and membership of the club would be threatened by the “prohibitively expensive joining fee”.

The £100,000 sum is described as “a patently unfair charge, whose purpose and effect appears to be to exclude the majority of the current members”.

The letter goes on: “The club will, if the proposed membership structure is implemented, become the preserve of a small number of extremely high net worth individuals and lose its role at the heart of the vibrant community of the Wentworth estate.”

Lawyers also argue that the proposed “exclusive membership” could be in breach of Chinese law. Campaigners have claimed that such practices are forbidden in China.

The Chinese Communist Party banned 88 million members from joining golf clubs in October last year.

A club spokesman said: “Wentworth Club has undertaken an extensive legal review of the proposed membership structure, together with various legal and professional advisers, including seeking the opinion of Queen’s Counsel, which has confirmed that based on the available evidence it is able to proceed with the revised structure.”