Parkinson wades into the Battle of Wentworth
TV star accuses golf club’s new Chinese owners of sacrificing heritage in pursuit of Lamborghini drivers
THE battle for Wentworth golf club intensified last night when Sir Michael Parkinson, one of its most famous members, accused its Chinese owners of ignoring tradition to create a club for the “super rich” with a “car park full of Lamborghinis”.
Sir Michael said the new owners had “no regard for the feelings” of the current members who are being ordered to re-apply to join the Surrey club for a £100,000 fee. The number of members will be culled in the process.
The row was further ignited by a letter from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It expressed the Government’s official “disappointment” with the scheme proposed by Reignwood, a Beijing-based company owned by a Chinese billionaire, but admitted “there is very little” it could do to resolve the private dispute.
The government letter was sent last Wednesday to Nigel Moss, a Wentworth resident who is leading the members’ campaign, and followed support from Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, who has already expressed his concern in his capacity as the local MP.
In the letter sent from the office of Tracey Crouch, the sports minister, an official wrote: “I can only reiterate what Philip Hammond MP has already intimated to you, that the Government is disappointed with the decision by the new owners and hopes that a solution can be found that is acceptable to the local community and the existing members of the club.”
Reignwood hit back at claims it was destroying the character of Wentworth, one of the world’s most famous clubs.
The club’s chief executive, Stephen Gibson, insisted that Wentworth “was in a state of decline” and urgently needed £20million of new investment.
But Sir Michael, 80, the former television chat show host who has been a member of Wentworth for 25 years, told The Sunday Telegraph of his dismay.
“They [Reignwood] came in without any regard for the traditions or feelings of members of the club and tried to assume everybody would just go away quietly. They have misunderstood the nature of the club,” said Sir Michael.
Members and residents of the Wentworth estate, near Virginia Water, have joined forces and raised money for a fighting fund, firing off a 15-page letter that threatens court action if Reignwood presses ahead with its plans. Sir Michael said: “A lot of members will go elsewhere. Maybe that is what Reignwood want. Maybe they will get their car park full of Lamborghinis.
“It seems to me the super-rich golf clubs I have visited are soulless places used by oligarchs. They don’t feel like a club. They don’t understand the meaning of the word ‘club’.
“It is very sad. It won’t be the same. What we are facing is a serious situation. You wonder what will happen next but it will all end in tears.”
The veteran broadcaster was called to a personal meeting with Mr Gibson and offered – along with existing longstanding members over 75 – exemption from the new membership payment.
Although he has accepted the offer, he has spoken out because of the impact on other members.
While he no longer plays golf due to a bad back, his wife Mary still plays and Sir Michael said that while she will continue at Wentworth, “some of her friends have made alternative arrangements and gone to other clubs”.
Sir Michael’s intervention in the row – he also said he believed the members’ legal case was a strong one – will add to pressure on Reignwood and its owner Chanchai Ruayrungruang, also known as Yan Bin, to make a U-turn.
But Wentworth’s chief executive dismissed demands for the club to change course.
Mr Gibson, 42, a former golf professional, insisted that Reignwood’s plans had been misinterpreted.
He said: “If people knew the owner and it was a former member, there would be less mystery and less questioning of the new membership scheme.
“Reignwood bought the club over a year ago from Richard Caring [the restaurateur] and the club, it’s fair to say, was in a sort of state of decline. There had been a lack of investment in certain facilities.”
After its £135million purchase, Reignwood startled members with its scheme to make them rejoin for a £100,000 debenture fee. The plan involves cutting the number of members from 4,000, of whom 3,000 are adults, to around 2,000 members through the sale of 900 debentures.
Mr Gibson insisted that the scheme would be a profitable investment for members and expected the debenture to be worth £200,000 at an unspecified point in the future. Members must sell the debenture back to the club, which takes a 30 per cent commission of any future resale.
“The projection is it [the debenture] will go up,” said Mr Gibson, adding: “There is no reason the current membership won’t get into the new club. That is a common misconception.
“We have about 3,000 adults today in the club. In the future we are going to have no more than 900 debenture sales. That spans across the family. We don’t anticipate any less than 2,000 people in the club.”
Mr Gibson added: “I can understand some of the members are upset but I don’t think all the members understand exactly what we are doing and what the end actually looks like. We want to make this the best private golf and country club in the world. It is going to take a massive investment and a couple of years to get there.”
He said he hoped the 900 debentures would all be taken by existing members, who have a preferential option to apply for the new membership until the end of June. The new membership structure will be in place by April 2017, unless the club is defeated by a legal challenge.
Mr Gibson said: “If we only had oligarchs, if we were just open to overseas, high-end net worth individuals flying in from their yachts or whatever, it would kill the club.
“If you had a club full of people who didn’t live anywhere near the place you would not have a vibrant club. That is why we are initially offering it [debentures] only to local residents and members.”
‘They came in without any regard for the traditions of the club and tried to assume everybody would go away’