Clouds over Wentworth lift after membership dispute

by Graham Otway

Two very big signposts now suggest that the PGA ­Championship will go ahead in May without the fears of disruption and discord that have recently been hanging over  ­Wentworth, its host venue since 1984.

Workmen have started building the stands and hospitality units that will ­surround the 18th when the club again hosts the ­European Tour’s flagship event. Given that the construction ­company, Leeds-based RIM Scaffolding, has ­similar contracts at golf events and ­Formula One grands prix, golf fans at the BMW PGA Championship should have no fears about safety.

While 100 yards away in the ­magnificent clubhouse, Wentworth’s Chinese owner, Reignwood, has backed down on controversial plans to cut membership from over 4,000 to 888, charging ­survivors and any newcomers a £100,000 debenture/signing-on fee.

With the annual membership also being doubled to £16,000, some ­members resigned, and ­Reignwood also faced strong ­opposition from ­residents of the ­mansions bordering the club’s three courses in Virgina Water, as well as ­notable figures.

Phillip Hammond, the Home ­Secretary and local MP, had expressed his concern while broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson, a member for 25 years, had accused the Chinese of ­ignoring tradition to create a club for the “super rich” with a “car park full of Lamborghinis”.

The residents were worried that Wentworth might go down the same route as the exclusive Queenwood

Club at nearby Ottershaw. Its access is ­secured by a plain gatehouse with no Queenwood sign to even ­acknowledge that the club exists. And guests are only allowed through the gates once security guards have confirmed that the ­member who has invited them is inside.

Were that to have happened at ­Wentworth, residents feared that ­access to homes might be ­restricted ­because many are only reachable by roads ­crossing the East and West Courses.

The money-raising scheme by ­Reignwood, which borrowed around £100 million of the £135m it paid to ­entrepreneur Richard Carling in 2014, also raised the question of whether the European Tour would want to continue operating from the office building and car park it owns behind the clubhouse.

After announcing the climbdown on the debenture plan, Stephen Gibson, Wentworth’s chief executive, said: “For several months we have been working to find the right solution to include as many current members as possible in the new vision for Wentworth Club.

“I believe that today’s update… clearly shows our commitment to our ­existing members and local estate residents, who are an integral part of the club’s past and our future.”

While Songhua Ni, president of Reignwood Group, said: “We have ­listened to a variety of differing ­interests from members and estate ­residents. We are continuing to make every effort to accommodate those, whilst focusing on our vision of making Wentworth Club the world’s premier private golf and country club.”

Reignwood has said all members will be eligible for its non-­debenture membership. “It will mean that they continue their existing ­membership without the need to ­­­­­reapply,” it said.

The memberships will “remain for ­perpetuity” and be based on “annual subscription only”. Reignwood continues to pursue debenture ­members and said that those ­debentures would be offered to new and ­existing members alike.

What has not been revealed is whether Reignwood will go ahead with plans to get Ernie Els’ design company to carry out extensive modernisation work on the club’s three courses.

They were announced last year, but when Els was ­approached recently to discuss the work that he intended to

do on the West Course, which hosts the PGA ­Championship, after this year’s tournament, he said that he ­understood that the plans had been shelved. Els should learn more when he ­returns

to his luxury home beside the West Course’s 16th fairway to start preparing for the PGA Championship – a ­tournament he has never won despite seven victories over the West Course in the World Matchplay Championship.

But there will be two empty seats aboard the jets heading back across the Atlantic carrying players to Europe’s summer flagship event. Sources close to Rory McIlroy, the winner in 2014, and Henrik Stenson, have said that Europe’s two top-ranking players have decided not to take part.

No reasons have been given by ­either camp although the return of golf to the Olympics has made a lot of top players rethink their plans. But ­absenteeism by Europe’s top stars is not a new problem.

As Padraig Harrington was en route to winning three Majors, he missed Wentworth four times in seven years, saying that he could not get his head around the poa annua grass that made the greens bumpy. A renovation by Els in 2009 saw the greens ­reseeded, but the blotchy patches last May suggested the problem had ­returned.

Harrington also did not deny that his thoughts also coincided with the reason why Sergio Garcia stayed away from 2001 to 2012. He was put off by a tax system introduced by the Labour ­government that saw overseas sportspeople taxed, not just on prize money won within the UK, but also on a ­percentage of their off-course worldwide sponsorship income.

The way that works is that if a golfer earns £5 million a year from a club manufacturer like Titleist and plays a total of 25 tournaments, then he has to pay tax on 1/25th of that income every time he appears in an event in the UK. And at the height of Harrington’s ­earning powers, even the prize money he earned from winning The Open in 2007 and The Open and USPGA in 2008 would not have paid his extra tax bill each year.

Because of fears of upsetting voters who follow football, the tax has never been imposed on foreign players who visit the UK to play in European club matches, and it was waived for The Olympic Games in London in 2012 and the ­Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.

It has not been suggested that either McIlroy or Stenson are staying away this year for financial reasons or because of the course, but both issues may have crossed their minds.

Before Reignwood carried out its debenture U-turn and with the ­suggestion that one day the owner, if cash strapped, would sell off the courses for housing development, the future of the PGA Championship at Wentworth did appear unclear.

It could still be, but if the club can settle its membership down and ­become a profit-making business again, hopefully one of the sport’s best weeks of the year will remain at its home.

Tagged PGA Championship, Wentworth