New owners of Wentworth golf club want to charge members $200,000 to join

IF YOU want to tee off at this golf club, it’s going to cost you, and people are blowing up. What are these new owners thinking?

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MEMBERS of a prestigious English golf club are fighting to avoid having to pay upwards of $200,000 just for the chance to make it to the first tee.

Wentworth, in Surrey, was recently bought by Chinese company Reignwood, and the new owners want to charge people the ludicrous amount as a one-off joining fee to become members of the exclusive club.

Additionally, Reignwood wants to double annual fees from $16,000 to $32,000.

Unsurprisingly, existing members of Wentworth — located southwest of London — are furious with the proposals.

According to UK publication The Telegraph, members have banded together to fight the proposal from a legal standpoint, employing a specialist litigation practice to handle the matter.

The Telegraph reported that members sent the Chinese conglomerate a 15-page letter last week with an ultimatum to back down or face legal action in court.

The letter claims the proposed changes would breach a legal trust agreement that has been in place for 50 years, break consumer and equality laws and perhaps 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,” the 15-page letter states, as quoted by The Telegraph.

Plenty of Wentworth’s members won’t be returning if the changes are approved.

In addition to price hikes, the club’s new owners also want to reduce the number of members from 4000 down to 800, further angering people who see that as a blatant attempt to make the course available to only a small selection of the super-rich.

The protesting members describe the new charge as “patently unfair” and say its effect would be “to exclude the majority of the current members”.

“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,” the letter said.

Chairman of the Wentworth Residents Association Eric Leon said the situation was a “tragedy”.

“It is an absolute tragedy that the situation remains so antagonistic when a fair and reasonable solution could easily have been found,” Leon was quoted as saying in the Telegraph.

“Reignwood appears intent on clearing out the membership, restricting accessibility to the club and thereby changing the character of a great golfing institution.”

Reignwood Group bought the club in September 2014 for $270 million, sparking the hostilities.

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

— with AFP

Originally published as New owners of Wentworth golf club want to charge members $200,000 to join