Wentworth Club in Surrey stands among Britain’s most revered and exclusive golf venues, and it was long recognised as the home of the PGA European Tour’s flagship event and the BMW PGA Championship. Set within a 700-hectare estate at Virginia Water, it also houses the DP World Tour headquarters and the Official World Golf Ranking office. Its heritage, tournaments, and membership have defined a unique balance between sporting excellence and refined exclusivity.
Origins: From Country Estate to Golfing Vision
Wentworth’s story begins not with fairways but with a house. In 1805, a Gothic revival mansion named Wentworths rose among the pines and heather of Virginia Water – a country retreat that would later form the heart of one of Britain’s most distinguished golf estates. In those early years, the estate was more a vision of pastoral calm than a sporting sanctuary, its lawns stretching quietly beneath the changing English sky. Over a century later, in 1922, developer W. G. Tarrant commissioned architect Harry Colt to design courses shaped by the land’s natural contours. Colt walked the grounds himself, tracing the movement of the hills and the fall of the light before setting his plans to paper – a method that would give his work a rhythm still felt in every hole today. The East Course opened in 1924, followed by the Championship (West) Course two years later. The Edinburgh Course, created by John Jacobs, Bernard Gallacher, and Gary Player in 1990, completed the trio, alongside a nine-hole par-3 layout.
Read More: Queenwood Golf Club
Legacy: Where History Took Its First Swing
Wentworth’s place in golfing history was secured early. A friendly Britain–USA match on the East Course in 1926 inspired Samuel Ryder to found the Ryder Cup. That 1926 match, however, was unofficial – the first official Ryder Cup was held the following year, in 1927, at Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts, though Wentworth’s match remains its symbolic origin. Those first drives struck across the East Course carried more than the weight of competition; they marked the birth of a sporting rivalry that would bind continents and generations. The West Course later hosted the event in 1953, the World Cup in 1956, and the World Match Play Championship for over four decades. Since 1984, it has been home to the BMW PGA Championship, the flagship of the DP World Tour. Each September, its fairways fill once again with the quiet theatre of world-class golf – grandstands rising where, for most of the year, there is only the hush of woodland. Inside the clubhouse, clubs donated by each PGA champion line the walls – quiet symbols of the place’s enduring legacy. Some are polished smooth with age, others still bear the nicks of play, each one a relic of triumph preserved within those old stone walls.
Read More: Emirates Golf Club
A New Chapter of Renewal
Ownership has shifted with time. Richard Caring acquired the club in 2004 before selling it a decade later to Beijing’s Reignwood Group, led by Yan Bin. Under Reignwood, Wentworth remained private and exacting in its standards, investing heavily in renewal. – An £18 million restoration of the 1805 mansion in 2018, the revival of Colt’s East Course and the launch of a new Golf Academy in 2024 all marked the course’s centenary, reaffirming Wentworth’s standing in British golf. Today, its story feels complete yet still unfolding – the past held in every brick of the old house, the future written across the greens that roll beyond it.
Read More: Shanqin Bay Golf Club
Courses and Architecture: A Landscape Shaped by Design and Time
Wentworth’s courses form a continuous story – shaped by landscape, history, and the evolution of the game. The East, West (often called Burma Road), and Edinburgh courses wind through pine and heather, their rhythm dictated by Surrey’s woodland terrain. Harry Colt’s original designs are defined by strategic bunkering, natural movement, and compact greens that reward precision.
The West Course, Wentworth’s Championship layout, has evolved with time. Under Ernie Els, renovations in 2009 and 2016 refined bunkers and greens, balancing Colt’s design with modern play. The East Course (par-68, 6,200 yards) is now being restored to its 1920s character by European Golf Design, reviving its heathland identity. The Edinburgh Course (par-72), designed in 1990 by Jacobs, Gallacher, and Player, remains faithful to its original intent – subtle, testing, and rooted in traditional form.
At the centre stands the clubhouse, the original 19th-century residence that now anchors the estate’s character. Once a private home named Wentworths, it became the club’s hub in 1922 and was sensitively restored in 2018 under Reignwood. Its Conservatory and Burma Bar overlook manicured lawns where championship stories are retold, and clubs from past winners gleam behind glass.
Beyond golf, Wentworth is a complete country club: tennis, a spa, and an Olympic-size pool extend its reach. Around the fairways, more than 300 homes form a discreet enclave where golfers and public figures live within sight of the greens – a landscape where sport and heritage continue to shape one another.
Read More: Private Golf Clubs in Dubai
Tournaments and Recent Results: The Stage of the BMW PGA Championship
Wentworth remains best known as the home of the BMW PGA Championship, staged every September on the West Course. The event holds Rolex Series status, drawing the world’s leading players. In the cool, early light of tournament week, grandstands rise beside the fairways, and the air hums with quiet anticipation – a ritual that signals autumn’s arrival in Surrey as surely as the turning leaves. Recent champions include Ryan Fox (New Zealand, 2023) and Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland, 2024), who claimed his second victory at Wentworth after 2014. Fox’s triumph came with a final-hole birdie that sealed his place among the club’s storied winners, while McIlroy’s return brought a familiar roar to the crowd, echoing through the pines much as it did a decade before. The 2025 edition of the BMW PGA Championship has yet to be concluded as of publication.
Each champion donates a club to the Wentworth Trophy Room, a tradition that has turned the clubhouse into a living record of European Tour history. Behind glass, the collection forms a quiet museum of touch and precision – a driver here, a putter there, each one a fragment of victory frozen in time. Beyond the BMW PGA, the club has hosted the Curtis Cup (1932), the Wentworth Senior Masters (1997–2007), and numerous landmark events. Every generation has left its signature somewhere on the estate – a reshaped bunker, a record-breaking round, or a photograph hung in the corridor. The 1926 Britain–USA match that inspired the Ryder Cup remains a defining moment in its story. Nearly a century on, its spirit lingers on those same fairways where the idea of golf as a contest between nations first took shape.
Membership and Ownership – Exclusivity, Tradition, and Change
Membership at Wentworth is by invitation only. There are no public green fees; play is reserved for members and their guests. Under Reignwood, the club moved to a debenture-based structure, requiring a substantial one-off payment alongside annual dues. As of the mid-2020s, debentures were reported in the £175,000–£250,000 range, with annual fees between £16,000 and £20,000 – placing Wentworth among the world’s most exclusive clubs. Membership numbers have been capped well below historic levels, falling from around 4,000 to roughly 800 after 2015.
Its members form a cross-section of sport, media, and business. Past and present figures include Sir Michael Parkinson, Sir Bruce Forsyth, Sarah, Duchess of York, John Terry, and Harry Kane. For many, Wentworth membership signifies not only golfing privilege but social distinction.
Recent Developments – Renewal, Continuity, and Measured Progress
In recent years, Wentworth has entered a new chapter of renewal. The sound of construction once again joined the rustle of pines as Reignwood completed a new clubhouse complex in 2018, followed in 2024 by plans to restore the East Course and create a modern Golf Academy. The facility will include simulators, teaching studios, a short-game area, and nine outdoor bays, blending technology with the estate’s timeless quiet. A new par-3 course is also being shaped, designed to welcome learners while honouring Harry Colt’s original rhythm of play. Described as a “generational investment,” the project feels less like expansion and more like careful stewardship – a renewal of purpose rather than appearance. Work began in late 2024 and is set to conclude in 2025, aligning with the East Course’s centenary.
The club also used these years to mark its milestones – its centenary in 2022, seventy years since hosting the Ryder Cup in 2023, and a century of the East Course in 2024. Each anniversary brought its own quiet celebrations: gatherings on the lawns, the echo of speeches beneath the old oak trees, and a sense that Wentworth’s story is still being written. And together, these moments reaffirmed Wentworth’s place at the heart of British golf – an estate that continues to evolve without ever losing sight of its origins.
-jpg.jpeg)
