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Chairman’s Introduction

Foreword by Gary Player

Wentworth Timeline

Chapter I 01 Origins

Walter George Tarrant – Wentworth pioneer WG’s grand stage for golf

Chapter II 18 East & West Courses

Harry Colt – Master designer

Colt’s state-of-the-art genius

George Duncan – George at the gallop

Chapter III 38 International Match 1926

Samuel Ryder – The seeds of an idea Hagen and the birth of the Ryder Cup

Chapter IV 52 Curtis Cup 1932

Joyce Wethered – Outclassing Bobby Jones

Wethered fails to halt USA

Chapter V 62 The War Years

Churchill & Eisenhower – Golf and high office

Wentworth’s secret bunker

Archie Compston – The Open at Wentworth?

Babe Zaharias and the American women – Battle of the Sexes

Chapter VI 78 Ryder Cup 1953

A marvellous show but victory dashed at the last Peter Alliss – One sad day, many happy decades

Tom Haliburton – The perfect club professional

Chapter VII 96 Canada Cup 1956

Hogan in excelsis

Chapter VIII 106 World Match Play 1

Neil Coles – Giving Palmer a fright

Palmer tees up a Wentworth classic

Bernard Gallacher – A selfless servant of Club and game

Women’s British Open 1980 – Laura, Debbie and Winnie

Chapter IX 126 World Match Play 2

Seve and Ernie feel the love

Sandy Lyle – Washing up at Wentworth

Chapter X 138 Modern Courses

Ernie Els – Easy on the West

To Edinburgh, then West

Kenny Mackay – Working wonders on the West

Willy Bauer – The man who saved the house

Chapter XI 154 PGA Championship

Three in a row for one-up Monty

Annabel Dimmock – Annabel aiming for Solheim Cup

Chapter XII 168 Wentworth Today

Georgia Hall – From autograph hunter to Ambassador

Enduring mystique of the original vision

Afterword by Bernard Gallacher

“I feel it just as strongly today. Put simply, Wentworth is in a class of its own.”

Paradise!

Ask me to sum up Wentworth in one word and that is the answer that will immediately spring to mind.

I felt it the day I came onto the Estate and saw the Clubhouse and its magnificent surrounds for the first time more than 65 years ago — and I feel it just as strongly today. Put simply, Wentworth is in a class of its own.

For me it was love at first sight. I had come over from South Africa with my father in 1955 and we stayed in humble bed and breakfast lodgings in Sunningdale at night, while I got to play the East and West Courses by day. A year later, I was back as part of a two-man team with Bobby Locke and playing for South Africa in the Canada Cup. I have great memories of that week. Ben Hogan and Sam Snead finished as champions for the US, but we finished second.

I was really proud of the way we played, but I was almost as proud of the photograph I had taken with Hogan outside the locker room. I waited for over an hour for him to finish his round and he was happy to oblige. I was only 20 at the time and as far as I was concerned, he had the best golf swing of any man that ever lived. I still believe that to this day. He’s the only man I’ve met in my entire career who knew the swing from A to Z. It is little wonder the galleries were so large that week; they had turned up to watch the best striker of a ball, tee to green, and they didn’t go away disappointed.

I have so many great memories at Wentworth that it’s hard to know which is the best of them. But to have won the World Match Play Championship five times over the West Course is pretty special. If nothing else, it shows how “at home” I felt at the Club. Even now, I remember those days like they were yesterday. I remember playing Peter Thomson and beating him 10 and 8. I remember playing my great friend Jack Nicklaus in one final, winning 6 and 4 and then beating him 5 and 4 the following year. I was seven down against Tony Lema and came through to win at the 37th hole.

One of the more bizarre instances came about in my match with Gay Brewer. We were all-square after 36 holes and had to keep going. But when we got to the third extra hole, the greenkeepers had already changed the pin position for the following day’s play. We could see where the original cup had been so when somebody threw a penknife from the gallery on to the green, we cut it open and putted out to the original hole. Let’s say, the right man won!

I get just as much of a thrill playing at Wentworth now as I did all those years ago. The Club is so welcoming and friendly and has proved a fantastic host for the Gary Player Invitational, which has helped to raise many millions for The Player Foundation, which supports underprivileged children around the world.

Whenever I come back, I am always interested in seeing the changes that have taken place, whether on the Courses or the Clubhouse. Sir Winston Churchill said that change is the price of survival and, without a doubt, the Courses have changed for the better. This is a Club that never stands still, as was evident with the construction of the John Jacobs-designed Edinburgh Course. I was delighted to be asked to help in a consultancy role, along with Bernard Gallacher, and I think the Course can be described as a hidden gem. It was a particular honour to be there when the Course was opened in 1990 by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. He gave me a set of cufflinks — a tee and a ball — to mark the occasion, but sadly I had them stolen. Still, no one can steal my memories of the day.

It’s amazing to think that I’ve come back to Wentworth every year since 1955 and will continue to do so. I was made an Ambassador for the Club in 2020 and I couldn’t have been more pleased. In so many ways, the Club has become a home from home.

No, it’s more than that. It’s paradise.

History of Wentworth

Origins

Walter George Tarrant Wentworth pioneer

Walter George Tarrant was, according to researcher Mavis Swenarton, “one of the most influential and prolific builders in Surrey in the first third of the 20th century — a man of vision and enterprise. He was an imposing figure, over six feet tall with abundant grey hair and a thick beard, and is said to have borne a striking resemblance to King Edward VII.”

Born in 1875, the son of a police constable from Hampshire, “WG”, as he was known, is not to be confused with the famous cricketing doctor of the same era, WG Grace. Tarrant became an apprentice carpenter aged 15 and set up his own carpentry business on qualifying five years later. In the early 1900s he expanded the business into the building trade. He undoubtedly had an eye for architecture, though never qualified professionally.

He built homes extensively in Pyrford, West Byfleet and Woking, areas that were becoming accessible from London due to the railway line out of Waterloo. His works headquarters were in Byfleet, which were described as “covering five acres of ground and equipped with ideal workshops for joinery, wrought iron, lead lights and iron casement work”, with the men employed being “specialists in their respective crafts”. There were brickfields in Chobham and nurseries in nearby Pyrford and Addlestone. At the height of his company in the 1920s he had over 5,000 employees and, a churchman, he believed in supporting them with musical and sporting activities.

At one point he made a trip to America and marvelled at the new country clubs, places to live, socialise and enjoy outdoor activities in a beautiful environment. Could he make the idea work in his area of Surrey greenery? St George’s Hill, just north of Byfleet and south of Weybridge (and its railway station) was a renowned beauty spot,

featuring pines, silver birch and rhododendrons. The mansion was owned by Admiral Hon Francis Egerton and his wife Lady Louisa, who went to the same church as Tarrant and his wife Henrietta. After the Egertons had both died, their heir had already settled in Lancashire and Tarrant was able to negotiate the purchase of the estate in 1911. The Brooklands motor racing circuit and aerodrome, created by Hugh Locke King, was just to the west of the estate and attracting the prosperous and the celebrities that Tarrant was after as clientele. West Byfleet and New Zealand golf clubs, founded by Locke King, and Burhill, by the Guinness family, were already established courses in the area but Tarrant was offering something novel — a high-end housing estate set around golf courses that were to be designed by Harry Colt, then the secretary at Sunningdale but already a noted course designer.

There was also a tennis club and fishing on the Wey nearby. The formal opening, performed by Prince Alexander of Teck, brother-in-law of George V, was in June 1913 and the reporter from the Surrey Herald gushed: “One feels as though one stands in an enchanted land, when the outer world, so to speak, is entirely forgotten in the glories of a sylvan glade in all its summer garb.”

World War I interrupted the building of the estate and Tarrant turned his attention to providing timber huts to be sent to the front, training women carpenters to build the huts at his Byfleet works, and then travel to France to reassemble them. He also built a wooden-framed

tri-plane, the Tarrant Tabor, 73 feet long, 37 feet high, with a wing span of 131 feet, designed to bomb Berlin. Tragically it crashed on its maiden flight from Farnborough in 1919, killing both pilots.

As the war ended, Tarrant was involved in the government schemes for building “homes fit for heroes”, the troops returning from the front, and the working class. He also continued developing St George’s Hill, but felt he could do an even bigger and better version if he found the right land. As he did at Wentworth.

A Knight, Frank & Rutley plan of the Wentworth Estate when put up for auction in 1920. The railway line bounds the property to the east and south, and the Great South West Road to the west. Virginia Water station is to the east, while

Origins WG’s grand stage for golf

Even Walter George Tarrant himself would be impressed at how his vision for another, yet grander, golfing estate has lasted the test of time. For a century, Wentworth has been England’s premier inland venue for golf championships.

Tarrant created a stage that has seen so many of the game’s greatest players perform — Hagen, Wethered and Zaharias; Hogan, Snead and Thomson; Palmer, Player and Nicklaus; Ballesteros, Langer and Norman; Faldo, Lyle and Woosnam; Els, Woods and McIlroy.

Wentworth Club was in its infancy when its first grand occasion took place in 1926, an International Match featuring, among others, Walter Hagen and Jim Barnes for the Americans, and Abe Mitchell and George Duncan, Wentworth’s first professional, for Britain — a precursor to the Ryder Cup, which started a year later. The Curtis Cup, a transatlantic clash for women amateurs, was played for the first time here in 1932. The Ryder Cup proper came in 1953, and three years later the Canada Cup, later known as the World Cup of Golf, on its first venture outside North America.

Then for 44 years from 1964, the World Match Play Championship featured the biggest stars in head-to-head contests over 36 holes around the West Course. And from 1984 the PGA Championship found a permanent home at Wentworth, so for more than two decades there were both spring and autumn opportunities to see the best golfers and for television audiences, both in Britain and later internationally, to become as familiar with the great golfing stage as the Club Members and residents of the Estate. There was also a decade where a third big tournament, the popular Wentworth Senior Masters, took place on the Edinburgh Course in the summer.

The crowds always flocked to see the stars at Wentworth, right from that match in 1926, where the gallery included legends of the game such as JH Taylor, one of the Great Triumvirate, and the great amateur Bobby Jones. In 1932, the attraction was seeing Joyce Wethered, the finest woman player of her generation, one last time, and in 1956 it was a rare chance to see Ben Hogan play in Britain, as he only ever competed in one Open Championship — winning it, of course! But regular tournaments were also well attended. When former Ryder Cup captain Dai Rees won the Dunlop Masters in 1962, he said the crowds were the largest he had ever seen for a sponsored event. They kept coming to see Arnie, Seve and Ernie over the subsequent decades and arrive in ever greater numbers for the BMW PGA Championship today. Many of England’s modern golfing stars saw their first in-person glimpse of professional golf on the West Course, including Paul Casey, Justin Rose, Tyrrell Hatton and Georgia Hall.

And it was never just about seeing the golf, but the Wentworth Estate itself. Such was the curiosity at Tarrant’s creation that over the decades has been home to athletes and entertainers, royalty and diplomats, financiers and titans of industry.

Five years covered the initial phase of Tarrant’s project, with the centenary celebrations following accordingly, from his first purchase of land for the Estate in 1922, the formation of the Club and the opening of the East Course in 1924, and the completion of the West in 1927.

England’s premier inland venue for golf. Crowds have always flocked to Wentworth to see the top stars of the day in action and also to see the Estate itself — including for the Ryder Cup narrowly won by America in 1953 (above) and for the BMW PGA Championship as Francesco Molinari celebrates victory in 2018 (below).

Ever since Tarrant had created his estate at St George’s Hill in Weybridge, and following World War I, he was on the lookout for a more sizeable tract of land for another development. His interest would have been piqued by a prominent advertisement in Country Life in April 1920 offering nearly 1,800 acres of land, including a few farms and country houses, plus the Wentworth mansion itself. The main house dated from 1805, built in the Gothic style popular at the time, including crenellations, by Charles Culling Smith, a junior government minister who was the brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington after marrying Lady Anne Fitzroy (nee Wellesley). He named it “Wentworth’s” after a previous owner of that parcel of land, although the wider estate was originally known as Podenhall Park (later contracted to Portnall).

Culling Smith, who had spent much of his early life in India, and Lady Anne lived at Wentworth’s for almost 40 years. The house changed hands a couple of times and was then bought by Ramon Cabrera, the Count of Morella,

who had been a brilliant, but ruthless, general for the defeated Carlists in the Spanish civil war of the 1830-40s. Cabrera had fled first to France and then England, marrying Marianne Richards, the daughter and heir of a wealthy London lawyer.

They moved into Wentworths (the apostrophe having been dropped — the “s” would follow later) in 1854 and although the Count died in 1877, Lady Marianne continued to live there with their youngest, unmarried daughter, Ada, until her death at the age of 95 in 1915.

Over the years, the Countess had bought up much of the surrounding land, the first time it had been under a single owner since the 15th century. It was then that yeoman farmers, and later speculators, started breaking up the land — originally wild and barren, with poor soil and pockets of peat, supporting little vegetation bar silver birches, bracken and heather — that had previously been endowed by Chertsey Abbey to a benedictine nunnery at Broomhall, near Sunningdale.

A garden view of Wentworth’s mansion house (above), from 1805 the home of Charles Culling Smith and Lady Anne Fitzroy (below).

Lady Marianne travelled widely and brought back interesting trees and shrubs which were planted on the estate, and she also built housing for her staff, often naming buildings in honour of her late beloved husband. She loved horses and was an expert rider, hosting the Garth Hounds regularly at Wentworth, occasions often attended by members of the Royal family.

After a legal dispute over her will, which saw her eldest two children, who had gone to live in Spain, disinherited, and with two other children having predeceased her, the entire estate passed to Ada. With no need for all the land and with the mansion, which during World War I had served as a home for Miss Seed’s school after it was evacuated from Paris, being far too big for her needs, Ada decided to sell up.

At auction the estate failed to reach its reserve price and was withdrawn from sale. Tarrant had been unable to bid for the whole lot in one go, but in time negotiated a deal with Miss Cabrera to develop the estate together, buying parcels of land in stages over 10 years. The first instalment amounted to £42,000 for 245 acres, including the mansion that was to become the new Clubhouse. Ada first moved to a smaller house on the estate, and later to Guildford, where she died in 1935, having played a crucial role in the formation of the Wentworth we know today.

The location of the estate was ideal for Tarrant’s needs. Windsor, Ascot and Sunningdale are all nearby, with the royal hunting

Rider of horses, lover of dogs

Among the first to take up debenture membership at Wentworth were Richard and Muriel Porter, friends of the Tarrants from Byfleet, with whom they often rode. Theirs was the first house to be started on the Estate in 1923, Weather Heath (now named Wentworth Gate) on the corner of East Drive and Wellington Avenue. Richard made his fortune in the fashion industry, managing Vivian Porter & Co, a ladies and sportswear wholesaler. Muriel was a fine golfer who was taught by George Duncan and became Wentworth’s first Lady Captain. In 1930 she caused a major surprise by reaching the final of the English Championship at Aldeburgh, where she was defeated by two-time champion Enid Wilson.

In an era when married women were referred to by their husband’s initials, there was initially some confusion about who “Mrs RO Porter” was, but Muriel soon made a fine impression. Golf writer Eleanor Helme recalled in her memoir: “One player at Aldeburgh well out of the nursery and yet new to fame was a complete conundrum. ‘Who was Mrs Porter before she was Mrs Porter?’ ‘Can you tell me anything about Mrs Porter?’ ‘Where does Mrs Porter come from?’ Heads were scratched and nobody was any wiser. Mrs Porter for golfing purposes had always been Mrs Porter, a rider of horses, a lover of dogs, a pupil of Duncan’s — that was about all that was known except that she had a real sound heart and a splendid smile. Mrs Porter herself was the person most astonished at her arrival in the final. She was more than astonished, she was horrified, an attitude which made her success all the more popular.”

Mrs Porter had an idiosyncratic swing that involved bobbing up and down on her toes before launching a long shot on its way. Helme was puzzled about this until one day she happened to be in the Wentworth Clubhouse and noticed a girls’ dancing class taking place in the ballroom. “Mrs Porter can surely have learnt her little jig nowhere else,” Helme observed.

Sadly, Muriel Porter died prematurely in January 1934 at the age of only 36.

Ramon Cabrera (right) and Lady Marianne, the Count and Countess of Morella, moved into Wentworths in 1854.

grounds of Windsor Great Park and Virginia Water Lake, created in the 18th century, just the other side of the old road from London to Southampton (now the A30). The railways had arrived at Virginia Water in 1856, the station an important junction on the route into Waterloo.

The significance for Tarrant of the railway link was twofold. As well as access for golfing visitors and societies down from London, he had already successfully built housing for commuters up to town. At Wentworth he got to combine the two objectives. Tarrant’s idea was to develop a mix of housing, smaller plots to the east near the station, with shops and amenities on the approach to the station itself, and larger properties, with covenants in the deeds to prevent the subdivision of plots, to the west on the golf courses that were centred around the old mansion, an area now known to locals as “The Island”.

It was subtly different from his initial approach at St George’s Hill, although the intervention of World War I and the economic reality thereafter no doubt altered his outlook. “The early houses built by Tarrant on St George’s Hill were mostly of three storeys and several were very large and imposing,” wrote historian Mavis Swenarton.

“The houses built in the 1920s on St George’s Hill and Wentworth Estate were mostly smaller, of only two storeys, but built to an equally high standard.

“Many of Tarrant’s larger houses were built from hand-made bricks and tiles in the Surrey style, with tall chimneys, dormer windows, gables, leaded lights, tile hung or half-timbered or a combination of both. The woodwork and joinery — doors, panelling, beamed ceilings, staircases and floors — were always of exceptionally high quality; some houses had stonework round the front door and stone fireplaces, and a few had a marble floor in the hall. On some of his houses there is a stone tablet with his initials ‘WGT’.”

One of Tarrant’s first tasks was to convert the mansion from a family home to a Clubhouse, upgrading kitchens and dining rooms, as well as adding locker rooms and car parking. Social occasions were soon taking place as Tarrant sought to inject a community spirit, setting up a choral society, putting on harvest suppers for his staff and hosting plays such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It on the lawn leading down to the pond in front of the house.

Portnall Park, the seat of Colonel Thomas-Chaloner Bisse-Challoner, by George Frederick Prosser (1828).

Aerial views of the Clubhouse then (1940s) and now. Note the old courtyard within the Clubhouse where the lounge now is.

Another property, Portnall House, which Tarrant bought from Rodolph de Salis, Chairman of the Singer Motor Company, became the Dormy House. Portnall had originally been built by Reverend Thomas Bisse in 1795, later extended by his son, Thomas-Chaloner Bisse-Challoner, a colonel in the Surrey militia, to house art treasures collected on his Grand Tour travels. He had no children so the estate was passed down to his in-laws’ family.

Golf at Wentworth came into being on 1 November 1924 with the opening of the No 1 Course, now the East. As with his first golfing project, Tarrant turned to the preeminent designer of the day, Harry Colt, to lay out the course. He even persuaded Colt to join the Club’s board, along with solicitor Evan Davies, with Tarrant as chairman. Edwin Elliott was the secretary and George Duncan, the 1920 Open Champion, the first professional. An encouraging 584 Members joined in the first year, while debentures were issued at £100 each for the right to build on one of the plots and offering a dividend of five per cent per annum.

Although there was plenty of competition from established clubs in the area, having two courses helped in attracting even more

Members. Colt’s second course, now known as the West, opened its first nine holes in December 1926, when Colt resigned from the board to concentrate on his many design projects. With more land being secured all the time, the No 2 Course was completed the following year, and an 18-hole short course was added. Another influx of Members arrived in 1927, which along with an apparently flourishing profit from the Club’s wine account, helped stabilise the finances. Quality was always a watchword, but there was no room for extravagance, at one point Tarrant offering to collect potatoes himself as it saved £1 per ton on having them delivered. He also found outlets to buy surplus flowers from the gardens.

“As time went on, even more societies and tournament sponsors sought Wentworth as their venue,” stated one account of the Club’s early days. “This success was largely due to Mr Tarrant, who was tireless in his efforts to improve the comfort and convenience of the Members and thus the public image of Wentworth.”

Tarrant, described as the “generalissimo” of Wentworth, saw his vision of an American-style country club, new to Britain, coming to fruition. Squash courts were erected, the tennis courts inherited with the estate

Robert Powell, Bruce Forsyth, Chris Evans, Ronnie Corbett and Jimmy Tarbuck among those lining up at the Alfred Dunhill Celebrity Challenge at Wentworth in aid of the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice.

Who exactly was Wentworth?

So who was Wentworth and how did his or her name become attached to a golfing estate in Surrey? Lieutenant-General Thomas Wentworth was a British Army officer, serving in the War of Jenkins’s Ear and the Jacobite uprising of 1745. The son of a baronet from Bretton Hall, Yorkshire, Wentworth lived in Sunninghill, Berkshire. He became the Member of Parliament for Whitchurch and died in 1747 in Turin, where he was the British ambassador.

But he had little to do with the current Wentworth Estate other than his marriage to Elizabeth Lord, who inherited 100 acres of peaty wasteland near Egham from her father, Robert Lord of St Martin’s in the Fields. Elizabeth, who long outlived her husband and moved to the Cotswolds, sold the land, which had become known as “Wentworth’s Waste”, in 1761 to Dr John Jebb, Dean of Cashel in Ireland. Jebb planted many trees, bought up other tracts of land and created Virginia Farm. His son David initially continued to run the farm but then moved away, selling the land to Charles Culling Smith, who in 1805 built a mansion he called “Wentworth’s”, which would become the Clubhouse for Tarrant’s Wentworth Club. It was a wasteland no more.

Elizabeth Wentworth may have another naming connection, as she was related by her sister’s marriage to Jane Austen, whose novel Persuasion has a character called, perhaps not coincidentally, “Captain Wentworth”.

were improved and later a swimming pool was installed. Up to 300 lunches were served every Sunday. The Tarrant family themselves moved into a house named Eastfield that WG built on what is now Woodlands Road West on the north of the estate, just minutes walk from Christ Church, Virginia Water, where he was a churchwarden.

An international reputation was always important to Tarrant and memberships were advertised on transatlantic cruise ships and in America, as well as in traditional London clubs. Society events became a regular fixture, including the Annual Ascot Ball in 1926, in aid of the King Edward VII Hospital in Windsor, described as “the event of the season” and “long to be remembered”.

Architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, in his famous Buildings of England series, would describe the houses of the Wentworth Estate as “immaculately laid out” and identified the area as one of the best examples of a village suburb in Surrey.

Yet in 1931 Tarrant’s association with Wentworth came to a sudden end. He suffered a heart attack early in 1931 and part of his recuperation was a trip by boat with his wife Henrietta to South Africa. His building company had suffered with the recession that followed the Wall Street crash of October 1929 and in July 1931, after missing a relatively small bank repayment, WG Tarrant Ltd went into receivership. Tarrant resigned his positions at St George’s Hill and Wentworth, while Tarrant Buildings Ltd was reformed with son Percy as director. The new company continued building homes at Wentworth and by 1939 there were 359 houses on the Estate.

Wentworth Estates Ltd was created to own and manage the Club, initially under the chairmanship of Edward Basden, an accountant who was later seconded to the Ministry of Supplies during World War II. In 1938, the Club now financially secure once more, Sir Charles Price, a former MP who had been a close business associate of Tarrant for decades, succeeded Basden as chairman.

One of the first acts of the new board in 1932 was to offer honorary memberships to WG and Henrietta Tarrant. By then, the Tarrants had gone to live at Malthouse Farm in Hampshire, although by 1936 they had returned to Byfleet and WG was elected to Woking Council.

Wentworth was on its way, while Tarrant embarked on one last grand project that was sadly cut short. In 1940, he purchased Hafod Estate, near Aberystwyth in Wales, all 11,000 acres, with a 50-room mansion, several farms and a hotel. He set about modernising the house, developing the estate, creating a hydro-electric power supply and

felling trees for the war effort. On 18 March 1942, he had another heart attack and died aged 66.

Tarrant biographer Richard Norris noted WG’s love of Kipling’s poem

“If”. “He certainly had his triumphs, and a number of severe reversals such as his brother’s death, the Tabor disaster, the two Clubhouse fires at St George’s Hill, his son-in-law’s death, the receivership and his own son’s death,” wrote Norris. “From relatively humble origins, he

had scaled the social heights with the creation of St George’s Hill and Wentworth, yet for four years was forced back to Hampshire while his health and financial problems were sorted out. Even though life was never quite the same again, he came back and carried on building work in Byfleet, and who knows what he might have achieved in succeeding years at Hafod. I think Kipling would have agreed, ‘He was a Man’.”

Walter George Tarrant and his staff in the 1920s as Wentworth Club came into being.

East & West Courses

Harry Colt Master designer

Henry Shapland Colt, known since boyhood as Harry, was a shaper of land, specifically ground upon which golf could be played. He was a solicitor and a golf club secretary, but also one of the first to establish golf course designer as a profession.

It was one thing to lay out a course between the sand dunes by the coast, or on commons like those at Wimbledon and Blackheath, although the latter, which would get muddy and crowded, never captured the essence of the seaside game enjoyed at the former. Turning unsuitable-looking terrain, as the Berkshire-Surrey belt we know today originally was, into something that could be the equal of the great links was an act of both imagination and expertise.

“Around the turn of the century,” wrote the prolific Canadian designer Geoffrey Cornish, “the sand heathlands near London were found to be ideal for golf once extensive earth moving had been implemented. It was on these heaths that earth shaping first became part of golf design and golf design an art form. The pioneer, Willie Park Jr, was soon to be followed by HS Colt, Herbert Fowler and JF Abercromby. These four became the leading architects of their day. Many renowned courses in the British Isles and the Continent were planned by this foursome.”

Colt was born in 1869 in Highgate but grew up playing golf on the common at Malvern Wells. At school he played all sports, but in the holidays the family would head for St Andrews and it was at the Home of Golf that he fell in love with the game. He captained the Cambridge University Golf Club, joined the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and, encouraged by his friend Freddie Tait, the great amateur, played in the 1891 Open Championship on the Old Course, finishing 38th of the 63 players who completed both rounds.

He became an original member of the R&A Rules of Golf Committee in 1897, played in the Amateur Championship on occasion, reaching the semi-finals in 1906, and represented England two years later.

Two key moments led to Colt’s preeminence as a course designer.

The first, after leaving Cambridge with a degree in law, was securing a position in a legal firm in Hastings. With like-minded souls, he helped found Rye Golf Club, laying out a course over the sand dunes at nearby Camber. It opened in 1895 and is still revered to this day.

Colt was also secretary of the club for three years and that took him in another direction. But not back to St Andrews. His application to be secretary of the R&A, supported by future Prime Minister AJ Balfour, among others, was rejected, but Colt fought off 434 other applicants to take that position at the newly formed Sunningdale Golf Club in 1901.

The Old Course had just been laid out by Park Jr, the two-time Open champion, but Colt carried out many alterations over the succeeding years, lengthening holes to deal with the new rubber-core balls, elevating some tees, adding pines or removing heather.

He later created the New Course at Sunningdale, which opened in 1923, by which time he had been a full-time architect for a decade.

In the local area alone he was responsible for Stoke Poges (now Stoke Park), Denham, Swinley Forest, St George’s Hill, Burhill and Camberley Heath. He designed hundreds of courses all over Britain, as well as

in Ireland, France and the Netherlands. He updated many courses, including Open hosts such as Royal Lytham and St Annes, Royal Liverpool, Muirfield and Royal Portrush. He spent time in America and assisted George Crump for a short spell during the building of the mighty Pine Valley, and worked with Donald Ross. His influence was so profound that others took up his ideas about strategic golf. An early associate was Dr Alister MacKenzie, who designed Royal Melbourne, Cypress Point and Augusta National, while he also worked closely with Hugh Alison, who built courses in America, Japan and South Africa, and John Morrison.

Cornish wrote: “Most of Colt’s courses have in fact endured the test of time. Golf architecture would not be what it is today had it not been for his pervasive influence.”

Wentworth’s original No 1 Course, showing the first hole from what is now the West and the second playing from the second tee of the West to the first green at the East. Two holes parallel to the original third are no longer in play, while the current sixth, seventh and eighth holes on the East were later additions.

East & West Courses

Colt’s

state-of-the-art genius

There is a stately timelessness about golf at Wentworth. Set out from in front of the crenellated Clubhouse and what has changed?

Well, there is Bernard Gallacher’s bronze statue on the first tee, whose surrounds have been turfed with a hardwearing hybrid grass from Tottenham Hotspur’s training ground. And up by the green there may occasionally be the quiet hum of the SubAir system.

Look beyond the technological enhancements and inevitable modernisations, however, and the West Course remains as it always was, the grand stage as envisioned by WG Tarrant and created by the genius of Harry Colt. Each hole set perfectly into the natural terrain, elegantly framed by the Scots pines, each an intimate theatre of its own, yet the corridors of fairway open enough, with the houses of the Estate held respectfully back from the treeline, to allow all to breathe freely, whether a daunted hacker or when thousands are craning their necks for a view of the game’s biggest stars.

Walk on, whether playing or following, and the flow from one hole to the next is so intuitive that in no time at all the pines give way to the more open heathland out in the country, up by the railway line, before the enthralling procession winds its way back to what was once the Wentworth’s mansion.

The West, and its elder sibling the East, have withstood the test of time, helped along the way by any necessary refinements, because from the beginning, a century ago, they were state-of-the-art. Perfecting how to build inland courses that could be thought of in the same breath as the classic links only happened in the first quarter of the 20th century.

Writing his definitive The Golf Courses of the British Isles in 1910, Bernard Darwin stated: “Nothing can ever quite make up for the short,

crisp turf, the big sandhills and the smell of the sea; seaside golf, must always come first, and inland second, but the best inland golf can no longer be reproached with being a bad second best.”

Darwin had in mind the new, or as we would call them the Old, courses at Sunningdale and Walton Heath. He added: “Now the glorious golfing properties of sand and heather and fir trees have been discovered and these courses, for the most part, are very good. The idea of hacking and digging and building a course out of land on which two blades of grass do not originally grow together is a comparatively new one. And so, too, this science, for so it may fairly be called, of the laying out of courses on carefully discussed and thought-out principles. The more thoughtful of golfers have evolved definite theories as to what the particular qualities that constituted a good or bad hole. When it was discovered that heather would, if only enough money was spent on it, make admirable golfing country, these architects have made the fullest use of it, lavishing treasures of thought, care and ingenuity.”

One of those thoughtful golfers who possessed ingenuity in spades was Colt. A year or so after Darwin had written those words, Colt, now transitioning from being the secretary at Sunningdale to being a fulltime architect, astonished The Times correspondent when he first took him on a site visit to Tarrant’s project at St George’s Hill. Darwin recalled: “Mr Colt showed me, as we fought our way through the undergrowth, where the holes were to be, while I gazed and wondered at this gift of the golfing architect which seemed so mysterious as that of the water diviner. I carried away memories of the lovely bits of woodland and grassy glades through the forest, and I have been trying quite vainly ever since to identify them. When I came next, there was a golf course in being and my glades had vanished into fairyland.”

There is a stately timelessness about the view down the first hole of the West Course, now enjoyed by the statue of Bernard Gallacher.

It is a mercy that Tarrant never followed through on his initial idea to allow different Members to lay out a hole each at St George’s Hill and instead engaged Colt. The course was so warmly received, the estate so successful despite the imminent outbreak of a world war, that Tarrant had no hesitation a decade later in asking Colt to provide two courses at Wentworth. Indeed, Colt was one of the founding directors of the Club, although he left as soon as the two courses were finished due to the demand of projects elsewhere. But Tarrant had got him at the height of his powers, and while assisted by two of his most trusted lieutenants in Hugh Alison and John Morrison.

Knowing there would be two courses from the start allowed Colt to disregard one of his core principles that for a club with a busy membership it was preferable to have two loops of nine, providing both a first and a 10th tee near the Clubhouse. At Wentworth, there would already be two first tees and the route of each 18 could wander off deep into the Estate, more in keeping with a traditional out-and-back links, with the benefit of being able to utilise the best terrain available.

Although the East came first, opening in 1924, the first hole of the West has always been the first at Wentworth. Colt liked his opening holes to be long, quickly getting players away from the Clubhouse, and be relatively easy — at least as a par five for the Members — while generally he was always glad to incorporate a feature of the ground — in this case a modest ravine — in front of a plateaued green. It remains classic Colt. Here the first shot in the precursor Ryder Cup was played in 1926, Ben Hogan chipped in during the first round of the 1956 Canada Cup, and Seve Ballesteros hit a majestic five-iron to win a sudden-death playoff against Colin Montgomerie in the 1991 PGA Championship.

It is at the second tee that a decision needed to be made when the No 2 Course was constructed. The land suggested the insertion of a short hole to a green set into the opposite bank, and then a turn to the right — to the west — offered potential. Meanwhile, the No 1 Course needed a new first tee. It was sited halfway down the lefthand side of the original first, allowing a fairway to be laid on up the slope to what had been the second green. Even today, stand by the fairway bunkers on the right and it can be seen that they were set to challenge a drive from the second tee of the West — through a convenient gap in the trees.

The West has become one of the most widely recognised courses in the world, alongside others to receive annually television

Hugh Alison and John Morrison, Harry Colt’s partners, study plans during the construction of the West Course in 1925.

The ninth hole of the West and (overleaf) the heather in bloom on the seventh and 11th holes.

An example of the diagonal bunkering off the tee at the third hole on the East.

exposure such as St Andrews, Pebble Beach, Sawgrass and Augusta National. It was the East, however, that was initially considered the finer of the two. It was the No 1 for a reason.

There are quintessential elements of Colt’s design beliefs on show. He made great use of elevated tees at (what is now) the second, the fifth, the 14th and the 16th holes. Diagonal features allowed both the best players to be tested, and the less competent to plot their route, especially where uphill carries are concerned at the third and 11th holes, and over the gorse-protected ditch at the long par-three seventh. How much do you chew off? is the question pondered by every golfer, whatever their standard. The greens are interesting yet varied, with a bowl-like effect at the fifth. There are four strong short holes, and although there is now only one par five, the variety of holelengths offers the opportunity to use all the clubs in the bag.

Excluding the first on the West, 15 of the original holes on the East remain pretty much as they ever were. The initial No 1 Course played 6,377 yards from the championship tees, with a forward set of tees measuring 5,470. In a sign of the constant innovation that continues to this day, an intermediary set of markers offering a layout of just under 6,000 yards was installed for use at the Curtis Cup in 1932. With the first hole purloined for the No 2 Course, the original seventh that measured a whopping 610 yards was divided into two. Today the course plays to a par of 68 from 6,179 yards, a charming tease of a challenge compared to the modern West.

Sir Nick Faldo, no less, once pronounced the 11th hole as one of the best in the world, let alone the Estate. The 460-yard par four snakes uphill with a left-to-right tee shot required to carry the bunker-lined crevice off the tee, and then a right-to-left approach with a long club to reach the green. The finish stands up with another long par four at the 16th, with many a bunker to be avoided, followed by a demanding, downhill par three at the 17th to a green deceptive of pace and borrow. The 18th is a wonderful closing hole, again played from an elevated tee over rough ground and a road to find the fairway. Once more the approach must evade a diagonal line of bunkers to a green facing back to front and left to right. The original finishing hole, it is set between Wentworth Pond on the right, and the dramatic Clubhouse sitting on the slope up to the left, essentially the front lawn of the 19th century manor house.

“Colt introduced ‘intellect’ to the game of golf and golf course architecture,” wrote modern Irish designer Ken Kearney in a passage that applies to Colt’s work at Wentworth. “Colt pioneered strategic golf course design. His philosophy was to encourage the golfer to think —

Snow does not stop play A

women’s tournament that started at Moor Park in 1925, the One Day Spring Medal Foursomes, did not have the best record with the weather in its early days. Joyce Wethered was in the winning pairing that first year, and Cecil Leitch the next year at Royal Mid Surrey when it was played in a deluge. “Half a hurricane” blew at Sunningdale the year after, though winners Charlotte Watson and Miss Wood from Gullane protested that “it was a beautiful day”.

In 1928 at Wentworth, snow was still lying on the ground until rain started to clear it once play began. Navigating their way around the casual snow, Edith Guedalla, Cecil Leitch’s sister, and Mrs Garon prevailed, before retaining their title in the spring cold of Royal St George’s the following year.

Changing the strategy on 16

Over the years the options on the 16th hole on the East have varied, with World War II intervening to change a perfect example of Harry Colt’s strategic design. Originally, he had positioned three centre-line bunkers to challenge lower handicap golfers to take on the tee shot down the left of the fairway. It was a narrower route, but opened up the approach to the green at the long par four.

The safer play off the tee was to head out to the right, but then the bunker 25 yards short of the green needed to be negotiated on the approach shot, forcing some to lay up and hope to get down in a pitch and a putt for a par.

But the thinking behind the alterations to the hole in 1940 was more to do with avoiding having a landing strip for an enemy aircraft to take advantage of. With Wentworth turned over to the Army, the East Course was maintained in a playable condition — while the West was left to grow wild — and it was considered prudent to add some cross bunkers, acting as wings to the original centre traps. Now the challenge was merely whether the golfer could carry the lot or had to lay back, a less subtle puzzle than the other offered by Colt.

In recent decades, the landscape on the 16th fairway has been further refined, with only two centre bunkers and their two wing companions pushed more into the rough. Whatever the configuration, except for the biggest of hitters or when the wind is behind, for most the challenge remains to get up and down for a hard-earned four.

to identify the question the architect put to them and then to seek the solution to that question. Colt moved on from the dark ages of penal design. He wanted to produce golf courses worthy of championship tournament play, but he also wanted them to be enjoyable for every standard of golfer.”

By the time construction on the No 2 Course started in 1925 there were enough Members around to grumble about the £5,000 cost, which even allowing for monetary appreciation a century on appears an absolute steal. Some holes opened for play in December 1926, with the entire course completed the following year.

No original scorecards exist but it was always long — at one point featuring no fewer than seven holes that would have been classified as par fives once that designation came in — and intended to play firm and fast-running, with greens open at the front to accept shots that utilised the ground as well as the air. All the greens featured subtle contours, and many were tiered, with the three-tiered third always a devil. Often holes sweep majestically one way or the other, most famously the long 17th, with the reverse camber and out of bounds up on the left. Darwin called the West a “Tiger course” in his book Golf Between Two Wars. “The course is intended to test that rapacious animal to the full,” he wrote.

He also captured the dual nature of the Estate’s terrain that gave it a unique feel. “It is a little hard to assign the Wentworth country as a whole to any precise class. There is heather and there are trees and yet it is not quite of the same nature as its near neighbour, Sunningdale. It is set in park-like surroundings, and yet it is certainly not what is usually called a park course. It is a cross between the two, although the Tiger course has about it least of the park and most of the heathery character.” That dual aspect has returned in recent years with Director of Golf Courses and Grounds Kenny Mackay encouraging the heather to reestablish itself and cutting back some of the newer trees that had grown up, improving airflow and access to sunlight.

EAST COURSE 16TH HOLE

Always Wentworth’s opening hole, the first of the West framed by the pines.

What is now the second hole on the East Course plays from an elevated tee with a fine view down the par four and over the Estate.

The modernisation of the West Course included a new water feature by the 18th green.

Initially, Wentworth’s big occasions were hosted on the East, but the West hosted the Dunlop Metropolitan tournament in the late 1930s when scoring was relatively low. Improvements were made in 1939 but it was when the West was re-conditioned after World War II that it was readied to become the grand stage we know today. Myriad tournaments arrived but we remember the biggies, the Ryder and Canada Cups, the World Match Play and the PGA Championship.

A new millennium brought new issues. Was Colt’s strategic approach still relevant in a modern game of big-hitters? Ernie Els was involved in multiple renovations, at first trying to keep the best in the world at bay with a penal style that included deep bunkers cutting off access to the front of the greens. More recently this was softened, with Greg Letsche, of Ernie Els Design, emphasising the underlining durability of

the layout. “Colt was very good at his initial routing,” he said, “and his balance of par threes and fours and fives speak to his understanding of strategy.”

Today Mackay still marvels at the concept that Colt laid out all those years ago. “The West Course looks like a modern golf course, but it’s not,” he said. “That routing was mapped out 100 years ago and it’s standing the test of time. The Open Championship venues are the same but they are getting fewer and fewer. The layout and the size of the corridors of land it’s worked in has kept Wentworth as it was designed. All the holes are individual and there is so much land to work with. Some of the tees have gone back because there is the room to do it, but the holes would still be recognisable to Colt. That’s why he was the master.”

Wentworth’s own mystery tale

Mystery surrounds Agatha Christie and her connection with Wentworth. The detective novelist and her first husband, Colonel Archie Christie, both golfers, lived in Sunningdale in the mid-1920s, but Archie knew the founders of Wentworth through his job in the city and they had a house built on the new Estate.

In December 1926, Agatha disappeared from their home in Sunningdale and was found 10 days later at a spa hotel in Harrogate, having registered under an assumed name and claiming to have amnesia. The couple divorced in 1928 at which point the Wentworth house was sold to pay off the loan taken out to build it. Whether or how long they lived in it, is not known.

Golf often featured in Christie’s writing. Her third book in 1923 was called The Murder on the Links, while her 1934 novel Why didn’t they ask Evans? has a memorable opening: “Bobby Jones teed up his ball, gave a short preliminary waggle, took the club back slowly, then brought it down and through with the rapidity of lightning. Did the ball fly down the fairway straight and true, rising as it went and soaring over the bunker to land within an

easy mashie shot of the 14th green? No, it did not. Badly topped, it scudded along the ground and embedded itself in the bunker! And that is easily explained — for it was not the Americanborn master of the game who had played the shot, but merely the fourth son of the vicar of Marchbolt, a small seaside town on the coast of Wales.”

Christie disapproved of television adaptations of her work in her lifetime, but four years after her death in 1976, a London Weekend TV production of Why didn’t they ask Evans? was such a success that all the Poirots, Marples and myriad other series followed over the last four decades.

A Poirot adaptation of Murder in the Mews showed the famous Belgian detective and his sidekick Captain Hastings teeing-off at Wentworth, although in the original story they merely follow up a lead about a female suspect having played a round at the Club. Meanwhile, Christie productions, and other period pieces, have been set at Cherry Hill on Portnall Drive, a classic example of the Art Deco design.

George Duncan

George at the gallop

George Duncan was an obvious choice to be Wentworth’s first professional, and another sign that it was a Club where only the best would do. Duncan was a personal friend of Harry Colt’s, and WG Tarrant had witnessed the Scot winning the professional prize — against a strong field with Abe Mitchell as runner-up — at the opening of St George’s Hill in 1913.

And, of course, Duncan was The Open Champion in 1920, one of only two home players to win the Claret Jug in the immediate post-war era until Henry Cotton claimed the first of his three titles in 1934.

Duncan and Tarrant had a couple of interesting things in common.

Duncan was the son of a policeman from an Aberdeenshire village, and his father initially encouraged him to become a carpenter.

Duncan was having none of it. Golf was his game, having started playing and then caddieing at the age of eight. He even turned down the chance to play football for Aberdeen aged 18 to become the professional at a club in North Wales.

Eventually, he ended up at Hangar Hill in Ealing. For someone considered such a natural golfer himself, Duncan became a fine teacher and analyst of the golf swing, being considered the “pros’ pro”. The chief characteristic of his own playing style was a swiftness in settling over the ball and firing away. All his planning for the shot had been done as he walked up to the ball. The title of his autobiography said it all: Golf at the Gallop. Not the most secure with putter in hand, his philosophy was: “If you are going to miss ’em, miss ’em quick.”

James Braid, one of the Great Triumvirate, wrote of Duncan: “I cannot make him out; he plays so fast he looks as if he doesn’t care, but I

suppose it must be his way. He’s the most extraordinary golfer I have ever seen.” Another description of his game said that its best was the “champagne of golf and the fizziest champagne at that”.

Duncan played on inspiration, often brilliant, not always consistent, though a record of 11 top-10 finishes in The Open in 13 starts between 1906 and 1924 suggests otherwise. At Deal’s Royal Cinque Ports in the first post-war Open, Duncan recovered from a deficit of 13 strokes after 36 holes — still the record today. Feeling his driving had let him down after twin rounds of 80 and never afraid to experiment, Duncan ventured to the exhibition tent and bought a new driver. The transformation was complete as the next day he returned rounds of 71 and 72 to beat Sandy Herd by two strokes. His friend and rival Mitchell had been the halfway leader but then collapsed with scores of 84 and 76 to drop to fourth place.

Two years later at Royal St George’s, next door on the Kent coast, Duncan rallied with a third round of 69, the first score under 70 in The Open for 14 years, and was firing at the pins in the final round in an attempt to chase down Walter Hagen. The American’s Clubhouse target was considered so secure that telegrams had already been sent to London proclaiming a new champion. At the last Duncan needed a four to force a playoff. His second shot, struck possibly too well in that it did not fade back from the left, found a dip to the left of the green.

In the blink of an eye that it took to play his chip, the ball returned to his feet and he took a five. Duncan’s Hollow, as it became known, was also visited in 1985 by Sandy Lyle, who also fluffed his chip but found a five was still good enough to win the Claret Jug.

Duncan had some revenge against Hagen in the 1926 International Match at Wentworth, and in the first Ryder Cup proper on home soil

in 1929, when he trounced his opposite number as captain 10 and 8.

The same year Duncan left Wentworth to pursue a freelance career of exhibition and challenge matches, although a few years later he settled at the Mere club in Cheshire.

He had set a benchmark, however. Wentworth professionals ever since have always been of the highest calibre, and very often Scottish.

George Duncan, Open Champion and Wentworth’s first professional, tees off.

International Match 1926

Samuel Ryder

The seeds of an idea

Amid the crowds that lined the fairways at Wentworth in June 1926, thrilled to be watching the leading professional golfers of Great Britain and America in an International Match, Samuel Ryder did not stand out.

Aquiet-spoken, modest, rather mournful-looking man, with a droopy moustache, it would have been easy to overlook him. Yet he would give his name to one of the most intense team competitions in modern sport and helped elevate the standing of professional golfers in Britain at a time when they were usually prohibited from entering a Clubhouse and had their wages stopped on the days they were away from their shop playing in a competition, even The Open itself.

Ryder was a man of deeds, and also of seeds. Born in Preston in 1858, at the age of 21 he became a partner in his father’s horticulture business in Sale, just south of Manchester. The business supplied shrubs, seeds and flowers to the middle and upper classes tending their suburban gardens. Ryder’s idea was to encourage the working class to become garden enthusiasts by being able to buy seeds at prices they could afford, bringing colour into their lives and the gardens of long rows of terraced houses.

When his father refused to entertain the idea, Ryder set out on his own. He noted that St Albans, a market town in Hertfordshire, had good rail and postal communications and decided it was the place for him. Suddenly, “Ryder’s penny packets of seeds” became all the rage. “Everything at one penny from orchids to mustard and cress,” ran the slogan. Catalogues would be sent out on a Friday evening, the orders coming in on Monday with unused stamps as payment. Ryder then made up the packets and sent them out in time for the client to sow them the following weekend.

One weekend he was left with only 2s 6d (12.5 pence) and put it all in the collection bowl at his church. Yet at the height of its success, Ryder’s Seeds had a million postal customers and, with his brother James, he also set up Heath and Heather, specialising in herbs. A church deacon, magistrate and philanthropist within his community, Ryder became the mayor of St Albans in 1905, commissioning a then-struggling, pre-fame, local artist, Frank O. Salisbury to paint a portrait in his formal robes.

That portrait now has pride of place in the dining room of the Clubhouse at Verulam Golf Club. Ryder, a swimmer and cricketer in his youth, only turned to golf approaching 50, when a friend suggested the exercise and fresh air would improve his failing health. Ryder appointed a local professional to oversee his tuition, practising six days a week for a year in the grounds of his home, Marlborough House, before joining the local golf club, where he twice served as captain.

In the early 1920s, Ryder was becoming aware that British professionals remained relatively impoverished compared to the Americans now coming over to challenge for The Open who were supported by wealthy backers. He staged various matches and tournaments at Verulam, usually promising a minimum guarantee of £5, while Arthur Havers earned £50 for winning the Heath and Heather tournament in 1923, not much less than he claimed by winning The Open at Troon the previous week.

In particular, Ryder became friends with Abe Mitchell, who he appointed as his personal professional. Crucially, the arrangement

allowed Mitchell to take whatever time he needed to prepare for and play in tournaments. Sadly, he was destined to be known as the best player of his era never to win The Open.

After his death in 1936, aged 77, Ryder was buried with his favourite mashie club. His notion to provide a trophy for a match between the professionals of Britain and America played a significant role in the

early history of Wentworth. His friend, the Reverend Frank Wheeler, wrote in tribute: “I little thought I was making golfing history when on a Monday morning long ago I took him out for the first time on the golf course and initiated him into the mysteries and intricacies of the sport of which he afterwards became so generous a patron. His deeds are remembered in many grateful hearts.”

Abe Mitchell (left), who was the personal professional to Samuel Ryder (right), seed merchant and founder of the Ryder Cup.

International Match 1926

Hagen and the birth of the Ryder Cup

This was Wentworth’s “Hello World” moment: in Golfing existence for just two years and yet about to host some of the world’s best professional golfers, among them the flamboyant American Walter Hagen and England’s Abe Mitchell. It would be fair to say the Club never looked back.

This was a two-day golfing extravaganza, an International Match between British and American professionals that indisputably sowed the seeds for what today is one of sport’s greatest and most eagerly anticipated team competitions — the Ryder Cup.

The date was 4 June 1926 and Wentworth, dressed in all its finery, was ready to stage its first grand occasion over what today is the East Course. The event had caught the attention of newspapers such as The Times and The Daily Telegraph and spectators consequently flocked from far and wide to witness high-level golf played at a club, and on a course, that had gained an immediate reputation for excellence.

The foundations for a regular match between professionals from both sides of the Atlantic were laid five years previously when 10 Americans — in Scotland for the forthcoming Open Championship at St Andrews — took on a British team in a low-key, one-day contest at the newly inaugurated King’s Course at Gleneagles. Among the British contingent that June day was George Duncan, the current Open champion who would be appointed as Wentworth’s first professional, a role he held from 1924-29.

As 1926 rolled around there was speculation that Samuel Ryder, who had made his fortune by selling packets of seeds through the post, was about to put up a trophy to be played for at Wentworth. There was certainly an appetite for a regular international match between USA and Great Britain and movers and shakers on both sides of the pond, with Ryder to the fore, were keen to explore the possibility.

With the R&A organising qualifying competitions for the Open Championship for the first time in 1926 — with one of them taking place at Sunningdale in third week of June — a number of leading American players were going to be sailing to the UK in the hope of qualifying. With Hagen, the Open champion in 1922 and 1924, already guaranteed to be visiting these shores, he agreed to put together a team of 10 players for a match against Britain’s finest at Wentworth.

In the event, only five of the original 10 players selected by Hagen made the trip to Britain, with Gene Sarazen and Johnny Farrell the most notable of the absentees. There had been a general strike in May and there were fears, it has been suggested, that travel would have been severely disrupted. The American team, therefore, had to be bolstered by non-American stand-ins living permanently in the United States.

Despite the relative weakness of the American team, the mere presence of Hagen was always going to attract the crowds. Regarded as golf’s first superstar, “Sir Walter” was a showman known as much for his Hollywood lifestyle as his golfing excellence. “I don’t want to be a millionaire, just live like one,” he famously said.

In 1920, Hagen played in The Open at Royal Cinque Ports, where professionals were not allowed to enter the Clubhouse but were asked to change in a nearby shed. In typical Hagen style, he used his chauffeur-driven limousine as a locker room that week and had it parked each day in front of the club’s main entrance. Two years later, at Royal St George’s, he became the first American to win The Open and then repeated the feat at Royal Liverpool in 1924.

He was also a consummate exponent of match play golf, an entertainer who was happy to play to the gallery. To the dismay of his opponents he would often mix poor shots with brilliant recoveries and sublime

putting. In some ways he was a forerunner to Severiano Ballesteros, another golfing icon who became a great favourite of the Wentworth galleries. He was also not averse to playing mind games: “One of Hagen’s most successful tactics was to lull an opponent into swapping banter between shots, getting him so amused he was vulnerable to a crack in concentration when important shots were played,” wrote one observer. “Hagen, on the other hand, could turn off the fun like a light switch and devote total attention to the task in hand.”

Also in the American team that week was Tommy Armour, who went on to become Open champion in 1931, Jim Barnes, the reigning Open champion, Al Watrous and Bill Mehlhorn. The rest of the side was made up of four native-born Brits and an Australian trick-shot artist. They were always going to have their work cut out against a British team that included Duncan, Mitchell (“the best player never to win a major”), Arthur Havers, Archie Compston and Ted Ray — and so it proved.

Abe Mitchell tees off for Great Britain in the opening foursomes on the first day of the 1926 International Match.

What the Americans would have given for the services of Bobby Jones, one the greatest amateurs the game has seen, who just a month later would be holding aloft the Claret Jug after winning The Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes. Those who turned up to walk Wentworth’s fairways would have been delighted and intrigued to find Jones among them, there to support his countrymen and more than a little interested in the outcome. The day before, Jones had helped a United States team win the Walker Cup at St Andrews and had now come south to play in The Open qualifier at Sunningdale.

Also to be seen among the gallery was Ryder, who, it has to be said, had more than a passing interest in proceedings. He had taken up golf late in life and had become so enamoured with the game that he employed Mitchell as a private coach on a reported salary of £500, plus £250 expenses. Not only that but through his company, Heath and Heather, he started to sponsor events and matches at his club in St Albans. Ryder had been leaning towards a contest between

professionals from Britain and United States and in 1924 he put up the prize money for one-off match pitting Hagen and Macdonald Smith against Duncan and Mitchell. The connection had been made. Hagen, among others, had been hooked.

Fast forward two years and Ryder was among the crowd and watching some of the game’s most high-profile players doing battle in foursomes and singles play over 36 holes. He will have been disappointed that the American team was not up to full strength but he would have seen at close quarters the interest and excitement such a competition could bring. The biennial match as we now know it crystallised at Wentworth over two days in the spring of 1926.

While the home support would have hoped for a victory for the British players, they would not have expected the 13½-1½ thrashing that was handed out. Captained by “Big Ted” Ray, the British team led 5-0 after the first day after winning all five of the foursomes matches. The most

Fred Robson, Fred McLeod, Ted Ray and Cyril Walker: Ray and Robson won 3 and 2 for Britain.

surprising result was Duncan and Mitchell’s 9 and 8 drubbing of Hagen and Barnes, with one writer noting that Hagen “cut quite a picturesque appearance in an attire of shades of white and brown”. His golf, in other words, was nothing to write home about.

If he had been trying to impress his employer, Mitchell could not have done a better job. He followed up victory in the foursomes on day one with an emphatic 8 and 7 defeat of Barnes in the singles on day two. Duncan also made the most of home advantage, and plenty of local knowledge, to beat Hagen 6 and 5. Hagen and his teammates had arrived on board the Aquitania only three days earlier and suffered the consequences of little preparation time. Bernard Darwin, the golf correspondent of The Times noted that the American team was missing some key players, but was nonetheless impressed with the home side’s performance. “They had a fine side and to trounce them thus was a proud feather in the caps of the British team,” he wrote. “It ought to do British golf all the good in the world.”

Legend has it that in the Clubhouse after the match, Ryder hosted the players to a champagne reception and uttered the immortal words, “We must do this again.” It is said that Duncan, Hagen and Mitchell persuaded him to follow up on his sentiment and to provide a trophy — now one of the most recognisable and cherished in all of golf — to be played for on a biennial basis, home and away. And that is what he did. “I have done several things in my life for the benefit of my fellow men, but I am certain I have never done a happier thing than this,” Ryder said.

The gold cup — made by Mappin and Webb for around £300, and with a figure on top of the lid which is said to be Abe Mitchell – was presented to the British PGA not long after and was played for at the inaugural Ryder Cup at Worcester Country Club, Massachusetts, in 1927. Hagen captained that team and the hosts ran out winners by 9½-2½.

But is that the whole story? A look back through the archives indicates that Ryder had already commissioned a trophy in time for the match at Wentworth. Some suggest that he withheld it because of the weakness of the American team, although others, including the British PGA, dispute this, claiming that no arrangements had been made to make this an official contest. It has also been said that the PGA of America refused to sanction the result because of the number of expatriates in their team.

And yet in a piece in The Times on June 4, under the headline, “The Ryder Cup — Today’s International Match”, the correspondent wrote: “The match is for possession of the ‘Ryder’ Cup, presented by Mr Samuel Ryder.” And on June 5, Associated Press reported:

Pros and cons for Johnnie W

hen George Duncan resigned as professional in 1929, Johnnie Aitken took over the position. Better known as a clubmaker, Aitken was the exception when it is noted that five of the Club’s first six pros were Ryder Cup players. But in keeping with the majority to hold the post, he was Scottish-born.

While Duncan received a retainer of £100 a year, the Club had bought all his stock when he departed so Aitken got a different deal. He was paid just over double, £4 a week, but he received only a third of the revenue from “items sold, repairs and tuition”, plus an optional bonus based on the “success of the job made”. The Club kept the other twothirds and ended up making a profit of £332 in the first year.

In 1930, the Club shop was broken into not once, but twice. The first time £30 worth of stock was stolen, the second time it was the safe that was taken. Despite this early setback, Aitken served in the role for 16 years before retiring in 1945 once the Club was up and running again after the War. By that time his retainer was the same but his share of the profits had increased to 50 per cent. He received a £50 “handshake” as a farewell.

“Overwhelmed in a riot of magic golf America’s team of 10 professionals captained by Walter Hagen was vanquished … in competition for the Ryder Cup.”

What cannot be disputed is that Wentworth provided the impetus for what is now an eagerly anticipated match between Europe and the United States which has a massive worldwide audience and is one of the highlights of any professional’s career. At the end of play in 1926, Wentworth presented gold medals to the winning team and there was no cup to be seen. In 1953 the Club was chosen to host the match and could revel in the knowledge that this is where it all began,

whether officially or unofficially. And the small gold trophy was there for all to see.

As much as anyone, though, perhaps the plaudits should go to Hagen for birthing of Ryder’s concept. It was a point made succinctly by Peter Dobereiner, the renowned golf writer, who noted in the programme for the 1995 match at Oak Hill: “Sam Ryder donated the gold trophy ... but the inspiration and the impetus which shaped the Ryder Cup’s tradition of sportsmanship and friendship, even as the teams were locked in mortal combat, were provided by a local boy from Rochester. The Ryder Cup is truly Walter Hagen’s baby.

The flamboyant American Walter Hagen played a key role in setting up the Wentworth match as the visiting captain.

Early news of the Wentworth match.

“Hagen organised the unofficial match in 1926 which so caught the imagination of Sam Ryder. He captained the first six American teams, playing in five of them. He selected the US teams, chose their uniforms and paid for them out of his own pocket. He broke the sequence of home wins by captaining his team to victory in the 1937 match at Southport. In typical Hagen style he lost the notes for his acceptance

speech when he received the trophy and mystified the crowd when he extemporised: ‘I am proud and happy to be the captain of the first American team to win on home soil.’ In response to the inevitable heckling from a smart Alec in the crowd, he turned his blooper into a compliment: ‘You will forgive me, I am sure, for feeling so at home over here.’ Recovery shots were always his forte.”

Bill Mehlhorn, George Gadd, Al Watrous and Arthur Havers: Gadd and Havers won this foursomes match, while Mehlhorn was the only singles winner for the USA.

The original deeds of the Ryder Cup, by which Samuel Ryder donated his gold cup to the Professional Golfers’ Association, was signed on 9 December 1929 by Ryder and three representatives of the PGA:

JH Taylor (Royal Mid-Surrey), James Braid (Walton Heath) and Joshua Taylor (Richmond Park). The official matches had started in 1927, but the deeds formalised the conditions for a match between the professionals of Great Britain and of the United States of America, with venues alternating every two years and permission for the cup to remain in America when won by the USA. As was traditional at the time, play was to be on consecutive days, with foursomes on the first day and singles on the second, all matches played over 36 holes, and the holders to remain in possession of the cup if the teams were tied after the singles.

Provision was made that if at any point “no good purpose” could come from continuing to stage the match, then the cup would revert to the PGA for an annual competition between British professionals. Subsequently, of course, the deeds have been amended many times with the format for play evoking over the decades and European professionals allowed to take part from 1979.

Ryder origins on canvas

To celebrate its 70th anniversary, Wentworth Club commissioned Anthony Oakshett to paint the masterpiece that now dominates the Clubhouse lounge. Entitled “The Origins of the Ryder Cup”, it measures 10.5 feet by 4.5 feet and is a reproduction of the famous photograph of the scene on the first tee for the opening tee shot for the International Match in 1926 between professional golfers of Britain and America. All 20 competitors are featured, including George Duncan, Abe Mitchell, Walter Hagen and Jim Barnes, who is shown driving off with the visitors having the honour, as well as Samuel Ryder, the man who gave his name to the trophy — official contests for which began in 1927.

Oakshett, who also painted a similar large-scale depiction of the Royal and Ancient’s 250th anniversary dinner in 2004 and led a team asked by the House of Lords to create five paintings on canvas depicting tapestries that had been destroyed in the Great Fire of the Old Palace of Westminster in 1834, included a number of his friends in the Ryder Cup scene, as well as his great grandfather, “who was a fine golfer and may well have been present that day.”

“It took around 10 months to complete working in my studio in Chelsea,” recalled Oakshett, who was once a member at Royal Worlington & Newmarket. “It helped that I had been a golfer and

Anthony Oakshett’s painting of the first tee shot from the International Match in 1926 hangs in the lounge of the Clubhouse and includes all the players, famous golfing faces and even the artist’s great grandfather.

retain an interest in the sport. You want the swing to feel authentic to golfers but the biggest problem was tracking down likenesses of the players in the days before the internet. I visited a few golf clubs, including Verulam, and took pictures from old books and photo albums they had, and then taped them all together as something to work from along with the original photo of the scene. I also looked up old copies of Vogue magazine to see what women were wearing in those days and to get the colours that were in fashion in 1926.

“In my imagination, the moment I’ve captured is with the ball in flight about 100 yards off the tee and everyone is trying to see where it is going. It’s that moment of hush just before they start applauding as the ball bounds down the fairway. It remains one of my favourite projects and was very well received. It all went so smoothly, just one of those things that was meant to be.”

Among those also featured are WG Tarrant and Harry Colt, respectively Wentworth’s founder and course designer, Open Champions Harry Vardon, JH Taylor, James Braid and Arnaud Massey, plus future Claret Jug winner Henry Cotton, golf writer Bernard Darwin, future Curtis Cup player Molly Gourlay and Pat Vigers, a founder member of Wentworth who was lady captain seven times and, as befits her seven decades of membership, ended up as president of the ladies’ section.

Pat Vigers (left), a founder member and seven-time lady captain.

International Match 1926 Curtis Cup 1932

Joyce Wethered Outclassing Bobby Jones

When hosting the Surrey Ladies Championship on the East Course in April 1932, Wentworth’s very own Muriel Porter reached the final. There, however, the Club’s first lady captain had the misfortune to run into one of the greatest golfers ever to play the game.

Says who? Well, how about Bobby Jones. Though not a professional, the young lawyer from Atlanta was the finest male golfer of his day whose career culminated in 1930 when he won both the Opens and the Amateur championships of Britain and America — a never-repeated Grand Slam.

Jones won the British Amateur at St Andrews that year, beating Roger Wethered in the final. While on that visit to the Home of Golf, Jones played in a friendly fourball that included Wethered and his sister Joyce. Jones and Joyce won the match but on their own ball, Jones pipped her by one stroke only because Joyce three-putted the last two greens for a 75 — off the back tees in a stiff breeze.

Jones stated: “I have not played golf with anyone, man or woman, amateur or professional, who made me feel so utterly outclassed. It was not so much the score she made as the way she made it. It was impossible to expect that Miss Wethered would ever miss a shot — and she never did.”

Miss Wethered had burst onto the golfing scene in 1920 after entering the inaugural English Championship at Sheringham merely to accompany a friend for the week. The 18-year-old, who was ailed by what was later diagnosed as whooping cough, not only reached the final but there defeated the overwhelming favourite and the dominant player of her day, Cecil Leitch. On the 17th green in the afternoon

Wethered had a putt to win the match as a train steamed past. The putt was holed and when the distraction was mentioned to her, she replied: “What train?”

Joyce was encouraged to play by her golf-mad elder brother Roger, both at home in Surrey and on family holidays to Dornoch. Roger went on to become the British Amateur champion, a Walker Cup player and captain, and lost a playoff for The Open at St Andrews to Jock Hutchison in 1921. It was playing with Roger and his Oxford teammates, including another star amateur in Cyril Tolley, that honed Joyce’s game before she had arrived on the women’s scene.

She won the English Championship five years in a row and never played in it again. In the British Championship, she won the title four times in six attempts, losing once in the final to her great rival Leitch, and once in the semi-finals. In the era’s two main championships, competing purely in head-to-head contests, Miss Wethered won 71 of her 73 matches.

Her concentration and nerve were backed up by a relentless accuracy, her woods as precise as the wedge shots of others. For straightness, she was in the same class as Harry Vardon, reckoned Henry Cotton.

Tall and willowy, she outhit not just her opponents but many top male players. Her length was all due to timing and rhythm, her captivating swing never out of balance. As the old Scottish professional

Willie Wilson said: “Good swing? My God, mon, she could hit a ball 240 yards on the fly while standing barefoot on a cake of ice.”

She retired after beating Miss Leitch at the 37th hole in a titanic final of the British Championship at Troon in 1925, although she was tempted back once more when the championship was played at St Andrews in 1929, where she defeated the great American Glenna Collett.

Then in 1932, Wethered was invited to captain the home team at the inaugural Curtis Cup. To warm up, she entered the Surrey

Championship and won it for the fifth time, beating Mrs Porter 6 and 5 in the final. In the process, according to The Times, she proved she was “still supreme … still the outstanding figure in British ladies’ golf. In power, accuracy, and style she is a continual revelation. She has the same faculty as the leading professionals have of making a hard course look simple, yet without spectators realising the amazing quality of golf until the figures are ‘totted up’.”

A swing never out of balance, Joyce Wethered at Worplesdon watched by Pam Barton.

Curtis Cup 1932 Wethered fails to halt USA

Fully half an hour prior to the start of play, the crowd around the first tee of the East Course was too deep to gain any sort of view. Spectators started lining the fairway and even claiming their spot behind the first green.

Those who had patiently waited in the sunshine had to defend their positions when the masses climbed the hill and tried to jostle in once the first match of the day — featuring Joyce Wethered and Wanda Morgan for Great Britain, and Glenna Collett Vare and Opal Hill for America — finally arrived.

This was the occasion of the first official match for the Curtis Cup, played at Wentworth on 21 May 1932. As Morgan herself reported for Golf Illustrated, it was “the largest crowd that has yet attended a London course — it must have numbered fully 10,000”.

For Wentworth, despite the loss of WG Tarrant at the tiller the previous year, it was another opportunity to burnish their international reputation. The Club had already staged the precursor to the Ryder Cup and with transatlantic matches set up for professionals and male amateurs — the Walker Cup had begun in 1922 — it was time for the women to have their own version.

About time, since unofficial matches had been taking place since 1905 at Cromer. A group of American players had travelled over for the British Ladies Championship and an impromptu match took place against the locals. The home team included the great Irish player May Hezlet, Dorothy Campbell, who in 1909 became the first golfer, male or female, to win titles in Britain and America in the same year, and Lottie Dod, who won the first of five championships at Wimbledon aged 15 in 1887. She was also a mountaineer, rode the Cresta Run, represented England at hockey and won a silver medal in archery at the 1908 Olympics.

The home team won comfortably but the Americans had enjoyed themselves, their number including the Curtis sisters, who decided to present a trophy — a simple silver bowl in the Paul Revere-style — to be played for in international competition “by golfers of many lands”. They were a remarkable pair. Harriot was a civil rights activist who won the US Championship in 1906 and then lost in the final the following year to Margaret, who went on to win the title twice more and then worked for the Red Cross in Paris during World War I as head of the Bureau for Refugees and, in the aftermath of the devastation, helped establish food clinics across Europe.

What proved to be the last of the unofficial matches took place in 1930 at Sunningdale on the Old Course, mainly at the instigation of Molly Gourlay and Collett Vare. A good gallery turned up, the home team won again and all the players celebrated with a gala dinner at the Savoy. “What had begun as an informal occasion was written up so much by the press, and attracted such crowds, that the general impression became that it was a full-scale International,” recalled Enid Wilson. “From the interest aroused then it was plain that the time was ripe for a formal contest.”

Finally, the Ladies Golf Union and the United States Golf Association agreed to formalise the contest and utilise the Curtis Cup as the trophy. Excitement mounted from the moment it was announced early in the year that an American team led by Marion Hollins would be making the journey to London in time to play the match prior to the British Championship at Saunton. They arrived on the Berengaria at Southampton on May 11, a week and a half prior to the match, and

American star Glenna Collett Vare, an old friend and rival of Joyce Wethered, in bunker trouble at Wentworth.

Ena versus the Duke

Born and bred in Northumberland, the eldest of 12 children, Ena Williams, christened Thomasena but always known by the diminutive, arrived in Surrey as a 21-year-old in 1930. She was soon taken on to the staff at Wentworth Club and remained for six decades. For most of that time, she managed the bar and dining room in the Clubhouse with a firm-but-fair rigour. Standards were to be maintained, dress codes observed at all times. With Wentworth playing host so often to the game’s great tournaments, Mrs Williams ensured players, visitors, press and Members alike were all looked after.

“She was outspoken, straightforward, hard-working and loyal,” observed one history of the Club. “As many Club Members could testify, she did not suffer fools gladly. Certainly, her northern directness was tempered by an equal flow of kindness and affection. She was an integral part of the Wentworth scene and a popular figure with everybody.”

Except perhaps on the occasion the Duke of Windsor tried to introduce his playing companion for lunch in the Clubhouse after their round. It was left to Mrs Williams to point out that professional golfers were not allowed in the dining room, even though the Duke’s guest was Wentworth’s own professional, Archie Compston. In a battle of wills, there was only one winner in Ena.

were met at Waterloo by Wethered, the home captain. Pictures of Wethered greeting Hollins featured in the Illustrated London News ahead of what they called “The first ‘Test’ between British and USA women golfers”.

As well as being a first, it was also likely to be a last — the final opportunity to see Wethered play on the grand stage. Effectively she had been retired for seven years already, and apart from fun events like the Worplesdon Foursomes, a mixed competition which she won eight times with seven different partners, she only appeared on special occasions. For six years between 1920-25, Wethered had been virtually unstoppable. She won all five of the English Championships that she entered, and three out of five British Championships.

Her exploits were front-page news. When she reached the final of the British Championship in 1925 at Troon, facing her great rival Cecil Leitch, a half-day holiday was declared in the dockyards of Glasgow and the trains down to the Ayrshire coast were packed with fans desperate to see the contest. It did not let them down. Leitch, a fierce competitor from Silloth who won her first British title in 1914 and her fourth in 1926, led three up after 10 holes of the morning round but was two down late in the afternoon before tying at the 36th. Wethered, ever cool under the most extreme pressure, calmly won at the 37th hole. Henry Longhurst wrote: “There are many who say that the concluding stages were the greatest match they have ever seen.” Bernard Darwin stated: “Everyone who saw that match will always wish that there could for that year have been two queens on twin thrones of exactly equal splendour.”

Wethered may have looked calm, but she certainly felt the nerves. While recovering from her victory on a fishing holiday, she decided she could not keep putting herself through the wringer. Except that four years later, in 1929, the British Championship was at St Andrews, and that was enough of a pull to prompt Wethered to play one last time. She made it through a series of knockout matches to face another of her prime rivals in the final, the American then known as Miss Collett. Wethered was five down after 11 holes this time, but battled back in the afternoon to win 3 and 1 on the famous 17th green. Such was the excitement of the crowd, they invaded the green shouting and cheering, with the champion requiring an escort from two policemen to reach the safety of the R&A clubhouse.

Wethered was the most famous British golfer of the time. Since the War, George Duncan in 1920 and Arthur Havers in 1923 were the only home players to win The Open. There was a promising young professional from Langley Park, Henry Cotton, but the first of his three Open titles did

not arrive until 1934. Wethered had not appeared in the unofficial match at Sunningdale in 1930, but did in the first official International against France in October 1931. It was a low-key affair at Oxhey, with the home team, as expected, winning easily, not losing a single game on the day.

“At last we were to face our most redoubtable opponents,” Wethered said of the Wentworth encounter. “Speculation as to the probable result was rife for weeks before the event. Although the general public appeared confident of our success, those of us who already knew something of the form of the American ladies were not so sure.

“The match was played in May on the Old Course at Wentworth, a course with more closely guarded greens than at Oxhey.

The large grounds which spread for miles and the spacious buildings of the clubhouse were admirably suited to the large and excellently controlled crowds that collected that day. The twisting drives between woods thick with rhododendrons were thronged with cars humming up the slopes leading to the old house that has been converted into one of the most luxurious of clubhouses.

“On entering it one clatters with some trepidation in nailed shoes over the floor of an imposing ballroom and through the big windows can be seen a square courtyard laid out with low walls and flower beds filled with bulbs of every size and colour.”

Might well the then Miss Wethered have noted the horticultural details as she would later, as Lady Heathcote-Amory and with her husband Sir John, create one of the great gardens of England at their home Knightshayes, in Tiverton, Devon. But perhaps the finer details of being a captain of a team were not her forte. Wethered purely thought about golf as a player.

“She was very retiring,” said one contemporary. “She never mixed. She was too shy, much too shy. She’d arrive on the first tee, shake hands with her opponent, demolish the opponent and disappear. And then reappear when the next victim would line up for the slaughter.”

Such had been the case when Wethered won the Surrey Championship for the fifth time at Wentworth three weeks previously.

The British players had also been active in the thriving inter-county competition. But the Americans had spent their time since arriving

Members of the USA team taking a short break during the first Curtis Cup at Wentworth: Leona Cheney, Opal Hill, Glenna Collett Vare, Helen Hicks and Virginia Van Wie.

wisely. Based just down the road at the Great Fosters Hotel, they had practised diligently on the East, as well as heading to Sunningdale, Camberley Heath and Royal Ashdown Forest. Hollins, their captain, wanted to find out who best to pair with whom for the foursomes and even ended up dropping herself for both sessions, so becoming the first non-playing captain. Hollins, the 1921 US Amateur champion, was an enterprising character who developed Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz on the Tarrant lines of golf course and residential estate, is credited with creating the famed 16th hole at Cypress Point and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2022.

“Miss Hollins insisted on her side playing in every possible combination, in order to find the best pairings for her team when they met us,” said Wilson, a member of the home team. “The British side assembled the day before the match at Wentworth, having been asked to be there in time for tea. Most of us knew the course and the necessity for a trial spin in the foursomes had not occurred to anyone.”

Even from the moment the foursomes draw was revealed it was apparent Hollins had already made a vital contribution. The morning session proved crucial to the result with the away side sweeping the

board. Two up for much of the early stages in the top match, the rot set in as Wethered and Morgan let their lead slip. It was not easy for Morgan, who expressed similar feelings to those who later had to partner Tiger Woods. “I was terribly nervous,” she explained. “I know I should not have been. But the fact remains that I was, and I might just as well admit it. Why I was seized with this nervousness Heaven only knows. I had a genius for a partner. And yet that may have been the cause. I was so anxious not to let her down. And in my anxiety, I did.”

All square at the last, Morgan topped her second shot and later missed a putt for a half in sixes. Wethered, however, had not been at her best and missed her share of chances along the way. It was an unfortunate beginning, and even more regrettably, the third and final match of the session, featuring Gourlay and Doris Park against Maureen Orcutt and Leona Cheney, saw a repeat of the Americans winning the last with a six for a one-hole victory. “As it proved,” said Wethered, “the result of the whole day’s play hung on the narrow margin of two putts on the 18th green.”

In the middle match, Helen Hicks, the reigning US Amateur champion, and Virginia Van Wie, who would win the title for three years in a row from 1932, defeated Wilson and Charlotte Watson 2 and 1.

The American pairing were “level fours” for the 17 holes and sealed their win with a magnificent run of a three up the hill at the 15th, a four at the 460-yard 16th hole and a three at the short 17th. A new set of tees had been created specially for the match, between the traditional men’s and ladies’ markers, for a course measuring just under 6,000 yards.

Harriot and Margaret Curtis, who donated the trophy for the Curtis Cup.

Marion Hollins, a tactically astute captain for America.

Lunch was even more fraught for the home team as they attempted to find some food in the packed Clubhouse. “There were no tables set aside for the teams,” Wilson reported. “The spectators had eaten the lot. I had to go round the dining room finding discarded bread rolls and bits of cheese.” The Americans had wisely gone back to the Great Fosters for a more relaxing luncheon.

By tradition in team events at any level, the top two players faced off in the lead singles in the afternoon. By now Wethered had fixed her putting and gained revenge on her morning conquer, Collett Vare, who at that point had won five of her six US championships. It was not as close as at St Andrews three years earlier, with Wethered winning 6 and 4 as the clouds that had gathered during the afternoon began to break.

There were promising early signs for the British team, with Diana Fishwick, the 1930 British champion, beating Orcutt 4 and 3, and Wilson holing from 12 feet in the pouring rain to win 2 and 1 against Hicks. But elsewhere the visitors were fighting back. The crucial match saw Morgan get two up after five on Van Wie, but the American was relentless in clawing her way into a lead with two to play. She ended the match with a two at the 17th, a glorious iron shot and a perfectly struck putt, for a 2 and 1 win. And with Gourlay pulled back into a halved contest by Hill, and Cheney disposing of Elsie Corlett 4 and 3, the Americans took the victory with an overall score of 5½-3½.

George Greenwood, of the Daily Telegraph, wrote: “In a nutshell, the American women won because they were infinitely better putters and, in general, better drivers than the British players.”

Although she would go on an exhibition tour of the United States in 1935, Wentworth had seen the last occasion that Wethered appeared in a significant contest. On the American trip, however, there were frequent matches involving her friend Collett Vare, who said of Wethered: “She is as near perfection as I ever dreamed of being when I sat in a deep-seated rocker on the front porch in the cool summer evening years ago and dreamed my best dreams.”

Pros and cons for Johnnie

Palakona — the bamboo club

CWhen George Duncan resigned as professional in 1929, Johnnie Aitken took over the position. Better known as a clubmaker, Aitken was the exception when it is noted that five of the Club’s first six pros were Ryder Cup players. But in keeping with the majority to hold the post, he was Scottish-born.

elebrating their 150th anniversary in 2022 were Hardy Brothers, of Alnwick in Northumberland. Founded by William Hardy and his brother John James, they started out selling fishing tackle, guns, cartridges, cutlery, bicycles, and horse clipping machines. They soon became known for their bamboo fishing rods, opened premises on Pall Mall in 1897 and advised King George V on his fishing tackle.

While Duncan received a retainer of £100 a year, the Club had bought all his stock when he departed so Aitken got a different deal. He was paid just over double, £4 a week, but he received only a third of the revenue from “items sold, repairs and tuition”, plus an optional bonus based on the “success of the job made”. The Club kept the other two-thirds and ended up making a profit of £332 in the first year.

In 1934 the company sponsored a tournament with a difference at Wentworth in which the players used the revolutionary Palakona clubs. Made with the same technique as Hardy’s split cane fishing rods, the shafts of the golf clubs were an early bamboo laminate glued together in a hexagonal form and described as “lightweight and whippy”. As an alternative to hickory, the clubs were popular, although if moisture got into them they could easily split.

Alf Padgham, who would win The Open at Hoylake two years later, won the event using the revolutionary equipment but the Palakonas soon faded from prominence with the arrival of steel shafts.

In 1930, the Club shop was broken into not once, but twice. The first time £30 worth of stock was stolen, the second time it was the safe that was taken. Despite this early setback, Aitken served in the role for 16 years before retiring in 1945 once the Club was up and running again after the war. By that time his retainer was the same but his share of the profits had increased to 50 per cent. He received a £50 “handshake” as a farewell.

The Dunlop Metropolitan tournament was staged on the West Course later in the decade, with Henry Cotton, already an Open Champion, winning in 1936 on a 72-hole total of 281, and Arthur Lacey on 277 the following year. In 1938 Alf Perry, The Open winner three years earlier, took the title with four rounds under 70, a rare feat indeed at the time.

International Match 1926 The War Years

George Duncan George at the gallop Churchill & Eisenhower Golf and high office

Winston Churchill and General Dwight D Eisenhower crossed paths at Wentworth during World War II, but the Prime Minister and the future American President had differing attitudes to golf.

Famously, and possibly apocryphally, Churchill said golf was “like chasing a quinine pill around a pasture”, and that it was “a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose”. It was thought he preferred polo as the ball was bigger.

For a supposedly reluctant player, Churchill was a member of Walton Heath, also home to David Lloyd George, for 45 years from 1910. He said he played off a handicap of 18, although novelist Somerset Maugham apparently thought him a poor player. Whether in the Clubhouse or on the course, Churchill valued the conversation most of all.

Yet he was also canny in his choice of format and partner. He favoured, and could be credited with popularising, greensomes, where both partners hit a tee shot, choose the better situated ball and then alternate shots. Churchill was said to have won a fair proportion of his matches in this format when playing with his preferred partner, the Walton Heath professional James Braid, a five-time Open Champion and member of the Great Triumvirate.

Eisenhower’s ideal day consisted of playing golf, taking a lesson or practising, often all three, followed by an evening of bridge. Ideally, that would be at Augusta National, which became a retreat from high states of office. He started playing golf in the 1930s while stationed in the Philippines. “He might not have been the best golfer among American presidents — his successor, Jack Kennedy, was capable of picking up the sticks after a six-month layoff and threatening 80 — but no President was more devoted to, beguiled by, and associated with

the game than Eisenhower,” wrote Steve Eubanks in his 1997 history of Augusta

Eubanks thought Eisenhower heading to Augusta National for a vacation in November 1952, having just become president-elect, was as much a part of the Masters Tournament becoming one of golf’s majors as the victories of Ben Hogan and Sam Snead in the 1950s. He had become a member of the club in 1948 and it was a powerful group of Members who persuaded Eisenhower to run for president as a Republican.

During his eight years stationed at the White House, Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie would often escape to Augusta for a few days, though he did not attend the Masters as president. A special cabin was built for the couple by the 10th tee and a presidential office was added to the Clubhouse. As well as playing golf and bridge, Eisenhower would fish in Ike’s Pond, created by Augusta National chairman Clifford Roberts, one of his closest advisors, and around which the club’s par-three course was later constructed.

Among those who attempted to tame the presidential slice were Augusta National founder Bobby Jones and the club’s professional, Ed Dudley. “He’s intent about the game,” Dudley told Golf Digest “He takes every shot seriously. Let him blow one and he’ll get pretty sore at himself. That’s because he’s such a competitor. But he has wonderful self-control. No cursing. No club-throwing.”

Due to that slice, Eisenhower was most discomfited by the large pine tree on the left of the 17th fairway around 125 yards from the Members’ tee. Ike swore that he would chop it down but when he brought it up at a governors’ meeting in 1956, Roberts immediately adjourned the meeting. Later he told the president: “If you touch that tree you’re a dead man, and not even the Secret Service will be able to help you.”

Eisenhower was thwarted. The tree never really affected the top professionals in the Masters until the tournament tee was pushed much

further back in one of Augusta’s many modernisations. Tiger Woods fell foul of it in 2011 when he slipped playing from an awkward spot under its branches, injuring his left knee and Achilles tendon.

The Eisenhower tree outlasted the man himself by 45 years — only felled by an act of God, or rather an ice storm, in 2014.

Dwight D Eisenhower and Winston Churchill, men of high office, and also golfers in their own fashion.

The War Years

Wentworth’s secret bunker

In keeping with Wentworth’s rollercoaster early decades, no sooner had the Club stabilised itself than World War II broke out. WG Tarrant had founded his dream golfing estate in the Roaring Twenties, only for the Depression at the start of the 1930s to stall its progression.

Not only did the house building slow but, after failing to make a minor repayment, Tarrant was declared bankrupt on a technicality in 1931 and as a result he resigned from his role as chairman.

Yet by the end of the decade the Club was flourishing again. Membership was up to 1,480, with two-thirds being active golfers. The swimming pool had been installed and the Clubhouse further enhanced with a new bar. The golf courses had drawn the odd criticism and improvements were made, including the clearing of scrub, and piping water to the 17th and 18th greens of the West. This latest renovation had transformed the longer and stronger West into quite a test of golf. Soon, however, it was lying fallow.

Understandably the AGM in February 1940 noted a considerable drop in membership and decrease in staff. There was a call for the remaining Members to “assist in every way to keep the Club a going concern, as difficult times are ahead”.

Soon, however, the Clubhouse and adjacent buildings, plus many of the Estate’s houses, were requisitioned by the War Office and handed over to the Army. It became a top secret camp, although the codename “WW” probably didn’t need Bletchley Park to crack it. In clearing the Clubhouse, most of the Club’s early archives were lost. But Ena Williams, then the young manager of the bar and dining room, managed to save

the stock of wines and spirits, first hiding them in the bushes, then at the changing huts for the swimming pool, before a temporary Clubhouse was established at Kingsbourne on Pinewood Road.

The West was allowed to grow wild and although the East was maintained for play, a few extra bunkers were added — a couple on the 16th fairway — to prevent enemy aircraft from attempting to land. Virginia Water was drained so as not to appear such an obvious navigational landmark. The Estate was thronged with gun emplacements, Nissan huts, cookhouses and ammunition dumps.

One night a stray German bomber made a direct hit on an ammunition dump, which made quite the racket and blew out windows in all the houses. There was, however, a more deadly attack at St George’s Hill, Tarrant’s other estate, when the neighbouring Brooklands Clubhouse was targeted. Vickers Armstrong had been based at the famous circuit and had to move to the Clubhouse at Burhill, where Barnes Wallis began his work on the “bouncing bomb”.

At Wentworth officers could stay at the Georgian-style Dormy House on Portnall Drive — part of the 180-acre Portnall estate that had been purchased by Tarrant at the same time as he took possession of Wentworths mansion house. Portnall House had once housed the extensive art collection owned by Thomas-Chaloner Bisse-Challoner from his 19th century travels on the Grand Tour. Officers staying at the Dormy House paid four shillings (20 pence) a night and could become

an honorary member of the Club for a further shilling. That entitled them to a play on the East for an extra threepence per round. Any public play on the course had long since stopped.

“It was all very hush-hush,” John Hammond, a special police constable and one of the few locals ever allowed onto the Estate during the war, told the Surrey Herald many years later. “Without a pass you could not get anywhere near the camp. There were guards everywhere with a major sentry post at the Club entrance.”

One reason for the tight security was the addition in 1940 of another type of bunker — an underground command centre. This secret bunker lies just to the south of the Clubhouse, is 100m long, running east-west, under parts of what are now the Edinburgh and European

Tour car parks. It was constructed, to a design by engineer Sir Harley Dalrymple-Hay for a similar bunker under Whitehall, of two cast iron tubes, each 25 feet in diameter, from London Transport stock that was used to create tunnels for the Underground. They were linked by a 12-foot diameter tube, with two ramps, one leading to an emergency exit near the 18th hole of the East and the other connecting to the Clubhouse via stairs from a laundry room. This was disguised by a covered walkway built with the same bricks as used for the Clubhouse.

But why was it there? Ever since the end of World War I, plans were drawn up to provide for alternative sites of government should London suffer a devastating bombardment or the country was invaded. Initially, however, there was a need to house GHQ Home Forces, which was created following Dunkirk to equip and train a force

A bonus of being billeted at Wentworth, an HQ21 Army Group Swimming Gala in July 1943.

for a later invasion of France. While occupying the basement at St. Paul’s School, Hammersmith, communications were disrupted by bomb strikes from the Blitz in the local area so a more remote site was sought.

GHQ Home Forces moved into the Wentworth Clubhouse, and other nearby buildings, while its signals regiment set up in the bunker.

The Club became an alternative command post to the Cabinet War Rooms partly because General Sir Alan Brooke, who was appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff in late 1941, appreciated the distance it put between himself and Winston Churchill. Brooke, who later became Viscount Alanbrooke, was head of the British Army and the top military adviser to the prime minister, the War Cabinet and the Allies.

Brooke prided himself on being able to handle Churchill, who he described in his diaries as being “a genius mixed with an astonishing lack of vision”. He also wrote: “Without him England was lost for a certainty, with him England has been on the verge of disaster time and again … Never have I admired and despised a man simultaneously to the same extent. Never have such opposite extremes been combined in the same human being.”

Churchill said of Brooke: “When I thump the table and push my face towards him what does he do? Thumps the table harder and glares back at me. I know these Brookes — stiff-necked Ulstermen and there’s no one worse to deal with than that!”

When word got back to Brooke that Churchill felt they could no longer work together because Brooke “hates me”, the General told the prime

Crowds enjoying the 1943 Swimming Gala.

minister’s chief of staff: “Hate him? I don’t hate him. I love him. But the first time I tell him that I agree with him when I don’t will be the time to get rid of me, for then I can be no more use to him.”

Brooke’s ploy of seeking respite from Churchill at Wentworth, if such it was, may not have always succeeded since the prime minister often stayed on the Estate. GHQ Home Forces became GHQ 21st Army Group under the command of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, responsible for planning what would become Operation Overlord and the D-Day landings. Also involved in the preparations was General Dwight Eisenhower. Whether the American was tempted to a game on the East during the war is not known, but he certainly returned to Wentworth subsequently.

When the Army left Wentworth after the war, the bunker was stripped of every piece of equipment and furniture, and even all the floorboards. It remained a curio for years, despite being shut down in the 1990s, for locals and military historians alike. A report on the Subterranea Britannica website states: “The whole bunker is protected on the surface by a massive bombproof ‘burster’ slab with a brick ventilation tower with a cowl protruding. In the tunnels below, the air was drawn through underfloor channels with vertical riser ducts in the central partition walls in each room to a grill high in the wall.

“The emergency entrance on the edge of Wentworth Drive consists of a small wedge-shaped concrete blockhouse protruding out of the ground. Steps lead through 90 degrees to the top of the inclined

Presentations being made at the outdoor swimming pool area.

tunnel down into the bunker. This runs for 50 metres to a doorway (door removed) followed by an airlock (doors removed) meeting the main access tunnel through the bunker at right angles. The access tunnel is 100 metres in length with two airlocks evenly spaced along it. There are 11 rooms on either side of the tunnel each approximately eight metres in length. There is a door from the access tunnel into the centre of each room with the rooms being subdivided into two by a central partition wall. Two of the rooms on the south side are 17 metres long with two doorways from the central access tunnel, and two partition walls subdividing the rooms into two small rooms and one long room.

“At the west end of the bunker the last room on the south side was a plant room, but the entrance into this is partially filled with soil and rubble. This is not a roof collapse as the cast iron tunnel segments are

Then Club manager Richard Doyle-Davidson and John Wenzel, former curator of the Cabinet War Rooms, at the entrance to the bunker.

A plan of the underground bunker

still in good condition. There is no evidence of the plant although some wiring remains in place. The under floor channel is connected to the corresponding channel in the last room on the north side with rectangular exhaust and intake vents high in the wall. A channel runs through each of the partition walls to a grill covered by a conical metal cowl on either side of the partition. At the east end of the bunker on the south side there is an additional small room accessed through the last room — this contains a sump and an engine bed on either side of the room.

“At the west end of the access tunnel the main access from Wentworth House comes in at right angles. There is a further airlock (doors removed) and then the tunnel turns through 45 degrees onto the 50-metre long ramp up to the surface, at the top of the ramp the stairway is sealed by a brick wall. The bunker has been largely stripped of all fixtures and fittings, all internal doors, most door frames and floorboards have been removed leaving just the brick piers that

supported the boards and the brick partition walls subdividing each room. These have been painted white although many are now covered in graffiti. The tunnels are dry and their segments are all in excellent condition, each embossed LPTB, London Passenger Transport Board.”

According to the Surrey Herald, there was a potential diplomatic incident involving Wentworth during the war when a home owner on the Estate, who had not realised his house had been requisitioned by the Army, leased it to General Leopold Sikorski, leader of the Polish government in exile. Quartermaster-General Sir Walter Venning considered the delicacy in dealing with the situation “fairly considerable”, but Brooke was unequivocal in putting a halt to the arrangement and Sikorski had to go elsewhere.

One legacy of the war that remains to this day is Longcross railway station, on the line between Virginia Water and Sunningdale. Near what is now the eighth tee of the Edinburgh Course, it was built to

Wenzel and Doyle-Davidson explore inside Wentworth’s secret bunker in the late 1970s.

service troops stationed on Chobham Common in 1940, although it did not appear on any timetables until two years later. A rare station without road access, it was recently refurbished due to the development of the garden village alongside the film studios that opened in 2006 on land previously used by the Ministry of Defence.

It was in 1942 that the sad news arrived from Wales that Wentworth’s founder, Tarrant, had died of a heart attack at Hafod. Tarrant had not been involved with his cherished project at Virginia Water for a decade but his death meant a transfer of ownership when Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co bought the Tarrant shares. The civil engineering company, which like Tarrant’s business had started from a joiner’s shop in Blackpool, had built hotels and theatres, and in the 1950s went on to construct motorways as well as a gasworks in Beckton, east London. Lieutenant Colonel George Parkinson was the chairman of the company when it bought Wentworth in July 1943, but in December that year he was killed in a traffic accident when his car hit a lorry. AE “Teddy” Parkinson, nephew of Sir Lindsay, had been the managing director and took over as chairman, assuming the same role at Wentworth.

There was much to do when the Club’s new board was formed at the end of the war. Visitor fees for those playing golf, tennis and squash were raised for the first time since 1924. Archie Compston arrived as professional after the retirement of Johnnie Aitken, and the golf

courses had to be renovated. The West, in particular, had to be cleared of bushes and all the undergrowth that had appeared after it had been allowed to go wild, while evidence that an Army camp had been in residence for six years was slowly cleared. The job was given to a party of German prisoners of war, stationed at a nearby internment camp. One of the officers overseeing the clearance commented, “Let this be their Burma Road”. The comment led to the nickname for the West, particularly referring to the long run for home from the 15th tee. Use of the term “Burma Road”, world famous for a few decades, later faded, although the Burma Bar remains a key hub of the Clubhouse.

It was in the post-war period that the West Course became a quality test of golf and the great stage for the game’s big occasions. Tournaments soon returned, with the colourful Max Faulkner twice winning the Dunlop Masters, the second time in the same year as he had become Open champion at Royal Portrush. Bobby Locke won the Dunlop in 1950, Fred Daly claimed the inaugural Daks tournament in 1952 and the following year Dai Rees, who would go on to captain the winning Ryder Cup team in 1957, pipped Wentworth’s latest professional Tom Haliburton to the title, despite Haliburton’s masterly 65 on the East in the second round.

Wentworth, scene of the precursor to the Ryder Cup in 1926, was all set to host the real thing.

Eisenhower at Wentworth

It was just after the war that Wentworth’s caddiemaster Dick Powell got word that Nato Allied Supreme Commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, wished to play the West Course using an Americanstyle buggy. A battery-powered cart was hard to find in post-war Britain, and, of course, there would be no job for one of his caddies.

Powell, a soldier himself, managed to get hold of a vehicle that he could borrow, and polished it up a treat for the General.

Presenting the vehicle when the day duly arrived, Powell was taken aback when Eisenhower said: “Thank you, soldier, but I prefer to walk …”

“Well make your bloody mind up!” retorted Powell, the words out of his mouth before he had thought of the implications. Ike took it in good jest, however. “It was all right,” Powell recalled. “He understood and gave me a $20 bill. I’ll never forget it with all the security people around.”

While he was president, Eisenhower appointed John Hay Whitney as ambassador to the UK and in 1958 Whitney bought a property at Wentworth. He named it Cherry Hill, after the Cherry Hills Country

Club in Denver where he played golf with Eisenhower. Originally, the classic Art Deco house on Portnall Drive, near the fourth tee of the West, was built for Katherine Newton in 1935 and named Holthanger. Whitney and wife Betsey, formerly daughter-in-law to President Franklin Roosevelt, maintained a home at Wentworth for almost three decades. Latterly, the house has featured in many period dramas on television.

As well as the Whitneys, Eisenhower also played golf at Wentworth with another of his friends, Arnold Palmer. Once in the 1960s, golf writer John Ingham discovered they were playing a round, tipped off when he “saw the motorcade parked up and the FBI guys in the bushes, frightfully conspicuous in their woeful attempts to be inconspicuous”. It turned out the pair were “delighted to talk golf with a young scribe. Ike said his favourite shot was the five-wood because it was so forgiving. I recall thinking that you could meet almost anyone in the world at Wentworth, and if you knew how to behave, you could have a splendid time. Sadly for me, the story arrived too late in the day for my paper to print it, and it was cruelly spiked!”

Eisenhower being driven in an early electric golf buggy at Wentworth. At other times he preferred to walk.

Archie

George Duncan George at the gallop

Compston The Open at Wentworth?

Archie Compston’s spell as professional at Wentworth was brief but the Wolverhampton man was one of the most colourful characters in British golf. He arrived at Wentworth in 1945 with an impressive CV behind him already.

Acontemporary of George Duncan, Wentworth’s first professional, Compston played in the first three Ryder Cups but was perhaps best known for beating the great American Walter Hagen 18 and 17 in a 72-hole match at Moor Park in 1928.

A runner-up in The Open of 1925, at Hoylake five years later he scored a record-breaking 68 in the third round to take the lead, only to collapse to an 82 in the final round as Bobby Jones secured the second leg of his Grand Slam.

A volatile temperament led to a reputation as a club thrower and it was said he “swore like a trooper”, but he played with an attacking style and had an unshakeable will to win. It was while the professional at Coombe Hill that he coached Pam Barton, one of the finest women amateurs of her day, and the then Prince of Wales, later the Duke of Windsor. The pair played many times at Wentworth, though the occasion on which the Duke attempted to invite the Club professional to lunch after their round was the last — bar manager Ena Williams was a stickler for the rules.

Compston had a column in the London Evening Standard for many years, written as a conversation between the golfer and scribe Henry Longhurst. It was a chalk and cheese partnership which made for entertaining reads. As when Compston proposed that it was about time the Open Championship was played in London.

“Golf is not a game any more, it is an industry,” Compston reasoned.

“Everything nowadays is being commercialised — so why not the Open Championship? There is no need to go to the seaside now to find a test of golf. You can make some of these inland greens a lot tougher

than anything you can find at the seaside. Just narrow down the fairways a few yards on either side of the West Course at Wentworth, for instance, and you have got an absolutely first-class test of golf.

“The trouble with these seaside courses is that if you do not get a wind they are more or less simple. Very often you get a better lie in the rough than you do on the fairway.

“There is one thing about this life you have got to remember — you either go forward or backward. You never stand still. Golf should go forward. The Open is the only thing in sport that has not been commercialised. Play the championship on an inland course and, instead of playing to a few thousand at half-a-crown a time, you could play to a really big crowd at 10 shillings a time — at any rate around London.”

Compston resigned from his post at Wentworth in 1948, presumably not because he had failed to persuade the powers-that-be to bring The Open to the Club, but due to health reasons that led to him taking up a position at Mid-Ocean Country Club in Bermuda, where, apparently, “his ruggedness, tempered by maturity, fitted into the frame of opulent sophistication just as easily as it had done in Britain.”

Compston had been on a retainer of £100 per year but his successor, Jimmy Adams, received double the rate. Adams was a return to the Scottish heritage of Wentworth pros, having been born in Troon. He possessed a long, lissome swing, taking the club far beyond the parallel on the backswing, helped by being double-jointed. Twice

Adams was runner-up in The Open, at Hoylake in 1936 to Alf Padgham, and two years later in a gale at Royal St George’s to Reg Whitcombe.

Adams played in the first four post-war Ryder Cups, including at Wentworth in 1953, although by then he had handed over to Tom

Haliburton. Adams became disillusioned with the professional golf scene in Britain, emigrating to Australia to start a new life, although when he returned in 1979 he was made an honorary member of the Club.

Archie Compston watches on as the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII and then the Duke of Windsor, tees off.

George Duncan George at the gallop Babe Zaharias

and the American women Battle of the Sexes

It was not much of a battle, in the end. The scene was Wentworth in July 1951. A team of British male golfers — amateurs of the old style — against a team of American women — of the new breed of professionals.

The Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association had just got going the previous year and a group of six of them were over on a promotional tour. They were led by Patty Berg, who still holds the record as the holder of most women’s major titles.

But the star of the show was Babe Zaharias. Mildred Didrikson had been a wonder athlete with a nickname to match, and then married a wrestler of Greek origins, George Zaharias. In 1931 she entered seven disciplines in the US National Track and Field trials and won six of them. Forced to choose three events at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, she won gold medals for javelin and the 80m hurdles, and lost out on a technicality in the high jump. She sang and played the harmonica in vaudeville shows, could swim, bowl and play tennis with ease, and performed professionally in basketball, billiards and baseball. She hit so many home runs she was compared to Babe Ruth and the nickname stuck.

When it turned out Babe was a natural at golf — she did not try the sport until she was in her 20s — the authorities designated her a professional because she had earned money from other sports. It took a decade for her to recover her amateur status but then she won the US Amateur in 1946 and the British Amateur at Gullane the following year. “I took a fling at many other sports but when the golf bug hit me it was fatal,” she said.

Zaharias practised all hours to improve her whole game but her ability to hit the ball huge distances revolutionised the women’s game. “Until Babe came along,” said Berg, “women were all swing and no hit. She put power into women’s golf.” Enid Wilson wrote: “Above average height, but not abnormally tall, and of slender build, Babe moved like a ballerina, as though she did not have a bone in her body.”

Professional tournaments for women were increasing in America so Zaharias joined the paid ranks again, winning the US Women’s Open for the first time in 1948. On their 1951 trip, the Americans played a number of matches but none more significant than against the men at Wentworth. Down 2½-½ after the morning foursomes on the East, the visitors lunched in silence until Berg stood up and said: “All those who expect to win their singles, follow me.” Babe leapt up, too, and added: “Come on, follow Napoleon.”

Zaharias was due to play Leonard Crawley in the singles on the West. Crawley not only represented Britain in the Walker Cup but had played first-class cricket for Essex and Worcestershire. He was also golf correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and The Field. When Babe joined him on the back tee, it is said his imposing moustache twitched and he pointed a finger up the fairway to the ladies’ tee.

“No Len,” Babe smiled, “the back tees will do me just fine.” Often outdriving her opponent, she was “two over fours” when she won at the 16th. Playing off level, the American women won all six singles. It was a rout. Crawley had promised to shave off his moustache if his team lost but departed without a word. The whiskers remained intact.

In the Daily Graphic tournament that followed, Zaharias won the professional section with a 74 over the West and a 69 on the East. Berg, the runner-up by two strokes, also scored 69 on the East,

as did the leading amateur, Miss Jeanne Bisgood, a prominent home player in the 1950s.

Babe’s greatest golfing victory came three months after an operation for cancer as she won a third US Open title by 12 strokes in 1954.

Two years later she died at the age of 45. Berg said: “She was the greatest woman athlete I ever saw. She died before she could see the results of all the doors she opened. It was very sad, a tremendous loss.”

Babe Zaharias moved like a ballerina and put the power into women’s golf, as she showed against the men at Wentworth.

Ryder Cup 1953

Ryder Cup 1953 A marvellous show but victory dashed at the last

The year was 1953 — the year of the coronation, an Ashes victory, Gordon Richards winning the Derby and Stanley Matthews finally holding an FA Cup winners’ medal — and the Ryder Cup was coming for the first time to what some regarded as its spiritual home.

It was here, 27 years earlier, that Samuel Ryder had suggested that a biennial match between professionals from Great Britain & Ireland and the United States should become a permanent fixture. Could he ever have envisioned what was to unfold in his name over the coming decades?

In the intervening years, the Americans had proved themselves a dominant force. They easily won the first official match in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1927 — a year after being humbled in a ‘friendly’ encounter over the East Course at Wentworth — and went on to win six of the following eight.

It would be fair to say, however, that there was more than a frisson of excitement for the home team’s chances this time around. There was disappointment that Ben Hogan, a golfing giant, had decided not to play, but the consequent weakening of the American team seemed to open the door to what looked a strong British and Irish contingent.

The excitement was palpable. This was Wentworth’s chance to host and organise an international event on a grand scale. Nothing was left to chance, no stone unturned. In fact, so impressive was the organisation by the Club, in association with the Professional Golfers’ Association, that a template was created for all future Ryder Cup matches that were played in Britain.

The last time the match had been played on this side of the Atlantic, at Ganton in 1949, the American team brought half a ton of meat with them to make sure the players and their entourage did not go without in a country still in the grip of food rationing, four years after the end of World War II. Accompanying them on their voyage were 600 steaks, half a dozen hams, 12 sides of beef and four boxes of bacon. “We brought it over for our own table and to entertain the British players and their wives,” said Hogan, the US captain.

This time around Wentworth was ready to play host in a style befitting its status as one of Britain’s top golf and country clubs. There may not have been steak on the menu for the celebration banquet following the conclusion of the match (meat rationing was still in place), but roast pheasant — possibly sourced from a local shoot — made for a perfect alternative.

In 1926, Ryder hosted a relatively low-key Champagne reception for the two teams in the club bar and said, “We must do this again.” What, one wonders, would he have made of Wentworth’s transformation in the interim and the impressive tournament infrastructure that greeted players and spectators on their arrival? No one had seen anything quite like it. The West Course was now a strong test of golf and fit to stage such a grand occasion. Sadly, Ryder was never to witness it, having died in 1936 at the age of 78.

American captain Lloyd Mangrum receives the Ryder Cup from Sir Leonard Lyle, Baron Lyle of Westbourne, at the presentation in front of the Clubhouse.

In the previous match, at Pinehurst, the United States ran out as overwhelming winners by 9½-2½. It took their record to seven wins and two defeats and yet there was a real sense of optimism in the British and Irish camp at Wentworth. One of the reasons was that the cup holders had arrived in the UK with six rookies in their team of 10. They had no player under the age of 30 and had an average age of 36. Even so, they had strength in depth and the PGA Championship winners of 1952 and 1953, Jim Turnesa and Walter Burkemo.

While the Americans could also boast serial winner Sam Snead, who had won six of his seven major titles at the time, and Lloyd Mangrum, the former US Open champion, among their number, they were sorely going to miss Hogan’s presence. The Wee Ice Mon, as he had been affectionately dubbed by Scottish fans, was in stupendous form that year. He had won the Masters, the US Open and The Open Championship at Carnoustie, even though he now played only a

limited schedule of events. One of the all-time greats, Hogan was seriously injured in a car accident in 1949 and now managed his playing commitments accordingly, no longer playing in 36-hole matches.

The GB&I team was captained by Henry Cotton, one of the finest players of his generation, who took on a non-playing role. He might not have been swinging the clubs, but his fierce competitive spirit shone through over the two days of competition. The hosts had four debutants in their side — Peter Alliss, whose father, Percy, played in four Ryder Cups, Harry Bradshaw, Eric Brown and Bernard Hunt — and had an average age of 34. Alliss, at 22, became the youngest player ever to compete in the Ryder Cup, and Hunt, at 23, was not far behind. What cruel fate awaited these two excellent young golfers.

Then, as now, it was vitally important to get off to a good start. Cotton decided to leave Max Faulkner, Open champion just two years earlier,

Play gets under way in the singles in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

and Dai Rees, who had finished joint second to Hogan at the Open, on the sidelines for the foursomes. It was a gamble that didn’t pay off.

At the end of the first day, much to Cotton’s chagrin, the US team needed just three points to retain the coveted gold trophy. They led 3-1 and looked already to have the match within their grasp. The home side’s only victory came courtesy of Bradshaw and Fred Daly, who beat Burkemo and Cary Middlecoff, by one hole. Alliss and Harry Weetman lost 2 and 1 to Dave Douglas and Ed Oliver, while the other two pairings were heavily beaten. Brown and John Panton lost 8 and 7 to Mangrum and Snead, while Hunt and Jimmy Adams, the recently departed Wentworth professional, went down 7 and 5 to Jack Burke and Ted Kroll.

It was going to take an enormous effort to turn things around in the eight singles matches the following day. A leak to the press revealed that Cotton had given his players a dressing down in the team room but his words, it seems, had a galvanising effect. In the end the match was widely regarded as one that got away.

The large home support that turned up on the second day — with Bob Hope, the American comedian, among them — may have feared the worst, but were instead treated to a roller-coaster ride of emotions. Play had been delayed by almost two hours because of fog blanketing the course, but by mid-afternoon, what had seemed an impossible task started to look anything but. Cotton had put his two youngest players at six and seven and could not have imagined the drama that was about to unfold around them towards the end of a very long day.

The Americans must have felt confident when Burke claimed their first point in beating Rees 2 and 1 in the opening match. But with Daly comfortably beating Kroll 9 and 7, the tide began to turn. In what some described as a “tetchy” match, Brown then came out on top

Television comes to Wentworth

Wentworth was at the centre of the BBC’s attempts to televise golf in the early days. The Daks tournament in 1952 was the first time in Britain a golf tournament had been broadcast and the Ryder Cup in 1953, the first televised match, received more coverage than ever attempted before, with around two million viewers tuning in.

Henry Longhurst (above left) was the commentator, stationed high on a spindly tower of scaffolding. It was a precarious ascent and his troubles did not stop once he was seated at his desk. Whenever there was a breeze, his score sheets would fly off in all directions, so his binoculars were more use as a paperweight than for viewing the action. Army signallers were drafted in to report scores from around the course using field telephones, which proved quite a useful exercise for training purposes.

Longhurst’s mantra, more an act of necessity in an era when information could not be relayed as quickly and easily as today, was not to talk over the action, with plenty of “flashes of silence”. He once wrote about how the pictures were relayed from Wentworth to a nation that was just beginning to add television sets to their living rooms. “The picture went out from a dish-shaped object on a tower to a mast at Chobham nearby and from there by air to Highgate. From there it went by land cable to Broadcasting House in the middle of London before being beamed to Television Centre at Lime Grove. Its journey was not over yet. The signal was then beamed to the transmitter at Crystal Palace then on to the viewers, including the producer in his scanner at Wentworth, the nerve centre of the operation. Don’t ask me how it works!”

Jack Burke Jr teeing off against Britain’s Dai Rees.

The first tented village

In the 21st Century those who come through the gates at Wentworth have become accustomed to the vast high-end tented village that caters for all their needs at tournaments such as the BMW PGA Championship, the flagship event of the DP World Tour. What they might not realise is that it was the Ryder Cup that led the way.

One newspaper reporter began his Ryder Cup preview in 1953 with the words: “I am phoning this from a new town which has sprung up almost overnight amid the trees and shrubs at Wentworth. It has a bank, a post office, radio and newspaper offices, restaurants, cloakrooms, bars and even a row of shops. It is a town of great marquees set on the emerald green of the majestic course on which the Ryder Cup begins tomorrow.”

Such was the interest in the two-day match — made up of four foursomes and eight singles, all played over 36 holes — that preparations were put in place for coping with anything up to 20,000 spectators a day. There was room for 12,000 cars spread over six car parks and a huge volunteer force of stewards, who had been recruited from 18 golf clubs in the region and had undergone a training programme spread over three months. Professional golfers were drafted in to help advise the signallers sending scores back to base, and also to act as bodyguards for the players fending off autograph hunters. The tees were fenced off and 12 miles of red twine was used to keep the crowds off the fairways.

Much of what was achieved was down to the hard work of Major Peter Roscow, the Wentworth Club Secretary, whose strategic planning was second to none. Although what today’s boisterous fans would have made of one of the major’s edicts that there was to be no cheering close to the seventh and 10th greens because of their proximity to the eighth and 11th tees is anyone’s guess.

Henry Cotton (centre) with his team representing Great Britain and Ireland.

Fred Daly on the way to winning both his foursomes and singles at Wentworth.

Harry Weetman was the star of the show for the home team with his singles victory.

Lloyd Mangrum (seated, second left), and his American team.

against Mangrum, the US captain. According to some reports, Brown complained that his opponent’s yellow pastel sweater was putting him off, while at another point Mangrum refused to concede a one-foot putt. Such was the tension that Mangrum lost one hole after taking four putts to find the hole and Brown went on to win two up.

Perhaps the most thrilling of the matches was that between Weetman, one of the game’s big hitters, and the formidable Snead, who looked

to be cruising to victory before capitulating in extraordinary fashion. The American was four up with six to play but lost concentration and started to spray the ball to all parts of the course. All square coming down the 18th, Weetman, who had been stung on the finger by a wasp while putting at the third, got a birdie to Snead’s par and claimed a famous victory. Suddenly the match was level at 4-4 and the momentum had swung in the home team’s favour.

Harry Weetman is congratulated by Henry Cotton after defeating Sam Snead.

Daly with foursomes partner Harry Bradshaw.

Dai Rees, who would captain the winning 1957 team.

In recalling the match many years later, Faulkner wrote of Weetman: “He was as strong as an ox with huge hands and forearms and crunched the ball as if his life depended on it. The crowds loved him because of the fascination of such raw power. He could hit a one-iron almost as far as his driver and this is what demoralised Sam Snead in their classic Ryder Cup singles match at Wentworth. On the back nine at Wentworth Harry began to take his one-iron off the tee for safety and Sam was mortified to find that Harry’s drives were still up with his own.”

Faulkner lost 3 and 1 to Middlecoff in the fifth match, but his defeat was cancelled out in the final pairing when Harry Bradshaw saw off Fred Haas 3 and 2. This left Alliss and Hunt out on the course and needing one and a half points between them to bring the cup back home for the first time in 20 years. They were well placed, but could they hold their nerve when it mattered?

“The wonderful, almost unbelievable prospect of victory against the great American golfers became suddenly, desperately real,” wrote Pat Ward-Thomas, the renowned golf correspondent of The Guardian newspaper. “Then, just as the cup was touching the lips it was smashed with brutal, heartrending suddenness. The tale must be told and it will be told again and again down the years whenever golfers meet.”

First Alliss let slip a glorious chance for victory over Turnesa. The Englishman, who in later years was to become revered as the Voice of Golf, was one up on his American opponent with three to play, but he bogeyed the 16th, drove out of bounds at the 17th, and found himself one down with one to play. The best he could hope for

now was a tied match. The golfing gods, however, had not finished with him yet. With Turnesa in trouble off the tee and short of the green in three at the par-five 18th, Alliss was just off the green in two and perfectly placed to win the hole. Then disaster.

“Alliss fatally decided to use a pitching club instead of a putter or straight-faced iron and he fluffed his shot,” wrote Ward-Thomas. “He put the next two feet from the hole. Turnesa holed out in three more anxious-looking shots, and then in tremendous silence poor Alliss missed the hole and victory once more became a dream.”

The hole was halved in six and the chance of an outright win had gone. In later years, Alliss would recall: “I’ve had to live my whole life with the guilt of messing up that chip.”

Hunt, meanwhile, had every chance of beating Douglas and providing the consolation of a tied match, even though the trophy would remain in American hands. One up with one to play, Hunt needed to halve the final hole to end proceedings at six points apiece. Both players were on the green in three, but whereas Douglas took two putts for his par, Hunt missed from barely three feet for a five and lost the hole. Victory belonged to the US, 6 ½-5½. It had been a calamitous finish for the home team’s young tyros.

Those who had witnessed the drama unfolding over the final day were never likely to forget it. Standing in front of the Clubhouse — with both teams sitting side by side, Members on the roof and looking down, and hundreds if not thousands of spectators gathered for the presentation ceremony — Cotton said: “I have had an exciting afternoon, waiting and watching and hoping. Praying a bit here and there. Our boys have put on a marvellous show today and I’m sure all you British people are just as proud of them as I am.”

Perhaps the excitement was best summed up by Mangrum, upon accepting the trophy. A decorated war hero, he sucked on a cigarette, exhaled slowly and said he would “never ever captain an American team again because of the 9,000 deaths I suffered in the last hour”.

It was everything, and more, that Samuel Ryder could have wished for. And what better place than Wentworth to witness it?

Max Faulkner, the 1951 Open champion, watched by Snead.

Interested spectator Bob Hope confers with American captain Lloyd Mangrum.

Diamond dinner

Six decades on from the 1953 Ryder Cup, the occasion was celebrated with a diamond anniversary dinner at Wentworth.

During the day 84 Members had taken part in a match that saw the USA & the Rest of the World defeat Great Britain & Ireland, by a score that was not nearly as close as 60 years earlier.

Ryder Cup captains Bernard Gallacher and Tony Jacklin, and George O’Grady, then the chief executive of the European Tour, were among the stars to feature at the dinner but guest of honour was the last surviving member of the home team from 1953, none other than Peter Alliss. “I’m beginning to feel like the only panda in the zoo,” Alliss joked.

Gallacher and Jacklin talked about their Ryder Cup experiences and O’Grady read a letter from Jack Burke Jr, the last remaining member of the USA team, telling Alliss: “If I get to heaven before you, I’ll have the

gates open and you can have that game with Hogan.” No doubt the roles will be reversed after Alliss predeceased Burke in December 2020.

The Diamond Dinner in the Wentworth ballroom (above) with (top): Tony Jacklin, Michael Parkinson, Peter Alliss with the Ryder Cup, Bernard Gallacher and George O’Grady.

Peter Alliss

One sad day, many happy

decades

It was perhaps not the most auspicious of beginnings, but the late, great Peter Alliss ended up having a life-long love affair with Wentworth.

As a 22-year-old Ryder Cup rookie in 1953 he messed up at the crucial moment. Over the next seven decades, however, it became not just a work place for the big tournaments, a canvas of curiosities for the impish observations that marked his television commentaries, but a favourite setting for family celebrations. He even got his name on the menu.

“Oh, I was nervous all right!” Alliss once recalled of his Ryder Cup debut. “In truth we should have won that year and I suppose I was partly to blame.” One up with three to play against Jim Turnesa, Alliss lost the 16th from a greenside bunker, went out of bounds on the 17th and at the last duffed a chip and missed a tiny putt. “I felt like I had let the whole side down,” he said, “and I was crucified in the press. I really couldn’t move past that feeling that I was a failure and to be honest it took me 10 years to get over that. Eventually, I shook it off.

“It would have been lovely to win in 1953, though. We hadn’t won the Ryder Cup since 1933, when my father Percy was on the winning team. We did a Devon Loch, got to the finish line and fell over.

“I can remember walking back to the Clubhouse, with my head down, and my father came up to me and said, ‘Come on, you’ve done well, you’ve nothing to be ashamed of, put your shoulders back and keep your chin up’. Where the lounge in the Clubhouse is now there used to be a lovely garden full of beautiful flowers and a wonderful goldfish pond and some garden seats. It was quiet and I just sat there for a while.”

“I’m sure it stayed with him forever,” said Peter’s widow, Jackie. But there were far brighter days ahead at the Estate that was home to many of their friends. In fact, exactly 10 years later Alliss won the Daks tournament on the West Course, or least shared the title with Neil Coles after the pair finished in a tie.

Then came the halcyon days of BBC’s live television coverage, which for a while meant spring and autumn trips to Wentworth for the PGA Championship and the World Match Play. “He loved it,” Jackie recalled. “He loved the atmosphere of a big tournament at Wentworth, the hospitality, visiting the Clubhouse. He and Alex Hay, with John Shrewsbury keeping them in check as producer, and perhaps Mark McCormack when he was commentating, they would be invited up to the Clubhouse for a small glass — it ‘oiled the voice,’ Peter used to say. Wentworth was always so welcoming and that never changed for us. Happy days.”

With father Percy at Wentworth in 1953.

Willy Bauer, who had been a great friend from his days at the Savoy before moving to Wentworth as Chief Executive, even created a dish that was on the menu for years as the “Alliss Fitzgerald”. “Willy introduced Peter to something Ella Fitzgerald had once adored — smoked salmon with a dash of English mustard. Peter loved it, and insisted it had to be served with freshly baked brown bread.”

Jackie added: “Peter was so proud to be made an honorary member of the Club. As much as he was with the R&A. Two very special clubs. Our children grew up at Wentworth, we celebrated family birthdays and anniversaries there, the staff are always so wonderful. And there was the Christmas Fair that we used to go to every year — Peter would

sit in the bar or the lounge having a sandwich talking to the Members and I would go off and have a look around.” The family connection with Wentworth remains through son Simon working for the European Tour.

Peter once said of Wentworth: “It has a very special place in golfing history. I’d say there aren’t too many to rival it anywhere in the world. It’s always been the sort of place where you could bring someone and whoever they were, they’d be impressed. It was like that 60 years ago and it’s like that today.”

Alliss played in eight Ryder Cups, starting in 1953, before becoming a beloved television commentator.

Tom Haliburton The perfect club professional

Having in quick succession seen Archie Compston and Jimmy Adams come and go as the Club’s professional in the post-war years, a steadying hand was required and Wentworth found it in Tom Haliburton.

Another in the long line of Scots to take the post, he arrived in January 1952 and held the position until his death in 1975. He was a professional for 42 years and more than half that time was spent at Wentworth, where he was beloved as “the perfect Club professional”.

Softly spoken, habitually courteous — except occasionally for an intemperate short fuse when a shot went unexpectedly astray, a rare occurrence — Haliburton was a genial character and golfing gentleman. He was born in Rhu in the west of Scotland and grew up in the Helensburgh area, which he would return to annually to visit his family.

He became fascinated with golf at the now-defunct course at Shandon and left school at 15 to start his golfing apprenticeship. He was an assistant for four years at Haggs Castle in Glasgow and then moved to Prestwick St Nicholas before heading south. For a time he was an assistant to Henry Cotton, who had already won two of his three Open titles, at Ashridge, near Berkhamsted, before World War II arrived and he spent seven years as a physical training instructor in the RAF.

In keeping with the time, Haliburton combined his Club role with playing in tournaments. He won the Northern Open and the West of Scotland title in 1938, the Daily Mail tournament in 1949 and the Sunningdale Foursomes in 1951 and 1953, each time with Jean Donald. One of his biggest victories came in the Yorkshire Evening News tournament in 1963.

A beautiful, fully rounded swing, an unhurried approach, rarely a careless shot, he could compile a low score without nothing more dramatic than a touch of his cap as another putt fell. In 1952, in the Spalding tournament at Worthing, he set a then world record score of 126 strokes for 36 holes, including a round of 61, the lowest on the British circuit for many years. He led by seven strokes at the halfway stage but could not convert the victory.

Perhaps this counted against him when selection for the Ryder Cup team was discussed for the match at Wentworth in 1953. It was a bitter disappointment that the new Club professional missed out on representing Britain on his home course. But he did play in the Ryder Cups of 1961 and 1963, before being elected captain of the Professional Golfers’ Association in 1969, the organisation’s highest honour.

But it was as a teacher and communicator that singled out Haliburton as a master professional. “No junior golfer could be more fortunate than to have spent his formative years under Tom’s watchful eye,” wrote Bruce Critchley, a Walker Cup player who became a distinguished television commentator. “Only when I got older did I realise how rare was his great understanding of the game — what it took to get that irritating little pellet round 18 holes in the least number of shots — and even rarer his ability to impart it to others.”

Critchley added: “Tom came close to being the perfect club pro. As well as his great teaching skills, he put together one of the best

professional shops in the country, was a delight to play with and developed a string of good young assistants, many of whom went on to golfing honours and good club jobs. An apprenticeship under Tom Haliburton was as good a grounding as you could have.”

One of those assistants became Bernard Gallacher, who Haliburton had met at the Ryder Cup in 1969. Gallacher was the man Haliburton had earmarked as his successor when he died suddenly, and shockingly, in 1975, collapsing on the first green of the East while playing with Gallacher.

“Tom was a great man,” Gallacher said. “I respected him so much. He taught me so much — not least, how to behave properly. He taught me discipline. He smoothed off the rough edges.”

Haliburton is remembered not just in Virginia Water, but also in his hometown, the juniors of Helensburgh and Cardross golf clubs playing for the Tom Haliburton Trophy annually, a most coveted prize.

Tom Haliburton was everything a club professional should be and was a steadying hand after post-war flux, seen here at the opening of the new Members’ bar.

Canada Cup 1956

Canada Cup 1956 Hogan in excelsis

For the first time in its four years of existence, the Canada Cup — later to become known as the World Cup of Golf — was to be played outside North America. And it was at Wentworth that players from 29 countries descended to compete in a competition that was rapidly beginning to capture the imagination of the golfing world.

It was just three years after Wentworth had hosted the 1953 Ryder Cup and reaffirmed the standing in which the Club was now held within the game. Few inland courses could offer the towering challenge of the West Course as it wound its way through distinctive corridors of pine trees, heather and gorse. In so many ways, Wentworth could be likened favourably with the kind of country club that existed on the other side of the Atlantic and was able to show itself in its best light, both on and off the course, over three days of sunkissed competition in late June.

If there had been excitement that such an impressive gathering of players was to be seen at close quarters, it was as nothing compared with the enthusiasm generated by the presence of one man: Ben Hogan.

Thousands of spectators poured on to the Wentworth Estate with the express aim of seeing the most famous golfer in the world, a legend in his own lifetime, for possibly the first and last time. The 43-yearold American had been victorious at The Open Championship at Carnoustie in 1953, on his one and only attempt at winning the Claret Jug, and was a rare visitor to these shores.

“The occasion was indisputably made by Ben Hogan,” wrote the esteemed golf writer and television commentator, Henry Longhurst, in

a report for Sports Illustrated magazine. “In sophisticated areas around London, people fight shy of watching golf in large herds. ‘Probably a most frightful mob,’ they say — and stay away. This was something different. Whatever it cost them in blood, toil, sweat and sheer exhaustion, they were going to see this man play, if only for the fact that otherwise they would for years to come be at the mercy of beadyeyed bores pinning them down in a corner with, ‘What? You never saw Hogan? My dear fellow, let me tell you …’”

Longhurst had been genuinely moved by the reception Hogan received from the huge galleries, which were made up of young and old, men and women, children and adults. Hogan’s story preceded him and nobody could quite believe that someone who had almost been killed in a car accident seven years earlier was still performing at the very highest level. As with Tiger Woods in modern times, Hogan was a player who transcended the game.

“People knew quite well that he would have exhausted himself in the US Open eight days previous and that the Canada Cup with two rounds on the final day would be a gruelling physical experience,” Longhurst noted. “They knew that there was no possible need, moral or financial, for him to subject himself to these rigours. When he chose to do so they took him genuinely to their hearts. Rarely since the days of Bobby Jones can a man have been followed by so many

On a rare appearance in Britain for the Canada Cup at Wentworth, Ben Hogan attracted an avid following, teeing off here at the 16th hole watched by Sam Snead.

people wishing him so sincerely well, and I believe that beneath the inscrutable mask he was really touched by the warmth of his welcome. In return he put on for his 10,000-strong reception committee the show of a lifetime.”

And what a show it was.

The Canada Cup was the brainchild of John Jay Hopkins, a Canadian industrialist, who wanted to promote good will through golf. From its inception it had been won, in order, by Argentina, Australia and the United States, whose two-man team in 1955 was made up of Ed Furgol and Chick Harbert, two fine players with major championships to their names. The make-up of the 1956 US team, however, seemed an altogether different proposition. In what today would be dubbed the “Dream Team”, Hogan was paired alongside Sam Snead, who might have felt he had unfinished business with the West Course after his singles meltdown at the 1953 Ryder Cup.

In effect there were two competitions within one. The individual scores of each player would be combined over the three days of play and the team with the lowest score would pick up the huge trophy, which was more akin to a punchbowl than a cup. There would also be a trophy for the player with the lowest individual score. It would be fair to say that while Hogan and Snead were overwhelming favourites to lift the cup, a field that included Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle, for Australia, and Bobby Locke and the 20-year-old Gary Player, for South Africa, were not expected to roll over in submission. It is remarkable to think that 66 years later, Player is continuing his long and happy association with Wentworth.

One aspect of Hogan’s character that would have intrigued the fans who turned up with the explicit aim of watching a golfing superstar in action was his renowned demeanour both on and off the course. He rarely showed emotion and kept his thoughts very much to himself. He became known as The Hawk for the way he studied a course and for his intense concentration on the job in hand. He was famously taciturn

Sam Snead teamed up with Hogan for an unbeatable partnership for America.

Wentworth welcomes Europe

Wentworth’s history of innovation with team competitions continued in 1956 with the inaugural St Andrews Trophy, a match for amateurs between Britain & Ireland, captained by Gerald Micklem, and the Continent of Europe, captained by Jacques Léglise. The 36-hole matches started with five foursomes on the opening day, with the home team winning all five, and then 10 singles the next day, with Britain & Ireland earning a 12½–2½ victory.

Three years later, the Club staged the first match of the female equivalent. Britain first played France in 1931, and began a match against Belgium after World War II. In 1959, the two matches gave way to one against a combined Continental team for a trophy presented by André Vagliano, a French golfer and official in the French Golf Federation who was also the father of Lally Segard, the 1950 British Amateur champion also known as the Vicomtesse de Saint Sauveur and who played in the 1959 match. Britain won 12-3.

and cold, rarely smiled and disliked small talk. “Ben was a great mystery to a lot of people, maybe even to himself,” said five-time major winner Byron Nelson when asked in later years to reflect on this great champion.

Hogan and Snead had been in the same Ryder Cup teams on two occasions but that counted for nothing when the pair arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport on the same flight. Hogan had arranged for himself and his wife, Valerie, to be collected by limousine and taken to their hotel. Snead was travelling alone and when the organiser of transportation for players asked Hogan if his team-mate could share a ride, the reply was simple and to the point. “No,” he said, before climbing into the car and being driven away.

Much of Hogan’s success could be attributed to his attention to detail. One such example came in an afternoon practice round, when he advised Snead to use a three-wood instead of a driver at one of the par fours. Snead hit the ball down the middle of the fairway but bemoaned the fact that he now had to use a five-iron for his approach shot when a seven-iron had sufficed in the morning. Hogan agreed that was probably true, then added, “But you played it from a downhill lie.” “I never thought of that,” said Snead.

The first day of competition was on the Sabbath, which in itself was breaking new ground. “If Lord Cowdray in his ancestral park could charge people 10 shillings (50 pence) to watch the Duke of Edinburgh play polo on a Sunday afternoon,” wrote Longhurst, “then why should not the public be permitted to pay the same to watch the representatives of 29 nations assembled for the purpose of international goodwill?”

At the gate, one vendor sold 1,900 copies of the Canada Cup programme single handed. A huge number of what Longhurst described as a “lavish affair” had been printed in Switzerland, flown by two chartered Dakotas and driven to Wentworth by truck.

The first day of competition could not have been more eagerly anticipated with England paired with the United States. Wrote Longhurst: “Inevitably, almost the entire crowd attached itself to a quartet which contained not only Hogan but, for good measure, the copybook stylist Sam Snead; the man who beat him when he collapsed from four up with six to play in the Ryder Cup, Harry Weetman; and finally, England’s most successful player of the previous year, Ken Bousfield. And I must tell you of Hogan’s opening impact on his first English gallery. The first hole at Wentworth is 470 yards long and

generally requires two wooden shots. Hogan was just over the back in two. Now doubtless we should be seeing that mastery of the short game for which Americans are so celebrated on this side. We did. He chipped it in for a three.”

Hogan followed up with another birdie at the second, thanks to a 12foot putt, a par at the third, a birdie at the fourth and a par at the fifth.

Hogan and Snead await the presentation of the trophy after their victory by 14 strokes.

Alf to the rescue

Peter Thomson, the five-time Open Champion, appeared for Australia in the Canada Cup in 1956 but it was nine years later, at the World Match Play, that the Australian was grateful for the assistance of one of Wentworth’s great characters. Alf Sutton was a greengrocer before being kicked by a horse and seriously injured, an extraordinary accident, which led to bankruptcy. Instead, he became the locker room attendant at Wentworth and at the same time studied physiotherapy. He was encouraged by a number of doctors among the membership and became so skilled that he was trusted by all the top golfers.

Thomson faced a dilemma with a £3,000 guarantee for teeing off in the 1965 Match Play on one hand and advice to rest for three months due to a back injury on the other. “Thomson had fallen into a bunker and was in agony,” Sutton recalled. “He’d been told to quit golf for three months at least. When I first tried to help him, he cried out in agony. A Wentworth doctor had referred him to me and I had the job of trying to loosen him up. I told him not to swing anything more than a wedge. This was on the Wednesday, with the tournament starting the next day!”

Not only did Thomson get to play the next day, he made it through to the final — in matches played over 36 holes — before losing to Gary Player 3 and 2. Another time Jack Nicklaus turned up at Sutton’s home, after midnight, in a Rolls Royce. He had pinched a nerve playing tennis and later seized up. Once again it was Alf to the rescue and Nicklaus was swinging freely the following morning.

“So now, having arrived with a bigger build-up than any man before him and carrying with him this huge and highly personal gallery, he had played five holes in England and his total was 15,” Longhurst marvelled. He reached the turn in 31, birdied the 10th, dropped a shot at the 11th after hooking into the trees with his tee shot, and came home in 37 for a three-under-par total of 68. His game had definitely cooled on the homeward stretch, but the gallery remained mesmerised. Alongside him on the individual leaderboard was Australia’s Thomson, at that stage a two-time Open champion.

Preferring his own company to that of others, it was perhaps inevitable that Hogan was a little put out by the size and boisterousness of the fans. “That crowd,” he said. “I don’t mind a lot of people but I never saw anything like that but once before. That was The Open at Carnoustie. That sort of crowd discourages people from watching golf.” What one wonders would he have made of the modern game and present day Ryder Cup galleries?

While Hogan, dressed immaculately and wearing his trademark white flat cap, shone on the first day, Snead struggled to find anything like his normal form. A five-over-par round of 76 could have been even worse and in the end the US, level with Canada, only trailed Australia, the leaders, by two, and Wales and Mexico by one. It was all still to play for. With all the scores counting, leads could disappear in the blink of an eye. The second round belonged to Canada with Stan Leonard’s 67 and Al Balding’s 72 moving them into a three-stroke lead over America, for whom Hogan had a 69 and Snead 73.

With two rounds to be played on the final day, it dawned on the organisers that they didn’t have enough daylight hours for 29 teams to play 36 holes each. As a result, the top 20 qualified for the final two rounds with the other nine playing a one-round consolation tournament, won by New Zealand.

After three rounds Canada remained three ahead of the US, with South Africa a further four strokes behind. By this stage the rest of the field was out of the running and playing for position or individual glory. England were a distant 17 strokes off the lead and making up the chorus line for what promised to be an exhilarating final round of golf in intense heat and under a blazing sun. The stage was set for the biggest star of them all — and he was not to disappoint

“Any who thought that Hogan could not stand the strain of nearly 11 hours of golf were at once disabused of this notion,” a reflective Longhurst opined. “A start of 4-3-4 was almost automatic by now, but the fourth looked like giving trouble. He was bunkered in two — but then, as he says in his book, Bunker shots are easy. I suppose they are.

At any rate, this one went in from around 60 feet for a three. Meantime Snead, ‘swinging slower and slower,’ as Leonard Crawley put it, ‘as if to hit it farther and farther,’ had come back into his own. His 4-3-4-4-3 together with Hogan’s 4-3-4-3-3, matched against Balding’s 4-3-44-4 and Leonard’s 5-5-5-4-3, turned six shots in America’s favour in five holes, and the process went remorselessly on till in the end the Canadians were 16 shots behind and ousted for second place by South Africa (who finished 14 strokes behind on 13 over par).

“Snead finished in a minor blaze of glory to make up for his previous troubles with 3-4-3-4-4, only one of these being a short hole and the last two measuring well over 500 yards. Both the Americans finished in 68, and the cheers that greeted Hogan’s final putt should ring in his ears till the end of his days.”

With rounds of 68, 69, 72 and 68, Hogan finished on seven under par and five strokes ahead of his nearest challenger, Argentina’s Roberto de Vincenzo, who was actually representing Mexico that year as he was the head professional at Churubusco CC, in the quest for individual honours. Belgium’s Flory van Donck was third, while Dai Rees, of Wales, was fourth. In stark contrast to professional golf in the modern era, Hogan pocketed £360 for the individual prize and shared just under £775 for finishing in the winning team.

Those who had seen Hogan at play were never likely to forget it. Perhaps the best tribute was that of Pat Ward-Thomas, of The Guardian: “Imagine him as he scrutinises a long, difficult stroke, with arms quietly folded, an inscrutable quarter smile on his lips, for all the world like a gambler watching the wheel spin. And then the

A banquet for the Canada Cup teams was hosted by Lord Brabazon of Tara in the Wentworth ballroom.

Candy the caddie

Car Mart sponsored a show for vintage vehicles at Wentworth in January 1959 and there was a two-day golf tournament played at the same time. Supposedly there was a shortage of caddies and a novel solution was found. Candy, four and a half years old, was an Indian elephant from Chessington Zoo. It was

reported: “Candy didn’t take long to cotton on to the idea, and was soon cheerfully striding round the course with the golfers, thoroughly enjoying his day out.” The idea possibly came from Miami Beach in the 1920s, when an elephant named Rosie also acted as a golfing caddie.

cigarette is tossed away, the club taken with abrupt decision, the glorious swing flashes and a long iron pierces the wind like an arrow. That was Hogan. We shall never see the like again.”

Play at Wentworth today and you are walking in the footsteps of giants. Hogan graced the West Course just once, but his aura still persists.

World Match Play 1

George Duncan George at

the gallop Neil Coles

Giving Palmer a fright

Neil Coles knew the World Match Play Championship would be a huge hit from the moment the first ball was hit at Wentworth nearly 60 years ago.

It had all the right ingredients: the finest players of the moment going head-to-head in 36-hole matches at an ideal venue on the West Course at Wentworth. Drama guaranteed.

“I remember when the tournament was first announced it caused a huge buzz among the media and public, as it was a rare chance, apart from The Open, to see the world’s leading stars in close-up action,” said Surrey’s Coles, then 28, who qualified for the inaugural edition in 1964 by winning the News of the World PGA Match Play. “It was also an exciting prospect for us home golfers, but only if you were one of the lucky few to get invited for an eight-man event. I was delighted to get the call with Peter Butler to take part in the inaugural championship.”

Coles was not one to be swayed by the Hollywood style glamour that surrounded the event. While the visiting stars were put up in a luxury hotel in London and chauffeured by Rolls-Royce to Wentworth, Coles preferred to stay at home in Walton-on-Thames and drive himself to the course in his Austin Princess!

His first-round opponent was the colourful, but ill-fated American Tony Lema, who had won The Open just three months before. “We were due to be the first match out,” recalled Coles. “But when I arrived I was told we had been moved back to match three as Mr Lema had been stuck in London.” When the action did begin it was Coles who made a sensational start, winning the first seven holes against the clearly out of sorts Lema. Although the American recovered to get back in the match by lunch, Coles still remained in control to win 4 and 3.

A much tougher semi-final against Australian Bruce Devlin saw Coles win 2 and 1. In the final he faced the legendary American ace, Arnold Palmer, the hot favourite who had already won the Masters four times, plus two Opens and one US Open. “I knew the organisers wanted Palmer to be their first flagship champion, but I was glad to give them a bit of a fright,” said Coles, who was two up after 18 holes. “The afternoon round was very close and exciting, with the huge crowds really getting involved. There were no roped-off fairways in those days and the marshals had a really tough job keeping them under control.”

Palmer went one up with three birdies in a row from the fifth. Then on the back nine, seven holes were halved, but Palmer won the 15th and eventually prevailed at the 35th. “Of course I was disappointed not to win, but I was proud of the way I played,” Coles said. Palmer collected the £5,000 winner’s cheque, while Coles pocketed £3,000. “It seemed like a fortune.”

“King Coles”, who disliked flying and was always at his best staying at home, was something of a West Course specialist. He won the 1961 Ballantine event with a then record 65, and the Daks tournament in 1963 (tying with Peter Alliss), 1964 and 1970. Alliss always said the key was his ability to hit his driver and three-wood low, under the canopy of the trees and out of the wind. Coles played five times in the World Match Play, reaching the semi-finals in 1971. And as the long-term chairman of the European Tour’s Board, he was instrumental in the tour relocating its headquarters to Wentworth in 1981.

It was said that “with a little more devil in him and a little wider ambition,” Coles, an eight-time Ryder Cup player, might have won more outside Britain. But as it was his longevity was remarkable. He won his last seniors event in 2002 aged 67, having won professional

tournaments in every decade since the 1950s. He won the inaugural Senior Open Championship at Turnberry in 1987 by one stroke from Bob Charles against a field that included Gary Player, Peter Thomson and Palmer himself, six back in third place. Sweet revenge.

Neil Coles playing in the inaugural World Match Play Championship at Wentworth, where he almost upset Arnold Palmer in the final.

Palmer tees up a Wentworth classic

It was the Swinging Sixties and Arnold Palmer was golf. And he was in London. At Wentworth. Hitting the opening tee shot at the inaugural Piccadilly World Match Play Championship. October 1964 … the start of an instant classic.

“Palmer usually walks to the first tee quite unlike any other pro on the circuit,” Charles Price once wrote. “He doesn’t so much walk on to it as climb into it, almost as though it were a prize ring; and then he looks round at the gallery as though he is trying to count the house.”

He usually had to count pretty high and it was no different on this occasion. The British division of Arnie’s Army was out in force.

On that misty Friday morning there was no one better to launch this new enterprise and, even better, by Sunday afternoon Palmer was holding the trophy. “I was reluctant to participate when the idea was first suggested,” Palmer later reflected, “but we worked out the schedule and it was a great opportunity to spend a week in London.”

Palmer was a man in demand. In America his natural charisma was not just apparent to those following on the fairways but those watching on television. The camera lens loved him. It was because of Palmer that the US tour found a week-to-week slot in the television schedules. “He was the right man at the right time,” Jack Nicklaus said. And in Britain he had revived the fortunes of the Open Championship almost single-handedly.

Since World War II, Sam Snead had won the 1946 Open but never became a regular competitor in the way Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones had been, while Ben Hogan only ventured over once, winning at Carnoustie in 1953. American golfers, the strongest in the world, were staying away from the game’s oldest championship. In the 1950s the Claret Jug was fought over by the likes of Australia’s Peter Thomson

and South Africa’s Bobby Locke, until Locke’s young compatriot Gary Player won his first Open title in 1959.

The following year Palmer had already won the Masters and the US Open when he decided to enter the Centenary Open at St Andrews. It was going to be a special occasion and Palmer had dreams of winning a modern equivalent of Jones’s 1930 Grand Slam — establishing the majors as we now know then in the form of the Masters, the two Opens and the PGA Championship in America, ironically the one title Palmer would never win.

In a thrilling conclusion at St Andrews, Palmer was nipped by Kel Nagle, of Australia, by a single stroke. Determined to claim the Claret Jug, he returned the following year and won at Royal Birkdale and then again at Troon in 1962. Although he missed The Open in 1964, others took up his example, with the dashing Tony Lema winning that year, to be followed by the likes of Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods. The Open’s place as not just the oldest but one of the most important championships in the game was secured.

What made Palmer so popular? “He first came to golf as a muscular young man who could not keep his shirt tail in, who smoked a lot, perspired a lot, and who hit the ball with all the finesse of a dock worker lifting a crate of auto parts,” wrote Dan Jenkins, of Sports Illustrated and Golf Digest. “He made birdies by streaks in his eccentric way — driving through forests, lacing hooks around sharp corners, spewing wild slices over prodigious hills and then, all hunched up and

Arnold Palmer made the perfect inaugural winner of the Piccadilly World Match Play Championship in 1964, the beginning of a Wentworth classic.

pigeoned-toed, staring putts into the cups. But he made just as many bogeys in his stubborn way.” And, as Jenkins pointed out, he was loved not just for his victories but for the way he dealt with his fallibilities. “It is partly because of the nobility he brought to losing. And more than anything, it is because of the pure unmixed joy he brought to trying.”

No wonder traffic ground to a halt on the A30 as Palmer, having won his fourth Masters and seventh major title earlier in the year, teed off on the West Course. “Vast crowds poured into Wentworth. The Estate was overrun. Cars were parked on driveways, roads, verges. Even the milkmen could not get through to deliver. Residents were up in arms,” wrote Bob Ferrier. “As the traffic piled up on the A30 several miles back down to Egham, the police were less than best pleased. They were seriously overstretched. The second year, 1965, was not much better but eventually huge car parks were created to take the bulk of the influx.”

Ferrier was a golf writer-turned-matchmaker as he introduced the top brass at Carreras Rothmans to Mark McCormack. The cigarette company

had put on a tournament at Southport & Ainsdale in 1962, the Piccadilly Medal, won by Thomson and featuring Nicklaus. George Hammond, the company’s promotions manager who became their tournament director for golf events, had tried to get Palmer and Player for the event but McCormack rebuffed him, adding: “I do have this new young man who might be quite good for you, however.” A month later Nicklaus won the first of his 18 major championships at the US Open.

The connection became vital. Hammond and his bosses wanted to do something slightly different from the 72-hole tournaments that all the other sponsors put on. Meanwhile, McCormack, whose International Management Group was beginning to flourish off the back of having first Palmer, then Player and Nicklaus as clients, had an idea for a World Match Play Championship featuring the best players in the world.

“Matchplay is the way the game began and it is the form of golf that the average player enjoys when he is out with his friends at the weekend,” McCormack said. “I felt there was a tremendous void created when the PGA Championship in America switched to strokeplay in 1958.

Arnold Palmer and Gary Player face each other in the semi-finals in 1966, Player winning 2 and 1.

George the Starter

George Hammond has fond memories of starting up the Piccadilly World Match Play as the first Tournament Director. But not everything went according to plan, including on the very first day when the event caused traffic gridlock in Virginia Water.

“I had no idea so many spectators would turn up!” he recalled.

Among the unusual moments that stand out, Hammond was once slapped in the face by a competitor’s wife who was not happy with how the crowd had behaved to her husband, while he was once called out to the third green when Gary Player and Gay Brewer went to the 39th hole.

“It was pretty dark. Gay had a putt from four feet, and Gary from 10 feet so he wanted to stop. I just said that they had made it this far, they might as well finish the hole. Gary missed and Gay holed so that was that!”

Another time Hammond mistakenly left the trophy in the safe at the Savoy and only realised just before the presentation to Arnold Palmer.

“I ran into the Clubhouse and picked up the biggest trophy I could find. It was huge and I staggered with it out to the dais. Arnold could hardly lift it up. He had won before so he knew it was not the real trophy, but he never said a word.”

Alongside the World Match Play for the first five years, as a precursor event to the big show, Carreras Rothmans staged the Piccadilly Medal, twice won by Peter Butler, with Bernard Hunt also among the winners. The company also paid for the refurbishment of the Tapestry Room in the Clubhouse in 1975. However, Piccadilly’s sponsorship of the Match

Play ended the following year and when new backers Colgate brought in their own Tournament Director, Peter German, there was a new role for Hammond as the Official Starter. It meant he remained involved in every one of the 44 tournaments staged at Wentworth.

Originally the job had been passed around many different people but Hammond made the role his own, and provided a welcoming annual presence on the first tee as he mingled with everyone from Palmer to Ernie Els. “It was my idea to lengthen what was said about each player,” Hammond told The Times. “I felt we had to tell the public what the players had done. Just saying, ‘On the tee, Jack Nicklaus,’ was underdoing it a bit. I reckoned to give each player about 20 seconds, although if the other player was beginning to fidget I might cut it slightly short. Palmer was charming. He would always arrive, come and put an arm around my shoulder, ask about me and my family. Ernie is similarly relaxed. He’s a helluva nice guy.”

Hammond would write out notes about the players which he had on a clipboard. On one occasion the wind turned the pages without him noticing and he started introducing Sandy Lyle with the achievements of Greg Norman. And then there was the time he introduced Hale Irwin, a two-time winner of the World Match Play, as being a two-time US Open Champion. “As he walked off the tee he quietly said to me, ‘What about my other US Open?’” But such moments were rare and everyone loved George the Starter.

George Hammond at Wentworth in 2022 flanked by General Manager John Blanch and former professional Bernard Gallacher.

Knockout was considered preferable to round robin, which, while it may be for television, is not pure golf. The matches were to be 36 holes because anybody can beat anyone over 18 holes, while over 36 holes the better player is much more likely to win.”

At first the tournament featured eight players and for the inaugural playing they were Palmer, the Masters winner, Ken Venturi, the US Open champion, Lema, the Open champion, Nicklaus, the reigning Canada Cup individual winner, Player, the Australian Open champion, Bruce Devlin, the New Zealand Open winner, Neil Coles and Peter Butler, winner and runner-up in the News of the World PGA Match Play.

Palmer defeated Butler, then Player 8 and 6 in the semi-finals to meet home favourite Coles, after defeating Lema and Devlin, in the final. It was a tight match against an opponent Palmer described as “sneaky good”. The American went two up with a birdie at the 15th in the afternoon then won 2 and 1 as the pair halved the 35th in birdies. The event was broadcast by the BBC, at a time when The Open was the only regular golf coverage, and made an immediate impact.

Here was a tournament with the biggest stars in the game and an international appeal, something not seen in Britain apart from at the Open Championship, and never in London, given The Open was usually played in Scotland or the North West, with Royal St George’s at Sandwich off the rota at the time. Bringing the event to the capital was quickly agreed upon, and so too was staging it at Wentworth. It was already a regular tournament host and had proved itself for the biggest occasions with the Ryder and Canada Cups the previous decade.

Once again WG Tarrant’s decision to site his dream club in Virginia Water, with its rail and road links, was found to be a stroke of genius what with Heathrow Airport being only a stone’s throw away once air travel opened up after the war. And the way Carreras and IMG staged the event would have been in keeping with Tarrant’s nothing-butthe-best approach. The players and their families were chauffeured around London in limousines and were put up first at the Carlton Tower in Sloane Street, then in the River Suites at the Savoy Hotel. There was also the option to be helicoptered out to Wentworth from Battersea, although only Palmer and Thomson took advantage. Eventually, the traffic became an issue in getting players to their tee times, but the

Jack Nicklaus congratulates Player on his victory in 1966, the South African winning 6 and 4 in the final for his second successive title.

answer to that problem was literally on the door step. Some of the most luxurious houses on the Estate were rented for the week for the players to stay in, a personal chef thrown in for good measure.

The “Piccadilly”, as it became known, was soon an established part of the golfing calendar — the Masters in April, the Open Championship in July and the World Match Play in October, closing the season, a not-tobe-missed social occasion. It helped, of course, that the Estate looked its best with the colours on the trees turning and, more often than not, the morning mists giving way to soft, autumnal sunshine.

The greens on the West were all the better for a summer’s growth and the course played softer and longer than the fiery beast it became when sun-baked.

“The concept of bringing together the game’s greatest golfers in a matchplay competition as a break from playing strokeplay week-in, week-out was brilliant enough, but the real secret of the World Match Play Championship’s success was in choosing such an impressive venue as Wentworth,” wrote Brian Smith on the event’s 40th anniversary.

“Although its first-class facilities and magnificent houses all set within the Estate were considered a bonus, it was Harry Colt’s West Course that proved the real star. For this long, tight, interesting and demanding course tests a player’s ability to play every club in the bag and every shot in the book.”

It was also perfect for the head-to-head form of the game, especially with the two par-five finishing holes meaning no lead was safe. The late McCormack once said: “I dare say that no event has had a more impressive roster of champions.” In the 44 times the event was staged at Wentworth, only on five occasions was the winner not a major champion, or subsequently became one. In the first three and a half decades, only Graham Marsh and Isao Aoki were not major champions, while Colin Montgomerie won in 1999, Lee Westwood in 2000 and Paul Casey in 2006 — and in the case of the last two they may yet revise that statistic.

Palmer and Player shared the first five titles. Palmer won again in 1967, beating Thomson, the five-time Open winner, in the final after the Australian had beaten him in the semi-finals two years earlier. Thomson was never popular in America due to his views on how the game was played on their lush courses over there, but their meetings at Wentworth, played with “marvellous intensity, giving and taking no quarter”, did much to engender mutual respect between the two great champions.

It was the second time Thomson had reached the final and lost. The other occasion had been in 1965, when Player won the first of his five

Estate gets its Act together

The year of 1964 was an important one for the Wentworth Estate, and not just due to the arrival of the World Match Play Championship. On July 31 Parliament passed the Wentworth Estate Act. By the 1960s, most of the available land had been developed but there was no provision for the maintenance of the Estate. The Act established the Wentworth Estate Roads Committee (WERC) and allowed for all properties to pay a road tax to maintain the common areas of the Estate such as roads, footpaths and verges.

The Act also provided enforcement for the Estate’s covenants, the most important of which dated back to founder WG Tarrant’s principle that plots should not be subdivided into multi-dwellings, while strict rules apply about the sizes of houses in ratio with the size of the plot.

The Wentworth Residents’ Association (WRA) elect Members of the WERC and represent the interests of residents and land owners.

The WRA works to promote community-building initiatives as well as acting as a lobby group tackling potential threats such as excessive residential development that would stress local infra-structure, pollutive commercial developments such as incinerators and gravel pits and Heathrow changing its flightpaths over the Estate. The whole Estate is divided into six constituencies, Upper and Middle Wentworth, the area of the golf courses known as “The Island”, Lower Wentworth North and South, the Shops near Virginia Water station and the Club itself. With increased profile and traffic over the decades, security has become an issue, with monitoring of access now in place for the 19 exits on and off the Estate.

In 1974 there was a significant change to the ownership of the Club when Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co were taken over by Leonard Fairclough & Son. Teddy Parkinson, whose family for a time owned the old Art Deco house by the 17th green which became so familiar to viewers of the World Match Play, stayed on as chairman until 1977, when he was made an honorary president for his long stewardship of the Club, while Sir Oswald Davies, the head of Fairclough, took over as Chairman.

Nicklaus plays from the crowd during his 2 and 1 victory in the 1970 final against fellow American Lee Trevino.

titles. Earlier in the summer, by winning the US Open, the South African had become only the third player after Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan to win all four of the major championships. But if there was a moment that defined his career, it came in the semi-finals at Wentworth, when he recovered from being seven down to Lema after 19 holes to win at the 37th. He said the episode “contained my whole life story”. Despite birdies at the next four holes, he remained five down with nine to play.

At the last Player hit a three-wood onto the front of the green — “one of the shots of my golfing career,” he said — and two-putted for a birdie to force the extra hole. It remained the biggest comeback in the history of the event and even Player, the fittest golfer of his generation, collapsed to the ground in exhaustion after winning at the first extra hole. “Never give up or let your opponent believe he has you beat,” Player said of his golfing mantra.

Lema, who had a reputation for sending a crate of champagne to the press room whenever he won a tournament, had won seven holes in a row on the back nine in the morning. Although he did not say it, from the way the American was talking Player got the impression he thought the champagne was on ice. “At that moment I knew I was going to win,” said the South African. “My strategy in the afternoon was to keep gnawing away at him.” He added: “The way Tony Lema took his appalling defeat was simply outstanding.”

The programme for the inaugural World Match Play in 1964.

A year later Player faced Nicklaus, who himself had completed a Career Grand Slam by winning that summer’s Open at Muirfield, in the final. It was noteworthy for Nicklaus’s altercation with the referee, Colonel Tony Duncan, while dropping under penalty from a ditch at the ninth hole. Duncan refused to give Nicklaus further relief from an advertising banner 60 yards ahead and to the side of his line of shot. So perturbed was the American about the incident that Duncan withdrew a hole later and never refereed again, even though the ruling was generally considered correct. It was a rare lapse in decorum for Nicklaus, who lost 6 and 4.

Nicklaus was the final member of the “Big Three” to win the World Match Play, having to wait for his only victory until 1970, when he beat home hero Tony Jacklin in the semi-finals and Lee Trevino in the final.

Nicklaus reached the final the following year but lost again to Player, who won five of the first 10 tournaments before losing Captain for the only time in a final to Hale Irwin in 1974.

Player, befitting his self-proclaimed status as the game’s “world golfer”, played every year bar one until 1984 when, aged almost 49, he scored

a 64 in the morning of the first round in beating Tommy Nakajima 5 and 4 before losing to Greg Norman the next day. Nicklaus’s last appearance came in 1986, the year of his last, magical Masters victory. He received a bye into the second round and there beat a young Jose Maria Olazabal 5 and 4, before losing to Norman in the semi-finals at the 36th hole.

Palmer’s farewell to Wentworth came in 1983, when a number of former Champions returned. Palmer played Seve Ballesteros in an 18-hole first-round match only to be outdone by his European counterpart for theatricals. Two down with two to play, Seve won the 17th with a birdie, then found himself under a bush in two at the last but chipped in for an eagle. The Spaniard won at the third extra hole and Palmer’s World Match Play career was over. “I’d like to play him again this afternoon,” Palmer said, but his work here was done. Thanks to Arnie, Player and the rest, the World Match Play was a roaring success.

American Hale Irwin won the first of his two titles in 1974 beating Player 3 and 1 in the final.

Five-time winner Seve Ballesteros made his debut in 1976, here with brother Vicente as his caddie.

Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin share a joke during their semi-final in 1970.

Lu Liang-Huan, of Taiwan, tangles with the Wentworth undergrowth on his only appearance in 1971.

Bernard Gallacher

A selfless servant of Club and

game

Bernard Gallacher may have been one of the last great club professionals to be a top rank player. And certainly the last Ryder Cup captain to have a day job serving the Members of a club, which he did at Wentworth for more than two decades in an association that has lasted over half a century.

Amark of Gallacher’s service to golf is that he holds honorary life membership not just at Wentworth, but of the European Tour and the Professional Golfers’ Association, and became the 80th PGA captain in 2021. There is little this modest, yet industrious, Scot has not done in the game, having also coached the Curtis Cup team and served on the Ryder Cup Committee and the Board of the European Tour.

Gallacher formed a burning desire for the game at Bathgate, using second-hand, cut-down clubs from his father and uncles until the age of 14. He won the Scottish Strokeplay Championship in 1967 and turned professional, becoming the rookie of the year the following year. In 1969 he won the Schweppes PGA Championship at Ashburnham and, aged 20, became the youngest then to win the order of merit. The same year Eric Brown, another Bathgate man, picked Gallacher as a rookie for the Ryder Cup team at Royal Birkdale, when he was also the youngest then to appear for Great Britain and Ireland.

He won 22 professional titles, 13 on the European Tour, including the Dunlop Masters in 1972, beating Gary Player in a playoff, and 1973; the 1977 Spanish Open; the French Open two years later; the Martini International for the second time in 1982, neither time in its visits to Wentworth; and in successive appearances in the Jersey Open from 1982 he went first-second-first. His lone win on the European Seniors Tour was in 2002.

Gallacher arrived at Wentworth in 1970 as an assistant to Tom Haliburton and to represent the Club on tour. But when Haliburton died suddenly, Gallacher was appointed the head professional on 1 January 1976 at the age of 26. “Not many have been able to combine a tournament playing career with the duties of running a shop and giving lessons but the young Scot faced up to his new challenge off the course with the same determination he had shown in the Ryder Cup,” wrote his friend, the late Renton Laidlaw. “His philosophy over the years was simple enough. The extent of anyone’s success is measured by the amount of hard work that person puts in.”

Few have been associated with the Ryder Cup longer than Gallacher’s unbroken involvement from 1969 to 1995. In a way the highlights were the first and last of those matches. In the afternoon singles of the final day in 1969, he beat Lee Trevino 4 and 3 as the match was tied. Gallacher made eight successive appearances as a player but, such were the times, the following seven were all lost. Under the circumstances, the Scot’s hard-earned record of 13 wins, 13 losses and five halves was more than creditable. In 1977 he defeated Jack Nicklaus in the singles. Despite having lost his putter moments before teeing off, and going to the pro shop for a replacement, Gallacher won the first four holes. Nicklaus got back to all square with two to play, but then Gallacher holed a putt from 85 feet at the 17th and hung on to his advantage down the last.

Bernard Gallacher leaps for joy after Europe wins the 1995 Ryder Cup, his third outing as captain.

On his last appearance in 1983, Gallacher lost 2 and 1 to Tom Watson in the anchor match. Europe lost at Palm Beach Gardens by one point but the tide was about to turn. Gallacher was involved as Tony Jacklin’s right-hand man for the next three matches when Europe won at The Belfry for the first time since 1957, then for the first time in America at Muirfield Village, and tied the 1989 match.

Following the inspirational Jacklin as captain was never going to be easy and the controversial match at Kiawah Island in 1991 was lost on Bernhard Langer’s missed putt on the final green. Losing at home at The Belfry two years later was a bitter blow but, third time lucky, Gallacher led a triumphant team at Oak Hill in 1995 which came from 9-7 behind going into the singles. Told on Saturday night that Europe had only once won the singles, Gallacher declared to the media: “History is for amateurs, professionals only think of the future.”

“I didn’t know you could write poetry,” Sam Torrance told his Captain. Europe won the singles and the match. “They were writing us off, and writing me off,” Gallacher said. “I’ve always said the Captain’s job is overstated. I’ve tried to keep the pressure off the players, keep them happy and positive. I feel very proud of all three teams, but especially

this one that’s won on American soil. It was a real team effort. You can’t single anyone out and it certainly wasn’t down to me.”

At the end of 1996, Gallacher retired from his cherished job at Wentworth and was awarded the Club captaincy for 2000. A bronze statue on the first tee of the West celebrates his contribution to the Club, which he still visits regularly, often to be found in the gym early in the morning.

Blessedly, that is still the case after he nearly suffered the same fate as his old boss, Haliburton. Gallacher collapsed during a speech at a hotel in Aberdeen in 2013, and only survived thanks to a nurse who administered CPR until a defibrillator was found that saved his life. He woke up in hospital after five days in an induced coma with no memory of the event and his wife, Lesley, and a priest by his bed. Since then Bernard, still serving others, and Lesley have campaigned with the Arrhythmia Alliance for all golf clubs to have defibrillators on site and staff trained to use them. Many lives have already been saved thanks to the campaign.

Bernard today and (right) as a 25-year-old representing the Club in the Daks tournament at Wentworth.

Putting on a demonstration at the Bernard Gallacher Junior Golf School with a young John Blanch.

Women’s British Open 1980

Laura, Debbie and Winnie

Even great careers, and there are few finer than that of Dame Laura Davies, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, can have modest beginnings. As a 16-year-old amateur from West Byfleet, Davies made her debut in the Women’s British Open at Wentworth in 1980.

She failed to qualify for the last two rounds but soon became a Curtis Cup player and, after turning professional, won her national championship at Royal Birkdale in 1986. In 2021, she played in it for the 41st time.

In 1980, Debbie Massey became the first American to win the Women’s British Open, at the time sponsored by Pretty Polly. The event was not the major championship we know today and had only been played for the first time in 1976. In a nod to the staging of the Curtis Cup on the Club’s old No 1 Course in 1932, it was the East that performed hosting duties.

Massey had twice led the US Women’s Open after three rounds, first as an amateur and then in her third year on the LPGA in 1979. But she had not held on either time, although she did end up with three victories in her LPGA career. She was an adventurous soul. She was a skiing instructor in the winter during her amateur career, went scuba diving and climbing in the Himalayas, and when the Curtis Cup teams were presented to HM The Queen at Buckingham Palace in 1976 she was the only player brave enough to strike up a conversation.

Golfing royalty, in the form of Joyce Wethered, was on hand at Wentworth to present Massey with the trophy. The American compiled scores of 74-73-75-72 for a two-over-par 294 total to win by one stroke from a pair of amateurs, Belle Robertson, the famed Scottish champion from Dunaverty who, despite rain-sodden fairways, scored a 69 on the final day, the lowest round of the week, and Marta Figueras-Dotti.

The 22-year-old Spaniard had led all the way after opening with a pair of 71s but closed 77-76 and took a double-bogey six at the 18th, something Wethered may have shivered at in remembering her own six with Wanda Morgan in the morning foursomes at the Curtis Cup almost 50 years earlier. It was only at the last that Massey had got herself in front, holing a par putt from 20 feet for the victory. She retained her title the following year at Gosforth Park by four shots from Robertson, while Figueras-Dotti finally won just before turning professional in 1982 at Royal Birkdale.

Among the competitors in 1980 was Wentworth’s own all-round sporting superstar Winnie Wooldridge. The friendly Scot, under her maiden name of Shaw, twice reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, twice made it to the semi-finals at the Australian Open and lost a

doubles and a mixed doubles final at the French Open. She also represented Britain against the United States in the Wightman Cup.

When she took up golf, she got down to scratch in a year. She first played for Surrey in 1978 and stayed in the county team for 12 years alongside the likes of Davies, Jill Thornhill and Diane Bailey.

Perhaps benefitting from playing on home ground, Wooldridge finished 11th in the 1980 British Open, the fourth best amateur. She went on to play for Scotland at golf as well as tennis, and twice won the Surrey Ladies Championship, in 1987 and 1990. Three times she

was the Scottish Sportswoman of the Year, once when Wentworth pro Bernard Gallacher took the male award. She died tragically from a brain tumour in 1992 at the age of 45 after suffering a stroke while playing at Wentworth. As was noted at the time: “Those who were privileged to know her lost a very good friend.”

Her husband Keith, a tennis player himself who went on to coach Elena Baltacha, told The Herald: “Winnie had a great ability at all racket sports. She used to play with Belle Robertson, who was a great Scottish golfer in her day, and I remember she encouraged a young Laura Davies … and we all know what happened to her.”

Dame Laura Davies, member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, who made her debut in the Women’s British Open as a Surrey amateur in 1980.

World Match Play 2

Seve and Ernie feel the love

From the very beginning, the game’s greatest international players had featured at Wentworth and the crowds had flocked to marvel and admire them. But perhaps not even Arnold Palmer was truly loved along the fairways of the West Course as much as Spain’s Severiano Ballesteros.

Seve. He was cut from the same cloth as Palmer — charismatic, audacious, unorthodox, inspirational — just with added Latin flair, a dark, brooding streak and explosive joy, as with his victory salute at St Andrews for the 1984 Open.

He may have been from overseas but at Wentworth Seve was an honorary Brit and national allegiances did not necessarily apply, as Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam discovered. And the feeling was mutual. “It is one of the reasons for my success in golf in Britain,” Ballesteros once said of playing at Wentworth. “The people support me a lot even when I am against British players and I feel at ease and at home. Because of that, I have had the confidence to win three Opens in Britain.”

While it was Palmer who revived the international fortunes of the Open Championship in the 1960s, so it was Ballesteros who almost singlehandedly turned the Ryder Cup from a one-sided inevitability into today’s thrilling contest after Europeans were allowed to play from 1979. Of course, Seve did not quite do it on his own and the core of the team that started Europe’s success in the 1980s had also benefitted from success at the World Match Play — Lyle, Faldo and Woosnam were all winners, while Bernhard Langer, like Peter Thomson and Lee Trevino before him, twice got to the final without claiming the trophy.

Other than on Ryder Cup duty, it was at the World Match Play that Ballesteros was at his fiercest and brilliant best. He made his debut

in 1976, having thrilled the galleries at Royal Birkdale when finishing runner-up to Johnny Miller at The Open. For 19 autumns in a row he appeared at Wentworth, eventually tying Gary Player’s record of 20 appearances and equalling the South African’s then record of five victories. A 25 per cent success rate was exceptional, until Ernie Els came along and won seven times in 12 appearances.

But when it came to flamboyant golfers who played thrilling golf, and especially at Wentworth in the early 1980s, Seve was not alone. There was also the blond Australian Greg Norman. For seven years in a row, one or other of them won the World Match Play, Norman in 1980 (on his debut), 1983 and 1986, Ballesteros in 1981-82 and 1984-85. “Both play their golf with bravado,” wrote The Guardian’s David Davies, “with extravagant touches and strike at stricken opponents with the glee of a boarding party of pirates who have blown the opposing vessel to smithereens. Seve is the one with the black eyepatch, Greg wears the bandana.”

Their winning streak at Wentworth actually started at the Martini International, which Norman won in 1979 and 1981, with Seve winning in 1980. “I have so many fond memories,” Norman said of the West Course. “When I am on form I can have a lot of fun making birdies out there.” But in 1979 it was an eagle that signalled he was a future world No 1 in the making. He needed a three at the last to win and had 243 yards to the green. He then hit a one-iron, a club consigned to the dustbin of history for being too difficult to hit these days, to six feet and

Seve Ballesteros equals Gary Player’s then record of five World Match Play victories in 1991.

Ernie Els wins his first title in 1994 before setting a new record of seven triumphs at Wentworth.

The Great Storm of 1987

Peter German, who moved from Colgate to IMG to become the long-term Tournament Director of the World Match Play Championship, used to live on the Wentworth Estate and in 1987 got the shock of his life.

“I woke up at 3am to this huge noise,” he recalled of that Thursday night. It was the night of the Great Storm, when hurricane-force winds hit the south of England. “It sounded like an express train. It was amazing. Trees were falling down and branches were flying through the air at head height.”

There was nothing to be done until daylight, when German needed a chainsaw to make his way out of his own drive. “I spent the rest of the day sourcing every chainsaw I could find in the area,” he said. “There was a tent that had been blown onto the Clubhouse Roof and every entrance was blocked. But every player turned up that morning, it was very impressive. Seve had walked from a house he was staying in on the other side of the East Course.

“The most amazing thing was that a number of catering vans were parked near Bernard Gallacher’s shop by a stand of beech trees, which had all fallen down but missing all the vans. We were able to serve lunch in the hospitality tent and play got underway at 2pm on Friday, even though the course was still a mess and being cleared up. The greenkeeping staff were fantastic. We finished on the Monday but the tournament got completed and nobody got hurt.”

Another year the problem for German was that the BBC went on strike. Having sold the international television rights to the tournament, Trans World International, IMG’s television arm, at 48 hours’ notice, rigged up cameras and provided a broadcast for the overseas rights holders, even while it was blacked out in the UK.

German was close to many of the players, even ending up as manager to seven-time winner Ernie Els. And he almost had Colin Montgomerie working for him. A young Monty went to interview for a job at IMG, ended up playing nine holes at Turnberry with German and his boss, Ian Todd, and played so well that they decided IMG should be working for him. Later in his career, when he was competing at the World Match Play, Monty liked to spend some quiet moments off the course sitting in German’s office, watching and listening to what was going on. “One day a call came over the radio that the toilets were blocked at the 10th,” German recounted.

“After I had dispatched someone to sort out the problem, Colin leaned over and said, ‘If I had ended up working for you, that could be me having to go out and deal with the toilets!’”

Roads were blocked all over the Wentworth Estate.

Surveying the storm damage at the tented village.

beat Langer by one shot. “One of the greatest shots I have hit in my life,” the Great White Shark later reflected.

As it turned out, Norman and Ballesteros only met twice at the World Match Play. On the first occasion, the quarter-finals in 1981, Norman was playing his first match as defending champion but Ballesteros delivered a thumping. His 8 and 6 victory put the Spaniard on the path to his first title. Years later Seve would remember two seven-iron approach shots, both finishing within four feet of the hole, at the 10th and 16th holes as vital in the final against Ben Crenshaw. A year later Ballesteros beat Lyle at the 37th hole of a rain-lashed final with a putt from 40 feet on the squeegeed green after the Scot had birdied five of the last seven holes of regulation to force the extra hole.

“I rate Wentworth at the very top of my list of favourite places alongside Augusta,” Ballesteros, a two-time Masters champion, said. “The West Course is a complete test which requires all the clubs in the bag. The short holes are strong, the long holes reward the genuine

long hitter, and the doglegs go both ways. You have to play shots from all kinds of lies, uphill, sidehill and downhill, and you also need to know how to judge the wind swirling through the trees. For me, it is the ultimate examination. And the Club is warm and friendly and has always treated me well.” He was deservedly awarded an honorary membership.

Norman got his revenge on Seve in their second meeting with a onehole win in the semi-finals in 1983. It was Seve’s only defeat in 16 matches between 1981 and 1985. Norman beat Faldo in the final in 1983, before Ballesteros defeated Langer in each of the next two finals. Before the 1984 final, Langer had told the press that Ballesteros tried to intimidate his opponents. Seve was seething. Not a word was exchanged in the final, which was conducted, one report said, “in an atmosphere as cold as a planning meeting at the North Pole”. The Spaniard won 2 and 1, and then 6 and 5 the following year in a lacklustre finale.

Norman won for the last time in 1986, beating Lyle in the final, with the Scot raking up a fourth runner-up finish a year later. It was on the 24th

Wentworth’s new hero Seve playing in the year of his first Open victory in 1979.

Jack in action at Wentworth in May 1986.

playing of the event that the first British champion could be celebrated in Woosnam. Officially it might have been Wales against Scotland but in essence this was a local tussle between two Shropshire lads. The pair knew each other’s games inside-out and the long and the short of it was that the pint-sized Woosie holed a birdie putt from six feet on the last green to fell the giant Lyle.

In 1985 at Sandwich, Lyle had become the first home winner of The Open since Tony Jacklin in 1969. In 1988 he became the first British player to don the Green Jacket at Augusta National. Later that year he finally lifted the World Match Play title, beating another of his home rivals in Faldo. Famously, the pair did not get on and in their first clash at Wentworth, in the first round in 1982, Faldo had let a lead of six up at lunch slip away as Lyle won 2 and 1.

In 1987 Faldo followed the Scot in lifting the Claret Jug but a year later Lyle was up two majors to one, and in the semi-finals defeated Ballesteros 7 and 6. Faldo edged past Woosnam at the last hole and the final was also a tight affair, though a crucial moment came on the 14th green when Lyle holed from 32 feet and Faldo missed from 10. Instead of finding himself two down, Lyle was now all square and won with a

birdie at the 35th, smashing a two-iron onto the green, sending his first putt 14 feet past the hole, but then making the one back.

In an extraordinary run of British winners who had been the beaten finalist the year previously, Faldo then beat Woosnam in the 1989 final, a match that went all the way to the 36th hole, and then Woosie won for a second time in 1990 against Mark McNulty. The Faldo-Woosnam match was one of the great finals. Faldo, now a Masters champion himself, was three down with seven to play but made three birdies and two eagles to come home in 30. He hit a one-iron to 20 feet at the last and holed for a three — the only time he had led all day.

Faldo had also won the 1989 PGA Championship at Wentworth, while Woosnam, too, claimed both spring and autumn victories in Virginia Water. “It can inspire me when I know I am about to play Wentworth,” said the Welshman. Faldo said of the West Course: “There is a natural flow and it has a fantastic layout. The course meanders along so superbly.”

After winning the Match Play again in 1992, beating Jeff Sluman 8 and 7 in the final, Faldo said: “What does it mean to me? Well, it has been going for 30 years and all the great players have competed in it and won. It captures the interest and is a unique event, a real championship, 36 holes a day on this course in autumn is a physical and mental challenge.”

Woosnam’s third and final victory came in 2001 after a 2 and 1 win over Padraig Harrington. In the morning Woosie went out in 28, equalling his own record for seven birdies in a row, although Harrington came home in 30 to keep interest alive in the afternoon. Along with Faldo and Ballesteros, Woosnam was a late replacement following the terror attacks of September 11 which kept some Americans at home. Faldo lost 9 and 8 to Harrington in the first round, when Ballesteros took Sam Torrance to the 34th. The 2000 World Match Play champion Lee Westwood was one of those who watched the Spaniard growing up. “He was the man the crowds wanted to see,” Westwood said. “He hit the ball all over the shop but the excitement was in watching how he got up and down.”

Nick Faldo wins at the 36th hole against Ian Woosnam in 1989.

A decade earlier Ballesteros had followed his PGA win at Wentworth with his fifth World Match Play. The 1991 final was against Nick Price and Seve did not drop a shot in 34 holes. He was back to his best, though that would become increasingly rare. “I love this championship,” said the Spaniard. “I know this course as well as my course at home in Pedrena.”

Three years later Seve was raging against the dying of the light to good effect when he produced 13 birdies in 29 holes to beat David Frost 8 and 7 in the first round. The next day he faced the young US Open champion from South Africa, Ernie Els — the “next god of golf,” according to Curtis Strange before Tiger Woods arrived on the scene. Els holed his second shot at the third for the first ever eagle-two at the hole in the tournament’s history. Els knew he had to do something special. He kept his nose in front but never got away from Seve, mainly because the Spaniard had twos at seven of the eight par-three holes. “That’s never happened to me before,” Seve said. “It never happens to anyone.”

Els eventually won at the 35th when he chipped stone dead. “I had goose bumps at the end,” he said. “It was an unbelievable match. To beat a great man you have to play well, keep at it and never give up.” It was a changing of the guard. A new Match Play king was crowned. In the locker room afterwards Seve went up to Els’ father, shook his hand and said he had played as well as he could and run into

Doubling up with Augusta

When Arnold Palmer won the Masters and the inaugural World Match Play Championship in the same year, he set up a link between Augusta National and the West Course at Wentworth. In fact, the Canada Cup winners in 1956, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, were also Masters Champions, so success at one venue often leads to success at the other. Other World Match Play winners with at least one Green Jacket included Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Mark O’Meara and Vijay Singh. When PGA winners are added to the list, you can include: Bernhard Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal, Angel Cabrera and Danny Willett.

But Palmer won at the two venues in the same year and some of the above did, too. Ballesteros won the Martini International in 1980 just weeks after winning at Augusta for the first time; Lyle (1988), Faldo (1989), O’Meara (1998) all won the World Match Play in the same year as a Green Jacket; while Langer (1993) and Olazabal, the following year, both won the PGA in May after April glory in Augusta. Faldo, in fact, followed his first Masters victory with the Wentworth double.

One modern great conspicuous by his absence from the list is Tiger Woods, a five-time Masters champion, who was denied a win at Wentworth in a superb final with his friend and mentor O’Meara in 1998. Both treelined courses with towering pines and doglegs sweeping both ways, they obviously bring out the best in the best players. And, of course, Augusta was designed by Dr Alister MacKenzie, who previously had worked with Wentworth architect Harry Colt.

Tiger Woods congratulates Mark O’Meara on his 1998 victory.

Alliss’s happy greenkeeper

With 48 years of service on the greenkeeping staff, Clive Kingston has seen many changes on the courses and will never forget the night of the Great Storm. “Even as we made our way to work in the early hours of the morning we were clearing debris,” he recalled. “I’ll always remember seeing the remnants of the tournament hospitality tent scattered across the front of the Clubhouse.”

“I have witnessed so many wonderful moments over the years. I was there that day a spectator in the crowd shouted “lucky shot” after Gary Player had chipped in, and Gary turned round and said. ‘The more I practise, the luckier I get.’ That was pure magic.”

“And I was also that rather grumpy looking greenkeeper that Peter Alliss picked up on … It was a wet and miserable Sunday at the Match Play and I was sweeping the water off a green, long before we had the SubAir system, and I was caught on TV. Urban legends reliably tell me that it was Peter Alliss who commented, ‘Oh to be a happy greenkeeper on a wet Sunday at Wentworth’ — my family enjoyed that!”.

a special player. “It meant a lot,” Els said. Els went on to beat Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie to take the first of three titles in a row. The next year he defeated Lee Janzen, Langer and Steve Elkington, and the year after that Steve Stricker, Mark Brooks and Vijay Singh. He won his 11th match in a row in 1997 by beating Price at the 37th in the semi-finals but then fell to Singh at the final hole in the final.

Els then drew a blank until 2002, when he started another run of three victories in a row. That year he met Montgomerie, the 1999 winner, in the second round and Monty scored a 65 in the morning that left him four down to the South African, who was credited with an approximate 60. Els ran out a 6 and 5 winner. The next year in the semi-finals he played Singh again and this time was four down after 15 before winning eight holes in a row, emerging with a 5 and 4 victory. The record sixth victory came in 2004 with a 2 and 1 win over Westwood. “It was special because of the fact I had bettered my two heroes,” Els said. “One was Gary Player for obvious reasons, he was South African and he had such a strong work ethic. The other was Seve. He was a huge inspiration for players of my generation. His 1984 Open win at St Andrews is still etched on my mind.”

A magnificent seventh victory arrived in 2007, when in four matches the Wentworth resident was only once extended beyond the 32nd hole, where he wrapped up the final against reigning US Open champion Angel Cabrera. “My major titles, obviously, they stand on their own but to win this prestigious tournament seven times, it’s wonderful. I’ve always liked this format because you have to play well all day to beat your guy.”

Wentworth had another favourite and he loved the place so much he made the Estate his summer home. But after 44 years the World Match Play was leaving. Since 2003 sponsors HSBC had offered a £1 million first prize but the tournament no longer represented the closing of the season as it had originally. Now the event was jostling in a crowded schedule, with the year’s major winners having easier pay days at events like the Grand Slam of Golf and the Skins Game, while others were chasing order of merit titles and world ranking points, although latterly it did become an official European Tour event. The field expanded to 16 players and new sponsors Volvo, long associated with the PGA Championship at Wentworth, understandably decided to try their luck elsewhere. They also tried a round robin system with 18-hole matches even though the event’s founder, the late Mark McCormack, had originally cautioned against that.

In truth, modern pace of play made matchplay events unattractive to television and it was impossible to guarantee the best players in the

world would appear. Woods, the undisputed world No 1 for more than a decade, only played at Wentworth twice. On the first occasion he lost in the final to his friend Mark O’Meara, who came from four down to win at the 36th and, at the age of 41, add the World Match Play title to his sudden major victories at the Masters and The Open. “I’m happy for Mark,” Woods said. “Until now he has not got enough credit for being a great player.”

Woods did not return until 2006, when he had already won eight times in the year and his last five starts, including The Open at Hoylake and

the PGA Championship at Medinah. Shaun Micheel, the 2003 PGA winner, joked before their first-round encounter about not wanting to be a “sacrificial lamb” and he certainly was not, putting like a demon to win 4 and 3. “It shows what can happen on any given day,” Micheel said. The American reached the final but by then it was another day and he was defeated 10 and 8 by England’s Paul Casey.

From Arnie to Ernie, via Gary, Greg and Seve, Sandy, Nick and Woosie, those were all special days at Wentworth for the World Match Play.

Lyle tees off during the 1980 final against Norman. It went to the final hole before Norman triumphed.

Sandy Lyle Washing-up at Wentworth

Perhaps no other Champion Golfer of the Year would celebrate his triumph by hosting a party where he was mostly doing the washing-up and going out for Chinese takeaway. But that was what made Sandy Lyle so lovable.

Lyle bought a house at Wentworth in the summer of 1984 when his first wife Christine was expecting their first child. They needed a bigger house but it also came with a massive mortgage. On the plus side, given he was located just behind the 14th green of the East Course, “I did not have far to travel whenever I wanted to practise far from the madding crowd”.

Whether it was the financial spur that drove the Scot on but Lyle was about to come into his own. The mortgage was soon taken care of that autumn when he won the Lancome Trophy in Paris, beating Seve Ballesteros in a playoff, the Casio World Open in Japan and the Kapalua International in Hawaii, by eight strokes from Bernhard Langer.

He was ready for the next step up. One blip was losing the PGA Championship on the West the following spring to Paul Way at the third playoff hole. The disappointment did not last long. In July 1985 he won The Open at Royal St George’s, even after that flubbed chip from Duncan’s Hollow at the 18th. He sank to his knees and thumped the ground, thinking his chance was gone. He got up and down for a bogey and had an agonising wait before it was confirmed his childhood dream had come true. Britain had its first home winner since Tony Jacklin 16 years earlier.

Lyle, his wife and baby son, got home to Wentworth that night for an Indian takeaway with the Gallachers. The following day was a whirlwind. First there was an early morning photo shoot at Wentworth, then he popped down the road to Sunningdale to play in a charity event to raise funds for the family of the late Guy Wolstenholme. At

home, Christine and his IMG manager John Simpson organised for a huge marquee in the garden and put on a Champagne celebration and canapé buffet for around 80 fellow players, caddies, friends and even a number of the golfing press.

The food soon ran out so Lyle phoned the Jade Fountain, a Chinese restaurant in Sunninghill, and ordered 40 takeaways. Told it would take two hours, he later went down to collect the order in the company of former Ryder Cup player Michael King, although neither were in a fit state to drive so Nick Faldo did the honours. The diners in the restaurant had not been expecting their own long wait for their meals, so “Queenie”, as King was known, went around every table to apologise and saying, “Meet Sandy Lyle, the 1985 Open Champion, who has 40 hungry hacks to feed back at the ranch.” Otherwise, the best place to chat to the new Champion was in the kitchen at home as he kept on top of the washing up. Early the next morning, Bruce Forsyth’s chauffeur arrived with a bottle of champers to ease the hangover.

Another celebration came in 1988, the year Lyle became the Masters champion and also, after four times losing in the final, won the World Match Play at Wentworth against his great rival Faldo. “I never gave up hope of winning this event,” Lyle said.

On chilly October mornings at the Match Play, Lyle warmed up by playing the last four holes of the East before teeing off the first of the West. “What I enjoy about Wentworth is the atmosphere. Because of the trees, the crowds are reasonably close to the action and their

cheers are accentuated by the trees. As a player, Wentworth always gives you a very special feeling, so much tradition and history.

“The course is always challenging, a supreme golfing examination. The second shot at the first quickly concentrates the mind and the 18th, under pressure, was always a cracker. One of the most important factors is the wind. It can completely disorientate you, the clouds going one way, at ground level the wind going another. Club selection can be tough at times. Those who know the course well have a distinct advantage over first-timers.”

Sandy Lyle receives the Claret Jug at Royal St George’s before celebrating at Wentworth the following day.

III Modern Courses

George Duncan George at the gallop Ernie Els Easy on the West

Ernie Els and Wentworth — the two seem to be inextricably linked. First, the longtime, and enormously popular, resident became one of the West Course’s great Champions, then as a designer he was tasked with bringing Harry Colt’s West Course masterpiece into the 21st century.

It was in the early 1990s that the “Big Easy”, as he was soon dubbed, burst onto the professional scene. “Els was a huge, slim, tousle-haired South African giant,” wrote John Hopkins, of The Times, “who might have excelled at tennis or rugby union had things been a little different. But his talent for golf was such that many predicted it was only a matter of time before he became the next great of the sport.

“With his powerful, rippling swing, his heavy-footed slow walk and a shock of fair hair above a face that could break into a mile-wide smile, Els caught the imagination in a way that few had before him. He was a new South African star following in the footsteps of Gary Player from the new South Africa and he soon established himself as someone who celebrated hard, and not only when he had won, either.”

Success came quickly, such was Els’s talent. He won the US Open in 1994 — the same year he won the first of seven World Match Play titles over the West Course — and 1997, both times defeating Colin Montgomerie. It looked as though he was set for supremacy until, that is, the emergence of Tiger Woods, who shocked the golfing world by winning the 1997 Masters by a record 12 strokes.

Woods was just 21 at the time and set to dominate the game like few before him. And it was Els, if truth be known, who was to suffer most. In 2000, for instance, when the American won three majors in

succession — the US Open, The Open and the PGA Championship — Els was twice a runner-up.

A sign of Els’s pedigree, however, is that he reached No 1 in the world and has four majors to his name — those two US Opens and two Open Championships in 2002 and 2012. The last of them came at Royal Lytham & St Annes, 18 years after his first. He was 42 at the time and sealed his place alongside three of the all-time greats for winning a major in three separate decades — Jack Nicklaus (1962-1986), Gary Player (1959-1978) and Harry Vardon (1896-1914). Both Open titles he celebrated at Wentworth, the family’s home for the British sporting summer for many years.

Even as a relatively young man, Els started to turn his experience to golf course design. He was asked to help with improvements and renovations to the West Course in 2006 and was heavily involved, through Ernie Els Design, in the course redevelopments in 2010 and 2016.

“The West has always been one of my favourites,” Els said. “I got to know it before I had to play it, as I did with Augusta because, back home in South Africa, I watched events being played there on television. I loved it from the first time I played it and remember the sound of the shots echoing in amongst the trees.

“When I started to play it in 1992 my woods had wooden heads. A lot of holes now don’t play the way they did then. Then the first was a driver and a four-iron; the third often required a three-iron second shot. The fourth, a par five, was a driver and maybe a two-iron and the sixth hole maybe a three-wood and a six-iron.

“Fast-forwarding to 2005 and guys were hitting two-iron or threewood off the first tee and a six-iron to the green. On the third hole I

was hitting eight or nine-irons in there. The fourth was a two-iron off the tee and a five-iron for my second shot and the sixth hole became a total joke, a four-iron off the tee and a wedge or nine-iron to the green. Something had to be done.”

In the end, it was a long-term project that reaped fantastic rewards. Els remains Wentworth through and through.

Ernie Els plays the first shots onto the new 18th green on the West Course in November 2009.

To Edinburgh, then West

Over the century of its existence, successive owners of Wentworth have grappled with keeping Harry Colt’s classic golf courses relevant for both the Members and to continue staging top-class tournaments. It was the Tarrant way.

In the 1960s the membership had rebounded to over 1,500 as the renown of the Club continued to grow with television coverage of the Ryder Cup, the Canada Cup and the World Match Play.

The West, now established as the premier venue for tournaments, and the East were given their latest makeovers in the 1970s but it was a decision in 1978 to purchase 150 acres of land between Wentworth and Longcross, in an area known as the Great Wood, that allowed for the two original courses to be joined by a modern sibling, initially labelled the South Course.

In choosing to build a third 18-hole championship standard course the Club gave itself a considerable headache in arriving at something that could sit alongside Colt’s 1920s masterpieces. An initial concept was for a public golf centre, complete with driving range, its own Clubhouse and a separate entrance from Chobham Common. However, this was turned down on ecological and planning grounds after strong objections from local residents and Runnymede Borough Council.

A revised plan concentrated on a third Members’ course that was integrated into the existing facilities with no need for a new Clubhouse or entrance. In order to give the new plan every chance of being passed by the local authority, Wentworth brought together a team of professional advisers, including an environmental consultant, to assist throughout the planning, design and construction stages.

Richard Doyle-Davidson, who arrived as Secretary-Manager in 1977, masterminded the project and commissioned a report from the University

of Liverpool, costing £10,000, that recommended construction of the course as a net benefit to the area and impressed the environmental agencies that were consulted. The Surrey Wildlife Trust was brought in to manage particularly sensitive areas, with 60 acres being designated as a Wentworth Nature reserve and the new course routed around it.

John Jacobs Associates won the competition to build the course with a design that preserved as many specimen trees and retained as many natural features as possible. Jacobs was not just a course designer but had been a player, Ryder Cup Captain, was the finest teacher of his generation and was the first managing director of the European Tour Players’ Division when it split from the PGA. Along with DoyleDavidson, he brought in South African ace Gary Player, the five-time winner of the World Match Play Championship, and Wentworth’s own Club professional Bernard Gallacher to advise on the design. “I’m not an experienced architect like the other two but I am on the spot and have a feel for the history of the place,” Gallacher said.

Planning permission for the layout of the 7,000-yard, par-72 course was granted in August 1986. Then came the autumn storm of 1987, the worst for more than 200 years, which brought down trees that Jacobs had singled out for preservation as vital to the layout. Disappointing as that was, work began enthusiastically in March 1988 on land from which 1,500 tons of wood had been removed in a remarkable clearance operation achieved in record time by a team of New Zealand lumberjacks.

The key problem, highlighted by Jacobs, of linking the Clubhouse with the main body of the course in the Great Wood, was solved by taking

John Jacobs, Bernard Gallacher and Gary Player discussing plans for Wentworth’s third course.

The green at the ninth hole on the Edinburgh, one of the many doglegs through the pines.

Timing right for “DD”

Affectionately known as “DD”, the much-loved Richard DoyleDavidson provided a genial and calming presence at the Club during some upheavals in Wentworth’s ownership. In 1974 Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co was bought out by Leonard Fairclough & Son, who were slightly surprised that they had ended up owning a Golf Club and did not quite know what to do with it. An inspired move in 1977 was to bring Doyle-Davidson down to Wentworth from Formby, where he was Secretary. He was the right person in the right place at the right time, soothing furrowed brows among the membership and putting a golfing man at the heart of the Club, first as Secretary and then as General Manager.

In the early 1980s Fairclough amalgamated with William Press to become AMEC plc, then the UK’s largest civil engineering, construction, nuclear engineering, and oil and gas group. The question of what to do with Wentworth, their only leisure asset, remained. The options included doing nothing, to the detriment of the courses and the Members; selling it; or improving the facilities. They ended up doing the last two, first committing to build what is now the Edinburgh course, and then, in 1988, suddenly and in secret, selling the Club to Elliott Bernerd’s Chelsfield property company. Bernerd, a skier and a tennis player but not a golfer, had immediately grasped the value of the Club, buying it for £20 million and then making £32 million from selling corporate memberships.

Throughout Doyle-Davidson steadied the ship. He was instrumental in the European Tour making Wentworth their headquarters and was the driving force behind the creation of the Edinburgh Course before stepping down formally in 1991. “We had a tremendously hard act to follow,” Doyle-Davidson said of building a sibling course to Colt’s two originals, “but I believe our architects read the piece of land on which the course is built beautifully. The new course fits in so well with the West and the East, yet without being a copy of either of them.

“Each hole is self-contained and has its own individuality. Already there is a great feeling of history and space. They have taken the superb traditional concepts used to make the West and East and by incorporating modern ideas have given us a gem. Now the Cub has three great courses to meet the modern golfing boom.”

over four holes of Wentworth’s popular short course for the first and 18th holes, the latter exploiting a wonderful amphitheatre around the final green.

While the design demanded extensive tree clearance, very little earth movement was required. The exceptions were at the opening hole, where the raised green of the first on the short course was levelled, and at the stunning 420-yard par-four fourth hole. Here a huge cutting was made through an earth bank, where the hole doglegs right and drops dramatically to a tree-lined green.

The par-three second hole, Jacobs readily admitted, owes much to the famous 12th at Augusta National. A stream that was an unused feature on the short course was diverted to weave in front of the new wide, but shallow, green. Deep bunkers in the face and rear of the raised right half of the green makes pin-placement all important. “It spells out the ethos of our whole design,” explained Jacobs. “It can be relatively easy playing from the front tee to a generous pin placement, or it can be made progressively harder to suit all occasions.”

Apart from the second and the signature par-three 17th, where you have to play over a beautiful lake to a kidney-shaped green, water has been used sparingly, but cleverly, on the eighth and 15th. At the eighth, the stream which would have run in front of the green has been diverted to flow 50 yards short of the putting surface, which gives the player a choice of whether to lay up or go for the green with the second shot.

At the 15th a creek was diverted to run across the fairway some 240 yards from the back tee. “This hole is played into the prevailing wind,” explained Jacobs, “so it means that whatever standard of player you are, playing off whatever tee, the challenge of whether or not to try and drive the creek will be there.”

By the time the course was ready to be opened, in 1990, Wentworth Club was now owned by Elliott Bernerd’s Chelsfield property group and the new Chairman invited HRH The Duke of Edinburgh to conduct the opening ceremony — and renamed the course in his honour. The Edinburgh Course was soon winning generous accolades from Members and visitors alike, much to the delight of the man who had seen it through from the beginning, Doyle-Davidson. He was even more pleased when the fledgling European Seniors Tour opted to stage one of their flagship events, the Senior Masters, on the course. That meant Wentworth now staged three big tournaments a year — the PGA in the spring, the Senior Masters in the summer and the World Match Play in the autumn — and kept Chris Kennedy and his greenkeeping staff in perpetual motion.

The first winner of the coveted alternative Green Jacket turned out to be Player himself. At the age of 61 he added to his previous wins on the West Course and said: “I don’t know if I’m ever going to win again so, my God, don’t I enjoy it when I win now.” Another multiple winner at Wentworth, Neil Coles, at that time the only golfer to win a top tournament in four different decades, was the champion in 1999 and four years later beat his own age by four shots with a course recordbreaking 64 in the last round. There was more home joy in 2004 when Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance, who had a home on the Estate, took the title in spectacular style, finishing with a new course record of 62, while Argentina’s Eduardo Romero won twice in a row before Des Smyth was the last winner of the title at Wentworth in 2007.

Meanwhile, over on the West, the pressure to maintain the challenge of the course for the world’s best players in the modern era of bighitting was becoming acute. Drastic measures were required. First, Ernie Els and his design team were called in for some modernisation and refinements in 2006, then that was followed by a major renovation in 2010. As Wentworth’s favourite son, the owner of a house overlooking the 16th fairway and the seven-time winner of the World Match Play over the West Course, Ernie was once again the natural choice to help bring Harry Colt’s iconic course into the 21st century.

In both 2006 and 2010, the emphasis had been on getting the greens up to a standard expected of a championship course. In 2010, this meant reconstructing all 18 greens to USGA standard and replacing the poa bent grass with a different variety.

“We recognise that the Harry Colt greens constructed in 1926 do not perform as well as new USGA specification greens,” said Chris Kennedy, the esteemed courses manager, at the time. “Now that we have the chance to address the issue, the objective is to produce a consistent surface of the highest quality on every green on the West Course. We chose colonial bent grass for the greens, not just for tournament play but for general play all year round.”

What had started off as a facelift soon turned into a major redevelopment that cost Richard Caring, the owner at the time, around £6.5 million. As well as adding new bunkers and deepening others to make them more challenging, a number of the greens were elevated above the level of the fairways. The most striking changes came at the eighth — with water immediately to the front and the side of the green, new bunkers and a swale to the back — and the 18th, which had a meandering brook added in front of a completely new greens complex that turned a relatively benign par five into a serious challenge. Having spent £130 million in buying the Club from

Gallacher, Player and Jacobs on the ground discussing the routing for the new course.

Chelsfield in 2004, golf-mad restaurateur Caring was determined to leave his mark.

Padraig Harrington, the three-time major Champion, was immediately impressed. On a reconnaissance trip to Wentworth in advance of the BMW PGA Championship, the Irishman was full of praise for the changes. “They did a great job on 18,” he said. “It’s spectacular, a true stand-out hole. It’s a lot more risk-and-reward and anybody who makes a birdie there to win the tournament will deserve a pat on the back. Ernie and Wentworth have certainly delivered.

“It’s naive to believe that golf courses don’t evolve. It’s OK to have a championship golf course when you have two other courses, as Wentworth does. That’s the key. The tour needs a difficult golf course for their flagship event. The PGA Championship has the heritage and it needs a substantial golf course.”

It would be fair to say that not all the changes met with universal approval. A year later the 18th green was softened to better accept a long approach shot over the water. When Reignwood bought the Club from Caring in 2014, the new owners took on board the feedback from Members and professionals alike and concluded that a significant resculpting of the West Course was the order of the day. This was to be the first phase of a £20 million renovation of the

club’s three championship courses, the Tennis and Health Club, and the Clubhouse. Within a week of the 2016 BMW PGA Championship coming to a conclusion, the bulldozers were on site.

The work was led by Ernie Els Design in collaboration with European Golf Design, for whom Jeremy Slessor played a leading role, and Kenny Mackay, Wentworth’s Director of Greenkeeping & Grounds.

An advisory team that included leading players Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn, as well as David Jones, a European Tour board member and course designer, completed the line-up. With just a year between the end of one tournament and the start of another, they had their work cut out. What was achieved, was nothing short of remarkable.

“It’s a nod to the past with an eye to the future,” said Mackay on the completion of the work. He was right to feel proud of all that had been achieved.

The comprehensive changes focused on the greens, greens’ complexes and bunkering, with the installation of SubAir technology on each green proving a game changer for the course. “At Wentworth, it’s primarily used to suck moisture out of the soil because bent grass doesn’t like lying wet in the winter,” explained Mackay. “Even though we have superbly draining USGA style greens, the SubAir pulls the moisture through and gives the grass a chance to stay strong through the winter.”

A view across the pond at the Edinburgh’s scenic par-three 17th hole.

“The guys have been working flat out for the past 12 months,” said Els on the eve of the 2017 PGA, “and the results of this collaborative endeavour are impressive to see. The key objective was significantly improving the putting surfaces. All 18 greens were stripped of the old turf and reseeded with a new 007 creeping bent, which improves the appearance and playability of the putting surfaces. A new SubAir system has been installed on all 18 greens, a first in England, which allows the grounds team to control moisture levels, regardless of weather conditions. New irrigation and drainage were also introduced.

“In addition, we undertook another review of all the bunkers on the golf course. As a result, all bunkers have been redesigned, softened and reconstructed, with many removed from play altogether. We believe this helps more closely realign the course with Harry Colt’s original vision, whilst also being mindful of the demands of the modern game — always a delicate balancing act. All in all, the completion of this project is great news for Wentworth and its Members, for BMW and the European Tour, and for the players.”

Greens at the eighth, 11th, 14th and 16th were completely remodelled, while those at the third, fourth, fifth, 12th and 15th were partially reworked. Landscaping, including the reintroduction of heather and gorse and woodland management, was enhanced to bring the course back to a more natural look. Improving playability for the Members, while retaining the challenge for Tour players, was at the heart of the renovation. “Our intention was to make sure the course was a fair test focused on shot values, where well-executed shots would be rewarded,” said Greg Letsche, Senior Design Associate for Ernie Els Design. “This is what our intent was from day one.”

“The fact that it was finished to such a high standard in just under a year is down to the two design companies and Kenny Mackay and his team,” said McGinley, the 2014 Europe Ryder Cup captain. “My contribution was to give the feedback I’d garnered from players on tour.

“Everybody seemed to be on the same page with the aim being to go back in the direction of the old Harry Colt design. The challenge was how to make the course fun and not too difficult for the Members for 51 weeks of the year, and then to make it a good enough challenge for the pros on one week of the year without them shooting 20 under par.

“For me, the key was the SubAir system. I believe that once the greens are firm it’s then important to hit the fairways to keep in contention. You don’t need a course to be 8,000 yards long. Course management is always what Wentworth has been about and there’s a feeling it plays its best when it’s firm.”

Duke’s Golden Putter

Since the opening of the Edinburgh Course, it has staged a number of fund-raising events in aid of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. Launched by the late Prince Philip in 1956, the scheme encourages young people aged 14-24 to take part in a diverse range of activities. One of them has always been golf and those taking part can play in regional qualifiers to play in a final at Wentworth on the Edinburgh and attempt to win the Golden Putter, donated by the Club. In 2008 the winner was Derry schoolboy James Kilgore, who was thrilled to get his name on the trophy but less enthused with the putter he was handed as a prize by Prince Edward. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with it, I already have a putter,” the 15-year-old told the Belfast Telegraph. “The course was great to play, although there were a lot of bunkers. It rained the whole day except when they made the presentation.”

Although the Duke of Edinburgh was knowledgeable about the game, and once on a trip to Inverclyde in 2008 asked Bob Torrance, the renowned coach and father of Sam, to have a quick look at his swing, he was not a regular golfer. In a foreword for a previous Wentworth history, A Host of Happy Memories, he wrote: “I think the Club deserves a place in the Guinness Book of Records for naming one of its courses after someone who never got beyond learning to play the game!!”

He added: “This book shows that the Wentworth Club has crammed a great deal into its first 70 years, but by the time it reaches its Centenary, I am sure that a lot more interesting material will have been added.”

Sadly, the Duke fell one short of his own century when he died in 2021.

Modern vision and traditional values

Chris Kennedy arrived at Wentworth to be the Courses Manager in 1990 after earning a big reputation at Haggs Castle, in Glasgow, and just before the opening of the Edinburgh Course. There was plenty to do, especially with two hot summers in a row having left the two older courses in a poor state.

The Club was prepared to back his vision for the future with investment of £1.5 million on improvements, including new machinery and a stateof-the-art irrigation system giving coverage for the first time on the fairways and some areas of rough, as well as the greens and tees, on all three layouts. Soon the whole Estate was immaculate.

He left for retirement in his native Scotland in 2012, after overseeing a staggering 52 top international events (often at a rate of three per year) plus around two million rounds of golf. “But the statistics are only part of the impact Chris has made throughout our Club,” said then Chairman Richard Caring. “It has been his commitment, drive and fierce determination to do the very best job for the Members that means Chris leaves us with a great legacy and platform for future progress.”

Former Club professional and Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher added: “It is thanks to Chris’s modern vision and traditional values that we have brought the Edinburgh Course through from a very difficult start to its current high reputation as well as restoring the West and East from faded masterpieces to glorious modern favourites.”

Kennedy’s successor, Kenny Mackay, still marvels at the skill required to prepare the same course for two of the most prestigious tournaments in the world every May and October for so many years. “What Chris achieved here has never been done by anybody else and never will be again,” Mackay said. “Nobody is doing that now. The pressure on Chris and the staff was intense. They also had an August event in between, the Senior Masters, on the Edinburgh. There wasn’t a lot of time to have holidays!”

Said Kennedy: “It was very tough in the early years trying to bring the new Edinburgh Course on stream and raising the standard of all three

courses. This is a really special place and unique in the way it has to cater for international tournaments, one-off guests and Members for whom this is a second home.

“I am proud of what we have achieved and also the fact that no fewer than 50 of the guys who have worked for me have gone on to be head or assistant head greenkeepers at other clubs. I have had great times working with the likes of John Jacobs, Gary Player, Ernie Els and Bernard Gallacher and great memories of Champions like Seve Ballesteros. I would not have missed it for the world.”

Kenny Mackay and Chris Kennedy.

Trusting in the Trustees

Along with the Residents’ Association and the Club itself, the third vital element of Wentworth’s governance structure is the role of the Trustees. As a proprietary club from the days of its founding by WG Tarrant, it was then chairman Teddy Parkinson who devised the position in order to represent the Members. On March 1, 1966 the Club’s owners, Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co Ltd, entered into a deed with Wentworth Club Ltd and two Members of the Club, Ian Lennox and Harry Croxton.

There were three undertakings set down designed to protect the future interests of the Club Members. One was that in the event of a sale of more than 50 per cent of the Club, the Trustees, on behalf of the Club membership, should have the right of first refusal. The second was that the Club should not sell or otherwise dispose of, lease, mortgage or charge any of its fixed assets without the prior consent of the Trustees. And the third was that Parkinsons, “at all times hereafter” would continue to run the Club “as hither to both as golf club and in its own way as a country club”.

Over time the last stipulation has been viewed as vague and generally unenforceable, while the first has often been circumvented on the basis of the purchaser buying a parent or holding company as

opposed to Wentworth Club Ltd. But when it comes to the disposal of parcels of land which are part of the golf courses the Trustees have invariably been asked for approval which has been conditional on the proposed use of the land and the degree to which the land in question impacts on the Members’ enjoyment of their golf and whether a fair market value is being proposed.

For more than half a century there has been a close working relationship between the Club and the Trustees which continues to this day. At some point the original two Trustees became three, with any vacancy filled by the consensus of the retiring trustee and the two continuing trustees. Among those to have served in the role have been William Benyon, Peter Brooker, Peter Taylor, Jim Loughray, Stephen Lewis, Brian Raven and Kent Pietsch, while the current trustees are Ben Dorman, Neil Thomas and John Rourke.

‘Being a trustee of the Club is a relatively easy role and one I am honoured to do,” said Dorman. “Because of the several ownership changes over the past 30 years the Club has been on a journey, but in recent years there has been a notable positive change. The Club is alive with a busy schedule of events and as Members there is a continual flow of communication and that’s driven a club-like feel.”

The par-five 17th hole on the West was one of those to be improved in the redevelopment of the course.

Kenny Mackay Working wonders on the West

When Kenny Mackay moved from The Belfry to Wentworth as the Director of Greenkeeping & Grounds in the spring of 2012, he felt he had been given his dream job. Ten years on, he still does. “With the Club so steeped in history, for me it was like chasing the Holy Grail and finding it,” he said.

Highly experienced in supervising tournament venues, Mackay was nevertheless grateful to be able to work alongside his predecessor, Chris Kennedy, in the early months. Kennedy was only too happy to pass on his vast knowledge of Wentworth and previous West Course renovations, yet the scale of the challenge that was presented to Mackay just four years later was of an altogether different dimension.

“The reconstruction of the golf course in 2016 was the biggest thing we’ve ever done,” Mackay explained. “Before the actual renovation, we did a lot of research and it paid off. We needed to know which grasses were going to do well at Wentworth. We had a whole nursery put aside and created 40 different plots, 20 in shade, 20 out of shade, and experimented with 10 different bent grass mixes. We paid the Sports Turf and Research Institute to do the trials and wanted to find the grass that stood up best to plenty of wear and tear.

“We got it down to two grasses — 007 bent grass or one called Pure Distinction — and went to visit other courses operating in damp conditions. Harding Park and Olympic Club in San Francisco had converted to the 007 bent grass, which we were beginning to favour.”

This type of grass had been developed in America by Dr Richard Hurley, a specialist in the field. It had never been grown in the UK before but Mackay and his team were convinced it was ideal for the West Course. “The owners invested a lot of money prior to

construction and off the back of our visit to the States it was decided that SubAir would be a good additional tool,” Mackay said. “We are very lucky because we have seven substations and power across all of the Estate.”

The construction company came on site in the first week of June. With such a short time frame for completion — in time for the 2017 PGA Championship — every aspect of the project had to be undertaken with military precision. “Not only did the SubAir need to be installed on all 18 greens, but the irrigation system had to be upgraded as well,” Mackay observed. “Everything had to be operational before we could seed it and then we had to grow it in.”

“The first seed went down on July 5 and the last green was seeded 19 days later. That was a cut-off date because we wanted growth in August, September and October before we were into winter. We had to be ready for a tournament the following May and the pressure was phenomenal. Some of the greens were completely remodelled but they all had to be a good enough standard for the tour’s flagship event.”

Particularly gratifying for Mackay was the chance to work at close quarters with Ernie Els, his team including Greg Letsche, alongside European Golf Design, in particular Jeremy Slessor.

The work continues, however, with the long-term aim being to restore the course to a more natural look. “The one big thing we’ve achieved in my time is putting woodland management programmes together in an attempt to restore the heathery, rough areas that would have been prominent in Harry Colt’s time,” Mackay enthused. “We have removed a lot of the silver birch trees that self-seeded over the years and have let the heather grow back across swathes of the course. Many of the carries used to be heavily manicured, but we don’t have much striping anywhere on the course any more. It’s a more natural look now, a mix between parkland and heathland.”

In striking a balance between being a tournament venue and providing courses for Members to enjoy, Mackay and his team continue to work wonders.

Kenny Mackay and Ernie Els on the 1st of the West.

Willy Bauer

The man who saved

the house

Back when construction company AMEC found themselves as owners of a world-renowned golf club that was in need of investment, there was a dastardly plan afoot. The new Edinburgh Course was under construction but the issue was what to do with the Clubhouse.

It was hardly a modern facility. It had been built as a mansion house by Charles Culling Smith in 1805 and then, in the 1920s, became the centrepiece of WG Tarrant’s vision for the Wentworth Estate when he converted it to a Clubhouse.

But under plans drawn up by Arup Associates, the famously crenelated building was due to be demolished and replaced with an “ultramodern” Clubhouse at a cost of £25-30 million. Even when Chelsfield bought the Club in 1988, the plan was still due to be put into effect until, the following year, a new Chief Executive arrived and found it in his in-tray.

As soon as he took a look at it, the new boss thought it was worth a complete re-evaluation. He was soon aware of a groundswell of disquiet about the idea and instead proposed gutting the building to enable an elegant refurbishment of the interior, while retaining but improving the exterior. At the 11th hour, the old mansion house, Wentworth’s as it was originally known, was saved.

Willy Bauer was the man who saved it.

Bauer, from Stuttgart, worked in hotels in Germany and Switzerland before moving to the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne in 1962. He remained in England ever after. He made his name reviving the Hyde Park Hotel as General Manager, pulled off a similar trick at the Grosvenor House

Hotel and then became the “saviour of the Savoy” — even though years earlier he had been turned down for a job there as a waiter.

A self-proclaimed perfectionist, Bauer never asked his staff to do anything he was not prepared to do. What he did demand was that anything that needed fixing was sorted out as soon as possible. “I believe in getting right into the act when you see something going wrong” he said. “Action has to be taken now, not tomorrow, not in 10 minutes’ time.” He made sure he spent time “front of house” to pick up any hints of dissatisfaction from the guests. “I’ve never yet not made a friendship out of a complaint. The person who takes the bother of ringing me up or writing to me must be interested.”

Bauer saw The Savoy through their centenary celebrations in 1989 and was then almost tempted by an offer from the Beverly Wilshire in Los Angeles, but was instead headhunted by new owner Elliott Bernerd to be the Chief Executive at Wentworth. His golf was such that he admitted he was “unlikely to be selected for the Ryder Cup”. Existing General Manager Richard Doyle-Davidson stayed on for a couple of years to ease the transition and Bauer appointed golfing people to key positions while concentrating on upgrading the Clubhouse, and the Tennis and Health Clubs. The amenities and the quality of service were brought up to Savoy standards, setting the blueprint for golf and country clubs across the UK.

Among his team, appointed by Bernerd, was Bauer’s wife Zdenka, a marketing consultant from Prague who won industry awards for her campaigns at Wentworth. She also expanded the social aspects of the Club, putting on fashion shows and hosting balls at least four times a year, started an aerobics class and got singers from the Royal Opera House to perform for the Members in exchange for a golf day at the Club.

Bauer left after 11 highly successful years, having been followed from the Savoy by Julian Small, who joined Wentworth as General Manager in 1996 and then succeeded Bauer as Chief Executive in 2000.

Small spent a decade and a half in the role, during that time masterminding the Ernie Els-led redesigns of the West Course.

With great sadness Bauer died at the age of 84 early in 2022, as Wentworth’s five year Centenary celebration began. “I was very sorry to hear of his passing,” Small said. “He had a huge influence on my career and I often hear myself saying to my team now many of the things he used to say to me.”

Willy Bauer and staff at Wentworth in 1991 early in his tenure as Chief Executive.

PGA Championship

Three in a row for one-up Monty

Colin Montgomerie used to drive into Wentworth and think he was already one up on the first tee. It was the Scot’s way of motivating himself at the European Tour’s biggest event.

Of course, Monty being Monty, he did not just think it, he told everyone else, or at least the media which turned out to be the same thing. To be fair to Montgomerie, he did win the then Volvo PGA Championship three years in a row, the only player ever to do so. When he came back for an attempt at a fourth successive title, he looked around the media centre and said: “I like seeing my picture up there the last three events. And it’s nice to drive in, and when I park my car in front of the sign that says champion 1998, ’99, 2000, it does give you a little bit of a lift. I feel I’m one shot ahead of the field when I stand on the first tee here, and it does give me confidence. I think in anything, any walk of life, whether it is sport or business, you are halfway to achieving it and that’s the way I am on this particular golf course.”

It did not work out for him that year, but Montgomerie was the latest golfer to build a superb record on the West Course. After missing the cut on his debut in the PGA in 1989, he finished ninth the following year. For 14 years, from 1990-2003, he was outside the top 10 only twice. As well as the three wins — and his victory in the 1999 World Match Play in the middle of his run of PGAs — he was runner-up three times in the PGA and twice in the Match Play. The first of those nearmisses came in the 1991 PGA against Wentworth’s favourite son, Seve Ballesteros.

That was the occasion when Seve had not won for a while in Europe and was battling to retain the lead coming down the stretch. At the 17th he ended up near the crowd and had to back off a shot when he was disturbed by a spectator. Seve turned, flashed his dazzling smile, and

said: “It’s ok, I know you nervous. I nervous, too.” He ended up tying with Montgomerie and in the playoff, at the first hole, he hit a glorious five-iron to three feet for the victory.

Montgomerie’s game could not have been further from that of the erratic genius that was Seve, but it worked just as well on Wentworth’s treelined layout. Monty was relentless at hitting the fairways and the greens. His swing was built just for him, but it repeated with machinelike consistency. He rarely fiddled with his action and practised even less. Why change a good thing? And for years he was the best putter on the European Tour, even after he had started to convince himself that his stroke was breaking down. Eventually, he just talked himself out of being a great putter. But the percentages were against him. He gave himself so many birdie chances, they could not all go in.

Famously, he did not win a major championship, but he did reach No 2 in the world rankings in the mid-1990s, was a beast in the Ryder Cup, won 31 times on the European Tour and the order of merit seven years in a row from 1993-99, and eight times in all. At the Senior Open Championship at Sunningdale in 2021, Montgomerie said: “The biggest achievement I’ve ever had was winning just down the road at Wentworth three times in a row. That was my biggest achievement, to win the BMW PGA, as it is now, I’ll always say that.”

By the time of his victories, the PGA had been built into the so-called flagship event of the European Tour. The Tournament only started in 1955, while the PGA Match Play, sponsored by the News of the World for many decades, had begun in 1903. Wentworth professionals

Colin Montgomerie won the PGA Championship three years in a row and felt he was already “one-up” driving into Wentworth.

George Duncan and Archie Compston were among the early Match Play winners, and Abe Mitchell triumphed in 1929, the only year it was played at Wentworth.

When the strokeplay version started at Pannal in 1955, Ken Bousfield did the double, while Peter Alliss won three times within the first decade.

A young Bernard Gallacher took the title in 1969, but then the event was not played for the next two years. It was at Wentworth that it was resurrected under the sponsorship of Viyella in 1972, with Open and US Open champion Tony Jacklin immediately providing a class winner.

The runner-up that year was Peter Oosterhuis, who was the Montgomerie of the early 1970s. Not only did he win the Harry Vardon Trophy as Europe’s No 1 four years in a row, from 1971-74, but in three years of the PGA at Wentworth he went second-first-second. In 1973, Jacklin was sore and exhausted having just competed in the inaugural British version of “Superstars”, the multi-sports made-for-TV event. Nick Job broke Neil Coles’s record for the West Course by two strokes with a 63 in the second round, but the 6ft 5in Oosterhuis, with deadly pitching and putting, secured the victory.

A year later Oosterhuis, who in 1975 followed Jacklin to America to compete on the PGA Tour, was denied only by Maurice Bembridge

birdieing the last four holes. His closing 64, coming from six behind, matched his record score from Augusta National earlier in the year.

Over the following decade the PGA was often, though not exclusively, played at Royal St George’s, and the stature of the event only grew with Arnold Palmer crossing the Atlantic again to win in 1975, Nick Faldo winning three years out of four, Jacklin taking the title for a second time and Ballesteros winning at Sandwich in 1983. A year later the PGA came back to Wentworth and has stayed ever since. The tournament had found a permanent home in Virginia Water, as did the European Tour itself.

For a while in the 1970s, the Professional Golfers’ Association and the European Tour Players Division, which had split off from the PGA in 1972, shared cramped offices at the Oval Cricket Ground in London, in an area of the modern stadium that corresponds to today’s Ken Barrington Centre under the Bedser Stand. There was more room after the PGA moved to The Belfry, but as the European Tour grew — with more staff to administer more tournaments, with more of them on the Continent — a new home was going to be required.

Ken Schofield, who took over from John Jacobs as Executive Director in 1975, pays tribute to Coles, the Tour’s chairman who was a bit of a Wentworth specialist, and Gallacher, the Club professional, for first

Italy’s Francesco Molinari won the BMW PGA in 2018 ahead of his Open triumph at Carnoustie.

A special home for the Tour and the BMW PGA

It was only when Keith Pelley arrived in 2015 to succeed George O’Grady as chief executive of the European Tour that the Canadian truly appreciated how special his new home was. “I was pretty familiar with the West Course through its appearances on television over the years,” he said, “but when I moved to the UK full-time in 2015, I gained an even greater appreciation of just how special the entire Wentworth Estate is. We are fortunate to live just on the edge of the Estate, which gives me the opportunity to walk to work on occasion like some of our staff who get off the train at Virginia Water. I play the courses too, when work and travel permits, which is, obviously, another major plus point.”

What was instantly apparent to Pelley was how well the relationship worked between what is now called the DP World Tour and the Wentworth Club, under owners Reignwood and Dr Chanchai Ruayrungruang, both for the Tour and the BMW PGA Championship. “I think it is mutually beneficial for us,” he said. “We have a terrific shared history, with people the world over associating Wentworth not only as being our home, but also the home of the BMW PGA Championship. Being able to host guests in the Clubhouse when they visit us is special steeped, as it is, in golfing history and memorabilia.

“The BMW PGA Championship is one of European golf’s most prestigious tournaments with Wentworth its spiritual home. It has an incredible history and a Roll of Honour that is essentially a Who’s Who of the game itself: great names such as Jacklin, Oosterhuis, Langer, Woosnam, Faldo, Ballesteros, Olazabal, Montgomerie and McIlroy having claimed the title. With it being staged in the shadow of our headquarters, it is also where European golf truly comes together.

“We have a strong and enduring relationship with Wentworth Club and that has continued since the Reignwood Group took ownership. I’ve spent a lot of time with Dr Chanchai since I arrived and he is a great supporter of both the Tour and the BMW PGA Championship. Over the past couple of years, we’ve not had as much time together because of the pandemic, but it was great to meet up with him again in person earlier this year and talk about our plans for the future, particularly, how we can make the BMW PGA Championship an even greater spectacle.”

Bernhard Langer (1987, ’93 and ’95)

Jose Maria Olazabal (1994)

Mike Harwood (1990)

Keith Pelley

Scholars to the fore

Wentworth’s Golf and Tennis Foundation was set up to provide tuition and access to facilities, together with the opportunity to develop life skills, for annually selected local youngsters with potential.

A Scholarship programme was started in 1991 under the direction of Elliott Bernerd, the Club chairman, and has continued with great success thanks to the generosity of the Members, both in terms of finance and time given freely in nurturing roles.

Among those to have benefitted from becoming Scholars are Ross Fisher, a five-time winner on the European Tour and a member of the 2010 Europe Ryder Cup team, and Annabel Dimmock, who plays professionally on the Ladies European Tour.

In its early days, Bernard Gallacher, the three-time Ryder Cup captain and head professional at Wentworth, took a leading role in bringing on the young golfers. “I wasn’t heavily involved in setting it up,” he said, “but when the owners asked if we should be putting something back into the local community, I suggested that we bring in a number of kids to help boost the junior section and raise the standard.

“We invited some local state schools to send any aspiring young players who were keen — it was very hard to get into golf around here because the clubs were so exclusive — and we more or less took all of them because of their enthusiasm.

“One of them was Ross Fisher. I could see at 12 that he had real potential. The idea was to take them from 12 years of age through to 18. We weren’t looking for star golfers; we wanted to give them an opportunity to play that they might not otherwise get. And what a place to do it.

“Coming into a club such as Wentworth can be intimidating, especially for the young. Thankfully, some Members — Malcolm Walker springs immediately to mind — offered to look after them and help them to settle in. Overall, it has been very successful.”

“The Foundation is based on the belief that every child has a fair chance to succeed, and uses the power of sport and mentoring to develop children and young people who lack access to opportunities by improving their life skills and unlocking their potential for a successful future,” said Patricia Leon, Chair of the Wentworth Golf and Tennis Foundation.

“The Foundation showcases the power of sport — with tennis you are against an opponent, with golf you are against the course — both grant such amazing life skills to a young individual. It is so wonderful to see these young players have these iconic ‘moments that make you’, be it a bad chip shot on

18th of the West in front of a group of more senior Members or an incredibly shy young scholar going on to become a Tennis Coach. We are so proud of the positive effect it has on people’s lives. We are the envy of every other Club because of this Foundation. These young people come to us to be the best that they can be and they recognise that Wentworth can give them that … that is something special!”

“I am so proud of The Foundation, no other Club has anything quite like it! It is incredible to think of how this Foundation has truly played such an important role in young people’s lives. It is such an honour to be part of it.” - Malcolm Walker.

Malcolm Walker presents the inaugural 2021 Malcolm Walker Award to Rocky Chapman.

Patricia Leon and Malcolm Walker with the Trustees and the 2022 Scholars.

coming up with the idea of having a base at Wentworth. As so many of the leading players were to realise over the next few decades, the Estate allowed easy access to Heathrow as well as a base in a golfing community.

The arrival of Richard Doyle-Davidson in 1977 as secretary-manager moved things along. As did the staging of the Martini International on the West Course for three years, 1979-81, when Greg Norman won twice. In 1980 Ballesteros prevailed in a rain storm that meant the BBC Evening News was delayed — a sign of the corporation’s commitment to golf in the 1980s.

With planning permission for a new office block out of the question, Doyle-Davidson identified the old stable block behind the Clubhouse as a possible site for the Tour’s headquarters. The lower floor was partly used by the Artisans Club, who were moved elsewhere, and as a storage area for signs, stakes and ropes used for the World Match Play in the autumn. The upper floor provided two flats, for the assistant secretary and greenkeeper. The Club were so convinced of the benefits of the arrangement that they refurbished the ground floor at a cost of £10,000 and offered it at a peppercorn rent.

Over the Easter weekend of 1981, amid the Brixton riots, the European Tour left SE1 and settled into their new base at Wentworth, a move orchestrated by Marina Bray and the late Gillian Oosterhuis, Peter’s sister. Twelve of the Tour’s 13 staff at the time made the trip, one opting to stay behind at the Oval. “There is no better address in golf,” said Schofield, “than ‘Wentworth, Virginia Water, Surrey’.”

Expansion of the Tour’s staff continued over the next few years to the point where they needed to take over the whole building. And as the

association with the Club was mutually beneficial, then owners AMEC offered the Tour the opportunity to purchase its offices. Just as the deal was being completed, AMEC sold Wentworth to Chelsfield but the new owners honoured the agreement, with the Tour paying £500,000. “It was a bargain then, let alone today,” Schofield remarked.

Meanwhile, it was Alan Callan, who as a music executive was the business manager for Jimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin, in his guise as a golf tournament promoter, who brought the PGA Championship back to Wentworth in 1984 under the sponsorship of Whyte & Mackay.

Staging the event to finish on the late May Bank Holiday Monday gave it an identity and a place in the calendar in contrast to the World Match Play in the autumn.

That first year the weather was awful and led to Howard Clark winning a reduced 54-hole event, but the following year in 1985 exciting young Englishman Paul Way, who had partnered Ballesteros on his Ryder Cup debut two years earlier, beat Sandy Lyle at the third extra hole. Australian Rodger Davis won in 1986 and in 1987 Bernhard Langer, despite more poor weather, set a new record total for the tournament of 18-under-par 270. The German finished four ahead of Ballesteros, who admitted: “No one could have beaten Bernhard this week — his four rounds were unbelievable.”

Swedish car giant Volvo arrived as sponsors of the PGA in 1988, part of their overall sponsorship of the Tour at the time. The Volvo Tour only lasted for a few years but their relationship with the PGA at Wentworth continued right through until 2004. George O’Grady, who would later succeed Schofield as Chief Executive of the European Tour, helped increase the prestige of the tournament in his role as Commercial Director at the Tour.

PGA champions ((left to right); Chris Wood (2016); Ian Woosnam (1988 & ’97)

“George very much took the PGA Championship under his wing from the start,” Schofield said. “He got the players to buy in and that was key to making it the event it is today. It became our equivalent of the Players Championship at Sawgrass for the PGA Tour. I think the players still refer to it as the title they want to win in Europe outside The Open.”

Although Europe’s top players, now among the best in the world thanks to major championship and Ryder Cup success, were spending time playing in America, they all came back for the big events at home and the PGA, after The Open, was at the top of that list. Ian Woosnam won in 1988 and Faldo added a fourth PGA the following year.

A Wentworth Member, it was his first win on home turf and he followed up by doing the double with a World Match Play triumph later in 1989. Two years later, Ballesteros did the same. Langer won again in 1993 and 1995, with Jose Maria Olazabal celebrating his first Masters Green Jacket by claiming the PGA in the middle year.

Costantino Rocca was a popular winner in 1996, while Woosnam claimed his second PGA in 1997. Then it was over to Monty.

For Montgomerie, winning the PGA was the next best thing to winning a major and in 1998 he holed eight-footers at the last two holes to win

by one stroke. But he might not have made the cut without his birdiebirdie-eagle finish to the second round. He scored a 65 in the third, although it was a day when he was perfectly content for Ballesteros to have the spotlight with his own 65 during a week when the ageing maestro did not better 71 in any of the other rounds. For Monty the best thing about the final day was that among those finishing tied for second was the current world No 1 who was so often his nemesis.

“The most pleasing thing about today,” he announced at the presentation ceremony, “is seeing Ernie Els sitting there in the runnersup spot. That’s usually where I am.”

A year later Montgomerie equalled Langer’s record total of 270 and won by five strokes from Mark James with a closing 64. Els and Retief Goosen were among those seven back. “Faldo used to be the man you would least like to see in your rearview mirror,” Monty said. “Now I’d like to think I’m that man, at least in Europe.”

His record run of consecutive order of merit titles came to an end in 2000 when Lee Westwood did the honours, but Montgomerie was not to be dethroned at Wentworth yet. Three birdies in a row from the 11th led to a three-stroke win over Westwood, Darren Clarke and Andrew

Luke Donald became world No 1 with his 2011 victory.

Former Masters champion Danny Willett won the 2019 PGA.

Coltart. He was the first since Faldo, at the Irish Open in 1991-93, to win a tournament three years in a row and the first at the PGA. “I’m thrilled to make history,” he said. “It’s our flagship event. Everybody on the European Tour is playing and playing well. The standard here is very, very good and I have to play at my best to stay up there.”

Of course, with Monty, there was the odd faux pas, with at least one Wentworth lady captain, on ball-spotting duties, receiving a handwritten note of apology. But it was always forgiven. He was second again to Anders Hansen in 2002 and seventh as late as 2011. From 2005, BMW took over the title sponsorship, and it was a mark of the stature of the event that they did not even think about moving the tournament elsewhere.

Following the initial Els renovations on the West Course, the 2011 PGA was a particular highlight. There were record crowds — which have only increased over the last decade, Covid years excepted — and all four reigning major champions were playing, as were seven of the world’s top nine. In the end it was the world No 2, Luke Donald, who took over the top spot on the ranking from Westwood when the

Worksop man found the new water feature on the 18th in the playoff. Donald won again a year later and then Rory McIlroy triumphed on the West in 2014 ahead of his Open victory at Hoylake and US PGA win at Valhalla.

Italy’s Francesco Molinari also claimed the PGA just ahead of lifting the Claret Jug in 2018, and a year after finishing second at Wentworth to Alex Noren’s stunning 62 in the final round of 2017. From 2019, the European Tour revised their schedule and moved the BMW PGA to September, with wins for Masters champion Danny Willett and, in 2020, Tyrrell Hatton, a player who had watched his heroes at Wentworth almost from when he could first walk. Billy Horschel used to watch the PGA on TV as a schoolboy over breakfast at home in Florida before following Palmer as the second American to win the title in 2021.

As the tournament approaches its fourth completed decade of continuous residence at Wentworth, it is fair to say it has found a home loved by all.

PGA champions (left to right): Byeong Hun An (2015); Tony Johnstone (1992); .Alex Noren (2017)

Rory McIlroy plays his approach to the 18th of the West in May 2018.

Annabel Dimmock Annabel aiming for Solheim Cup

When Annabel Dimmock was offered the chance to become a Wentworth golf Scholar at the age of 13, she grabbed the opportunity with both hands. She took full advantage.

By her own admission Dimmock was a better footballer than golfer at the time and had ambitions of representing England in both sports. In the end, however, it was golf that took priority.

“I went for England Under-16 football trials when I was 13 and wanted to be the first female to play for England in two sports at the same time,” she said. “But it was never going to be possible with all the training involved. You’d need two bodies unfortunately!”

Dimmock, who arrived at Wentworth with a handicap of 12 from Beaconsfield Golf Club, had what can only be described as a meteoric rise through the amateur ranks. Within four years, under the tutelage of James Sharpe, her coach, she was the top ranked female amateur in the UK and sat at No 10 in the amateur world rankings.

In 2014, with a string of victories already to her name, she played for Europe in the Junior Ryder Cup and represented GB&I in the Curtis Cup match in the United States. She even partnered fellow Wentworth Member Steven Brown to victory in the Sunningdale Foursomes with a putting display that, once seen, was never to be forgotten.

“Her success doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Sharpe. “She is wellrounded on the course and has a fantastic work ethic. She has charisma, is entertaining to watch, and never dwells on failure.”

Such traits held Dimmock in good stead once she turned professional, at 19, in 2016. She claimed her first victory on the Ladies European Tour at the Jabra Ladies Open in 2019 and then, just as she was ready to kick on,

the Covid pandemic and a wrist injury intervened, putting everything on hold. By the start of 2022, finally free from injury and with the world opening up again, she was ready to start competing once more.

“When it’s going great, you’re on top of the world. You’re playing sport for a living, you can earn good money, you can go to amazing places and meet amazing people,” she said. But it was the preparation for what lay in store that helped to smooth the way. And for that, Annabel credits Malcolm Walker, for so long the chairman of the Wentworth Foundation, who guided her every move from the day she joined the Scholarship programme.

A young Annabel with Francesco Molinari.

“Life isn’t always plain sailing, is it?” she said. “You always have to stay positive in golf and in life — and Malcolm was always positive and encouraging. That’s how I got taught to play golf and that’s carrying me through even now. When I came to Wentworth, I felt it was my calling. I wouldn’t be playing at the level I am today without that start.

“If I had an issue, Malcolm always had a solution. When I wanted to do gym work, he’d set up a training programme with the guys in the gym. He introduced me to Bernard Gallacher, who gave me guidance, was always there on my competition days, and taught all of us Scholars the importance of etiquette and integrity. It’s an all-round package here for growing up and learning the ropes of life, not just golf.”

Dimmock got a taste for the professional game when she carried the scoreboard at the BMW PGA Championship in 2014. At close quarters she got to walk alongside Ian Poulter and Thomas Bjorn, on the day the Dane shot “a ridiculously simple” 10-under-par 62. “I used not to be able to sleep the night before the PGA because I was so excited,” she recalled. “I remember getting a picture taken with Justin Rose and now he’s one of my friends.”

When Dimmock isn’t on the road, it is to Wentworth that she returns. “I’m here every day when I’m practising at home,” she said. “The pros and the Members are my second family up here. A lot of them track how I do — which can also be added pressure — but it’s nice to have their support. They want me to do well and that’s a nice feeling.”

And her future aims? “First another win — and then a place in the Solheim Cup team.”

Brown’s PGA dream at Wentworth

It is always special to play in a tournament on your home course, and doubly so for Wentworth Member Steven Brown given that the tournament in question is the BMW PGA Championship. There are pros and cons, however. “People think when it’s your home course you should do well, but in a way it’s not my home course when we play the PGA,” he explained. “Tees are further back and the greens are so much faster, so a putt I’ve hit a thousand times all of a sudden the break is twice as much, which means you have to adjust.”

Brown won the English Amateur Championship in 2011 and played on the winning Walker Cup team for GB&I the same year. After turning professional, he worked his way up through the Alps Tour and the Challenge Tour, and then got to make his debut in the BMW PGA in 2018, although he missed the cut.

“I definitely put extra pressure on myself the first time I played,” said Brown. “I always wanted to play it, I’d always watched it as a junior, an amateur and then as a pro when I wasn’t getting into those events, so it was a dream come true to play. I remember the first time I put so much pressure on myself that I made double down the first hole, and obviously I had a lot of expectation, and most of the crowd were people I knew. The next year it felt a lot more comfortable so I played better.”

His breakthrough on the European Tour came at the age of 32 in 2019 when he went into the last regular event of the season in 150th place on the Race to Dubai and then won the Portugal Masters with scores of 65-66 on the weekend. In 2020 he had his best finish to date in the BMW PGA with 24th place.

As for his view on the much altered 18th hole on the West Course, Brown said: “It’s a really exciting par five now. I think they’ve got the balance perfect now. I think what makes it such a good finishing hole is the disparity of scores that could happen without doing too much — you can make eagle, but the water can also catch you out and you could make double. Staying away from the water is the key, but in 2019 Ross Fisher made a two on this hole with a four-iron so there’s a great chance to score here. It’s definitely one where you’d want to be coming down the last with a two-shot lead, but if you are one behind, you still have a chance. A lot of people would say it’s one of the best finishing holes on the courses that we play.”

Wentworth Today

Looking into the future

Dear Members and Friends. To celebrate Wentworth’s centenary, Reignwood have an exciting round of investment planned, not only on the Courses, but also across the overall wellness offering at the Club and environmental sustainability across the Estate.

The West Course is obviously the ultimate golfing test and one I look forward to upon each visit. However, I was so taken by the landscape of the Edinburgh Course when I first played at Wentworth, it simply took my breath away. Surrounded by the tall pine trees, I almost felt as if I was at Augusta, with the beautiful treelined fairways and wonderful flora and fauna, it is something special. I also really enjoy the East Course, when I want to test my accuracy and patience.

At Wentworth we are so fortunate to have three exceptional 18-hole Golf Courses, each with their own unique character. Following the investment into the West Course, further enhancements will now be made to the East Course and Edinburgh Course within the next five years. Investments will also be made that will see our range of sporting facilities broaden and Member Club Life thrive, for example in the months ahead building will begin on the highly anticipated Paddle Tennis Courts.

2022 heralds the beginning of a multitude of Centenary celebrations across the Club, as we bring to life this iconic Club’s captivating history and reveal our future legacy, The Green Life. The Green Life sees our focus turn to wellness, sustainability, and youth development. These three key areas will form the basis of all future strategies and truly champion the original Tarrant vision. Our City asset, Ten Trinity Square will also develop a wonderful approach to wellness with a new Urban wellness terrace, taking The Green Life to new heights.

In 2008 I began to learn the game of golf as my father was building the Course in Pine Valley, Beijing, China which saw him become the pioneer of the golfing sector in the country. It was an exciting time and Golf quickly became a passion for our family. The crowd and

atmosphere at our BMW PGA Tournament is inspiring and something we rarely see in Asia. We will be working closely with the European Tour globally to support and promote golf, all the time continuing our long-term partnership in Wentworth where we will explore further opportunities.

Globally our Debenture Members will enjoy the benefits of our Reignwood connections with the recently launched Global Elite Club.

It is an exciting time and I truly believe that Wentworth Club will continue to shine, we are a national treasure and global icon after all!

Best wishes to you all and I trust you enjoy this exciting journey with us.

With kind regards Woraphanit Ruayrungruang

To my mind, one of the most memorable golfing moments at the Club occurred in the fall of 1989. The occasion was the 25th staging of the World Match-play Championship. Given the special anniversary of the event, each of the winners of the first 24 years was invited to compete. Leading the roll of returnees was almost everyone’s favourite Arnold Palmer, the winner of the inaugural event in 1964.

Then 60 years of age, Arnie’s best golfing days were behind him and his draw against the reigning European star Seve Ballesteros led most to believe that his chances of advancing were slim to none. But the indomitable Mr. Palmer rose to the occasion and was one-up standing on the 18th tee of the West which, in the days before Ernie Els’ redesign of the hole, was a friendlier par-5 without a water hazard guarding the green. Seve’s second shot found him about fifty yards short and to the right of the green while Arnie found the green in two and seemed to be moments away from a massive upset. But the gods of golf smiled on the Spaniard who promptly sank his chip for an eagle 3 while his opponent could only 2-putt sending the match back to the first hole and a sudden-death play-off.

Alas, time seemed to catch up with Ernie following the shock result on the previous hole and Seve went onto win the match - an escape of all escapes in the golfing career of Mr. Ballesteros and a performance of ageless magic from Mr. Palmer.

Ben Dorman, Trustee & Member

Memory Lane “ “ “ “

My favourite memory is of my Mother’s 100th Birthday celebration held in the Ballroom on 7th April 2010. In particular, after a wonderful dinner, I remember leading her onto the dance floor as the band opened with ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”.

This she certainly was and, in fact, she delightedly danced the night away as all the male guests were determined to take her for a spin on her very Special Occasion!

Beverly passed away peacefully in her sleep in 2020 aged 110, after 39 happy years living on the Estate.

Tony Jamison, Member

As a resident and golf Member of 26 years, I have one wonderful abiding memory! It relates to the late Sir Bruce Forsyth and his very last round of golf which I participated in …if fact I still have a photo of him on the 17th green where we finished.

And he left in his buggy never to return saying … “I’m off to have a warm bath , nice to see ya to see ya nice”…..

John Pyle, Chairman of the Neighbourhood Plan Forum

My first memory is being interviewed by Archie Wilson Golf Captain. My partner at the time was a Golf Member so I thought I should at least join. With his encouragement I applied. It was 1979.

I was 19 and I wanted to join the tennis section which at the time consisted of hard courts and in the summer 5 or 6 amazing grass courts. No Tennis club house, no facilities. Teas and drinks were over in the Cloisters at the Main Clubhouse. Despite living in West London and clearly out of my depth, I put on my best clothes, including my newly purchased golf jumper to obviously look like I could fit right in. Tried to hide my west London accent (which I have never lost I might add) I shook from head to toe. The golf jumper went straight back in the draw never to surface again, but I accepted so I paid £70 to join. I am not sure if there was a joining fee but I started on my life’s journey at Wentworth. I played tennis for hours and hours. I played in all the teams, no 2 rubbers, 2 sets. All 3 rubbers, 3 sets... hardcore tennis. (Don’t plan to out on Saturdays you could still be playing late evening as the matches didn’t start until 2pm!!

We could be at matches for 5 hours or more. I had some lessons with Winnie Wooldridge (Shaw) our most amazing and lovely British Tennis star. Got to play with the loveliest people and made some friends for life. I am still here. My family are here with me and Wentworth blood runs through my veins.

We’ve had big birthdays, weddings, christenings and all the things that bring family and friends together. This is my very first memory and I could go on for hours and hours about all the people I’ve known, Members who are no longer with us, the fun, the laughter and the tears. I am making new memories all the time with my fabulous friends and life at Wentworth has never been better! To be part of the Centenary celebrations this year is amazing. I may even make my own Centenary who knows!!

Kim Peters, Member

Georgia Hall

From autograph hunter to Ambassador

Georgia Hall vividly recalls her first visit to Wentworth. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, how much space there is’. I was only 10 or 11 so everything looked big to me. I thought it was an amazing course to host such a big tournament.”

Her parents had brought her to the World Match Play.

Dad Wayne introduced Georgia to the game having named her in honour of Nick Faldo’s victory in the 1996 Masters, during which she was born. But on this occasion it was mum Samantha who saved the day. “Tiger Woods was playing and he had five or six security guards around him. I was so desperate to get an autograph, but couldn’t get close enough. I started to get upset so my mum took the pen and managed to get it. I remember she got marker pen on his shirt, but I was so happy that I got it.”

Then in 2014, the day after Hall turned professional, she played in the Gary Player Invitational on the Edinburgh Course. “It was a nice way to start for me,” she said. “I’ve played in a few now and I love them as you get to meet lots of interesting people. I played with Jason Dufner a couple of times, Ian Woosnam, and Gary Player himself.”

In 2018, three weeks before the Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes, Hall played with Tom Lehman. “I knew he had won The Open at Lytham the year I was born. I’d never played there so I asked him if he had any tips for me.

“He said no matter what you do, stay out of the fairway bunkers, even if it means hitting an iron off the tee. So I adapted my plan to stay short of the fairway bunkers and went for a longer approach in. Then the weather was so good on the final day that without any wind or rain could I use a three-wood more often and still hit the fairway. His tips were very useful.”

So useful that Hall became the first British winner since Catriona Matthew nine years earlier. “I texted Tom as soon as I won and he was watching so that was nice. We kept in touch. He’s a lovely person, with a lovely family, and I’ve stayed at his house a couple of times.”

Hall, who starred in Europe’s two Solheim Cup victories under Matthew’s captaincy, became an Ambassador for Wentworth in 2019.

The 26-year-old from Dorset visits the Club once or twice a week when not on tour. “Both the practice facilities and the courses are incredible,” she explained. “It’s a lovely atmosphere, the Members are so welcoming and always say hello, and the Wentworth team are great at helping me with anything I need.

2018 Women’s Open champion Georgia Hall.

“Having the chance to use the grass range is important as I don’t have that at home, but mainly I prefer to play rather than hit balls for too long. With the three courses I can always get on one of them and they are all so different.

“My favourite is the Edinburgh. It is quite tight, but still quite long. In winter it tends to be the driest of the three, and in the summer the greens are fantastic. And if I need to work on my bunker shots it’s good because a lot of the bunkers have high lips.

“The East is a little wider, but there are some long carries and the greens can be tricky, while the par-three holes are very demanding

which is great practice for me. The West is tough, so I tend to play it a couple of days before I fly off to a tournament because it gets me ready for the tour.” The plan certainly worked prior to the Saudi Ladies International early in 2022, which she went on to win by five strokes.

Due to the Covid pandemic, Hall was unable to put on the clinics for juniors that she is still planning, but she did record video tips for the Members. “I am very proud to be associated with Wentworth,” she said. “When I used to come when I was younger to watch the tournaments, I used to dream of being a Member here, so being an Ambassador is very special to me.”

Georgia Hall was thrilled to join Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino for the Celebration of Champions at The 150th Open at St Andrews.

Enduring Mystique of the original vision

After a century of existence — its first century — there remains an undeniable air of mystique surrounding Wentworth. It has always been here. “I first came here for one of the World Match Plays when I was about 12 years old,” recalled John Blanch, who took over as the Club’s General Manager in 2021, “and still remember that aura, the sense of mystique, as we drove through the Estate to get to the Club. No other place in the world has an arrival quite like it. Tarrant did something very special here.”

What Walter George Tarrant created at Wentworth in the 1920s is being appreciated again in the 2020s, thanks to the vision and drive of Dr Chanchai Ruayrungruang.

The charm has never faded, in fact it has only been enhanced. From the beginning people flocked to the first big events — the International Match that was a precursor to the Ryder Cup in 1926 and the first Curtis Cup in 1932 — and then to the Ryder Cup itself in 1953, to four decades of the World Match Play from the 1960s and still today to the BMW PGA Championship. They came for the golf, to see the best players of the day — some of the greatest of all time. But they also came for the grand stage that Tarrant had provided, the magnificent setting in the leafy setting of Virginia Water. The very first edition of the long-running Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf on American television, broadcast in 1962, featured a match at Wentworth between reigning US PGA Champion Jerry Barber and Ryder Cup-winning captain Dai Rees. “That mystique is still here today,” Blanch added, “especially for new Members, who perhaps first saw it on television or came to a tournament. Wentworth is the sum of all its parts — the Estate, the properties, the residents, the grounds, three magnificent golf courses, all the other facilities, having a tournament as big as the BMW PGA annually, being the headquarters for the European Tour itself, and the

Clubhouse, sitting on the hill at the centre of the community. The new Members coming in are bowled over by it all.”

And not just the new Members but long-time residents as well. “Tarrant had such a crystal-clear vision for a premium residential community served by fabulous recreational facilities, as illustrated by the Harry Colt golf courses,” reflected Nigel Moss, both a former Chairman of the Wentworth Residents’ Association and Captain of the Club. “Not only does his vision still stand today, it has been surpassed in leaps and bounds. I’m not sure even he would have envisioned the quality of the Club that we have now, and of the properties on the Estate, as well as the extraordinary history that has unfolded here since his time.” Looking back, it seems incredible that Tarrant was only directly involved at Wentworth for just shy of its first decade. He was very much the “generalissimo”, the driving force, and as a good builder, he laid the foundations well. Today there is a tripartite system guiding the community in the forms of the Wentworth Residents’ Association,  the Wentworth Estate Roads Committee and any significant changes to the Club’s land including its courses requiring permission from three Trustees.

Wentworth’s Clubhouse and the first tee of the West in its autumn finery.

Classic Service with a smile

Afamiliar figure for three decades at Wentworth, Gus Tobin has a surprising secret. “I have no interest in golf! Never had and never will,” he revealed. But that has certainly not stopped Tobin becoming a much-loved figure at the Club as the genial Irishman traverses the bars and restaurant.

“What attracted me to Wentworth was the professional reputation it had in the industry for top-class service,” he added. “And 30 years later I’m still here. I simply love the Club. Wentworth is not a job, it’s a vocation. It’s my second home and I’ve seen it all; from looking after families to adding little personal touches or driving the odd Member home, no two days are the same. Behind the scenes we love a challenge and joke ‘the bigger, the better’. I am so proud to see the Club thriving, it’s what it deserves and after some difficult few years, to see the Club become what it is today, well, that is just magic.”

The last of these was created by an Act of Parliament in 1964 to look after the common areas, in particular the roads, pathways and verges, as well as having enforcement powers, overseen by a staff led by the Estate Manager, to ensure covenants, such as not turning plots into multi-dwellings and timings for construction work, are adhered to.

“Perhaps the key contributor to the uniqueness of Wentworth is that we have these three entities protecting and progressing the Estate and able to address any threats to the Estate that may arise,” Moss explained. “It has enabled us to take Tarrant’s vision from where it was to where it is now.” Of course, much has changed over the decades, as observed by the acclaimed American writer, and Anglophile, Bill Bryson. When Bryson first arrived in England, he took a job at the Holloway Sanatorium, which was located on the other side of Virginia Water Station until it closed in 1980, and liked the area so much he lived nearby for many years. In the best-selling Notes from a Small Island, Bryson wrote: “Virginia Water is an interesting place. It was built mostly in the Twenties and Thirties, with two small parades of shops and a dense network of private roads winding through and around the famous Wentworth Golf Club.

“Scattered among the trees are rambling houses, often occupied by celebrities and built in a style that might be called Ostentatious English Vernacular or perhaps Game Stab at Lutyens, with busy rooflines crowded with gables and fussy chimney pots, spacious and multiple verandas, odd-size windows, at least one emphatic chimney breast and acres of trailing roses over a trim little porch. It felt, when I first saw it, rather like walking into the pages of a 1937 edition of House and Garden magazine.”

Bryson was less impressed when he returned for his 2015 followup, The Road to Little Dribbling , and found many of the houses had been torn down and replaced with newer, often larger, models. Not many Tarrant houses remain, it is true. They were traditional homes for the era in which they were built. Although not to all tastes in every instance, the new buildings are largely seen as a sign of progress. “I grew up here, moved away for many years and then returned,” said Liz Copping, of the WRA. “Many houses have been updated and enlarged reflecting the effect of more recent vogues and varied tastes in what is a multi-national community. Some Tarrant houses remain and have been enlarged, preserving the original timeless style of the Estate.” Today the Estate features around 1,200 households, liberally spread out as originally intended. As well as the golf courses, of course, there are other areas protected from being built on, such as the 52-acre nature reserve along the River Bourne, which flows in and out of Wentworth Pond. Managed by the Cabrera Trust, it has a diverse range of wildlife and plant life.

Enduring elegance of the Burma Bar.

The Club Lounge, a serene retreat from the courses and courts.

“It’s a hidden gem,” said one resident who volunteers for the Trust. “People don’t know it is there.”

Over much of its history, Wentworth was owned by building firms, essentially as a result of a series of takeovers dating back to Tarrant’s original company. Not all of them knew anything about running a golf club. Then entered Reignwood Group, who under Chairman Dr Chanchai Ruayrungruang bought Wentworth from Richard Caring’s Caprice Group for £135 million in 2014, already having within its portfolio of companies the Pine Valley Resort and Country Club, near Beijing.  Reignwood Group is a leading independent Chinese investment company with an international portfolio of brands and growth companies in China, Europe, UK, US, and parts of Asia. The company was founded in 1984 by Dr Chanchai, a ThaiChinese entrepreneur with strong roots in China. His simple aim is to enhance relationships between East and West by introducing the best of Western business values to China, and offering Reignwood’s

expertise and experience in China to iconic brands in Europe and the US. An initial £20 million investment allowed for a further renovation of the West Course by Ernie Els and installation of a SubAir system, as well as redevelopment of the Clubhouse and the Tennis & Health Club.

In essence, Wentworth is a golfing estate and the first thing Tarrant got right at Wentworth, as previously at St George’s Hill, was to appoint Colt as the designer of the East and West Courses. Colt was a man at the height of his powers, although not even he could predict quite how far the modern stars would hit the ball. Keeping the balance between testing the best and providing an enjoyable challenge for Members, while keeping Colt’s original principles in mind, took a while to pin down but the final result was worth the sacrifice of shutting the West for an entire year. The East, largely untouched over the years, remains a jewel and is due to be spruced up prior to its own centenary in 2024. The Edinburgh opened in

Our Members get to walk in the footsteps of champions everyday.

Creating the next legacy

To celebrate Wentworth’s centenary, owners Reignwood are planning a new round of investment in the Club directed at the courses, the Clubhouse and the Tennis & Health Club. But for General Manager John Blanch it also means investing in the Wentworth Foundation and the Club’s staff.

“Our Foundation is something we are very proud of and our ownership are very keen on, with plans to donate funds over and above that raised by the Members’ levy,” Blanch explained. “We celebrate the successes of those Scholars who have gone on to a professional career, and many have achieved university scholarships after being here, but others may not want to go on to further education. One of our Scholars has just joined us as a trainee professional and there is more we can do to offer things like a management trainee scheme. Our Scholars are with us for six years, they know and like the Members, they are potentially our workforce of the future. If we can help those who aren’t necessarily going to be top players but do want to work in the golf or leisure industry that would be very satisfying.

“Looking after our staff is something we think is very important and that goes right back to Tarrant putting on plays and activities here for the staff in his day. If we look after our staff, they look after our Members and the Club, so it is right to offer training and social activities that mean we can build on the history of high quality of service brought to the Club by the likes of Willy Bauer and Julian Small from their hotel backgrounds.

“And we are also proud of having 17 PGA professionals currently working for us in a variety of departments across the organisation. So something we are working on with our Director of Golf Stuart Boyle — another in the rich lineage of Scottish professionals at Wentworth — is for our assistants to gain experience working in all the key areas of a club like ours, whether going out with the greenkeepers or on the food and beverage side, so they have a rounded understanding of the whole business. Those skills will be invaluable for them in their careers.”

Blanch is a PGA Pro himself, although he had been working overseas since the early 90’s, before joining Wentworth in 2021. When he qualified, Blanch headed into Europe, once playing in the Madeira

Island Open while he was a club pro on the island, and then to Asia, where he has managed some of the biggest golfing complexes in the world. The son of Rayner Blanch, who set up the Equity & Law Challenge with Ted Dexter at Royal Mid-Surrey in the late 1980s, John attended Bernard Gallacher’s golf school at Wentworth and regularly visited for the World Match Play and then the PGA.

“I was not planning on returning from Asia, and certainly not for any other golf club in Britain,” he said. “But I love this place, have been coming here since I was a youngster and have known Bernard all that time. The opportunity was simply too good to refuse. That’s the allure of Wentworth and its unique place in golf.”

1990 to provide a third top-quality layout. “The courses are all distinctly different,” noted Blanch, “even the first two by the same designer. One was always meant to be long, the other a par 68 that is still quite a challenge. And now the Edinburgh is different again. They could be in different parts of the country, with different trees and flowers, but they are all here on the same Estate.”

Yet at the heart of the Wentworth community is the Clubhouse.  Tarrant’s inspired decision to turn the old mansion house into the focal point of the Estate was a masterstroke. Very soon Sunday lunches were a huge feature, while choral singing and girls’ dance classes were among the activities on offer. A swimming pool was added as Tarrant established a family-friendly environment in stark contrast to many traditional British golf clubs of the time. “Family has been a constant here,” Blanch said. “People grow up here, learn to play golf here, learn to swim here, and then do the same with their children.

We host weddings, 18th birthday parties and wakes, all those marker points in life. Members want to have them here.”

A return to a debenture scheme, as Tarrant had in the early days, now has around 600 household memberships, the equivalent of around 1,750 Members, with approximately a third of those arriving in the 13 months from January 2021. “They tend to be 40-55, a younger generation, who are more comfortable here than at some other golf clubs,” Blanch said. “Wentworth has always had a wider mix of people. That’s why some of the celebrities who played golf ended up here rather than clubs full of stockbrokers and lawyers. And golfing Members have use of all the facilities, including the health and tennis clubs, while non-golfing residents can enjoy a social membership so they can use the Clubhouse and feel part of the community. During the Covid lockdowns, when people could meet outside, people loved using the terrace of the Clubhouse, it really came to life.”

The Club swimming pool remains popular.

In the 1980s there was a plan to knock down the old mansion house and replace it with an “ultramodern” Clubhouse. It certainly needed investment, but fortunately the building itself was saved, and redeveloped under then Chief Executive Wally Bauer in the 1990s.

Under a new five-year development plan to coincide with the centenary celebrations, as well as work on the East Course, the Clubhouse will be developed further, adding more guest rooms, while the Tennis & Health Club will again benefit from further investment. Tarrant always believed that hosting tournaments was a critical factor in the success of his project. It added to the prestige of the Estate. Wentworth has not just staged momentous events, but frequently smaller tournaments, too. Since World War II, there have been tournaments virtually every year, and often multiple events. Since 1984, the West has hosted the BMW PGA Championship, which only continues to get bigger and bigger.

With longer build times for the tournament infrastructure, it is a major commitment for everyone. “Getting ready for a big tournament on the West we still need to balance the needs of the Members,” explained Kenny Mackay, Director of Director of Greenkeeping and Grounds. “We’ll reduce the number of tee times and work on the back nine in the morning before Members get round, and then we’ll close the tee at 2pm and work on the front nine. We only close the course two weeks out but it has an impact on the East Course as well, with the first and 18th taken out of play. It affects the whole Estate, and you know you’re going to get big crowds. A number come just to see the Estate, not necessarily the golf.” “Inevitably, it causes some disruption for around three months of the year,” said Moss. “But the last time the Residents’ Association surveyed its membership, the vast majority, over 80 per cent, were in favour because it is the Tour’s flagship tournament and puts Wentworth on the map. Many residents enjoy spectating and participating in events around the tournament. About five years ago, the WERC and the European Tour reviewed the agreement for staging the tournament and more meaningful recognition is now being given annually by the Tour to the WERC for the disruption to the Estate.”

“We want to keep hosting tournaments,” said Blanch. “And not just the PGA. If a women’s tournament ever became a possibility that is definitely something we would consider. Hosting golf tournaments, in some ways the benefits are intangible — you would only really find out by not doing it. But if you took the tournament away from Wentworth, it would lose part of its mystique.”

Just as with the likes of Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Sam Torrance, Thomas Bjorn and Ernie Els, today’s professionals have embraced the attraction of Wentworth, with Justin Rose moving onto the Estate

The Ultimate Connection

Hailing from a luxury hospitality background, having trained in the Shannon College of Hotel Management in Ireland, Wentworth Club is Ruth Scanlan’s dream role.

“There is something so very special about Wentworth. A serene retreat from city living with a standout sense of arrival; a genuine warmth in the service offering across the entire Club, an innovative strategic approach with an incredible camaraderie between the Team and our Members that makes us the Club we are today. How was this achieved? It’s all about positive connections.”

“The global pandemic was a turning point, we had to change how we interacted with our Members and we did. Where Wentworth shone was the connection it maintained with it’s Members and the wider community. We went on a journey together through the COVID landscape and realised the importance of this incredible Club as not just a place to play a round of Golf or a game of Tennis but a place to call “home”, it really had become that to so many people, Members and Team alike.”

“To see this develop is simply a dream come true. Like all great brands, we have been on a journey and will continue to be, with one thing for sure, the power of our connection is unique, simply put, it is our driving force.”

The next generation golf professional

Being a golf professional at Wentworth means having a lot to live up to, especially for a Scot at a Club whose heritage includes George Duncan, Tom Haliburton and Bernard Gallacher in the role. “I remember driving along Wentworth Drive on my first day, I was literally shaking, goosebumps, the lot!” admitted Stuart Boyle. “I still get them to this day when I drive in — Wentworth Drive is our very own Magnolia Drive after all.”

Edinburgh-born Boyle, who learned his golf at Harburn Golf Club in West Lothian, was a trainee professional at The Belfry before joining Wentworth as an assistant pro in 2013. Eight years later he was made Director of Golf.

“Working at Wentworth is a dream come true for me,” Boyle said. “To rub shoulders with the greats of the game and equally get to know our Members and play a part in their lives, too, is just something I cherish. Becoming a Director of Golf by the age of 30, well, that was just the icing on cake, what an honour. For me now, it’s about how I drive my team forward, ensuring they all develop into the best they can be in the golfing professional world.

“To be part of the Wentworth journey is truly a privilege and an honour. The history and heritage coupled with our Members and their love of the Club, makes Wentworth what it is today. To see our debenture model and our vision now become a reality, is truly something that all our team are very proud of. We believed in this and kept working at it until it became a reality and there is a wonderful satisfaction in that. As a Club, what sets it apart, is that from the golf to the tennis and the development of the wellness function, it is the perfect family offering.”

Boyle will never forgot the day he received an impromptu lesson himself on the driving range. “I had finished my shift and was hitting some balls on the range late one glorious afternoon. I suddenly hear, ‘Not like that young man,’ and there, beside me, stood Gary Player. A lesson ensued, though I was shaking, my hero giving me a lesson. It’s a moment I’ll never forget! Needless to say my swing was changed that day.”

recently and Georgia Hall, a Club Ambassador, using it as a training base. Meanwhile, China’s Haotong Li stayed for three weeks in the Clubhouse early in 2022 when he was unable to return to Shanghai, which was in lockdown.

“A key component of any new development,” said Blanch, “is infrastructure and Wentworth has that already built in, not just with the trains and roads, but Heathrow nearby as well. How did Tarrant know?” He did not, of course. But he did carefully site his development between Virginia Water station and the Great South West Road, the A30. He wanted to provide homes for commuters in to London, and golfing recreation for those living in the City. Heathrow being just up the A30 was a bonus. Except even there, a Wentworth connection exists. The man charged with finding a new main airport for London — Croydon was already overcrowded — during World War II, was Air Commodore Alfred Critchley. Canadian born, Critchley moved to England as a child and became the youngest ever Brigadier General in World War I. As a businessman, his interests included setting up the Greyhound Racing Association, which owned land on the Wentworth Estate. He rejoined the RAF in World War II, overseeing pilot training, before being made director general of the British Overseas Airways Corporation from 1943 to 1946. Critchley lived in Sunningdale and would drive up the Great South West Road to get to his office in London.

Around halfway along the route, he spotted the ideal site for an airport. Critch, as he was known, was a member of Wentworth as well as Sunningdale and was involved in setting up the match between British male amateurs and the American women professionals in 1951. He was a good golfer winning the French Amateur in 1933, but not as good as his third wife, Diana Fishwick, who played in the first Curtis Cup at Wentworth in 1932, as well as being the English and British champion. On three occasions she won the London Ladies Foursomes for Wentworth, a title claimed in 2012 by Annabel Dimmock and Inci Mehmet. Bruce Critchley, son of Alfred and Diana, learnt to play under the eye of Wentworth professional Tom Haliburton and appeared in the 1969 Walker Cup before taking up commentary for the BBC and Sky Sports, broadcasting often from tournaments at Wentworth.

So, the proximity of London’s largest airport to the Club was less of a coincidence than might be thought. Tarrant always had in mind an international appeal for the Club, advertising on transatlantic cruise liners. It was no accident that he sought out international matches in the early days. “Now his aspiration has come to fruition,” said Blanch.

“We have many oversees Members, as well as many international residents.” John Tenconi, Chairman of the Wentworth Residents’ Association, has seen all the changes over the last few decades and is certain there is nothing but a positive future for the Club and the Estate. “When we first moved to Virginia Water in the 1980s,” he recalled, “the first things we did were to buy a Tarrant house and join the Club. Dickie Doyle-Davidson played me in on the East. After successfully getting the ball out of the right-hand greenside bunker of the second onto the green for three, he said, ‘Ok let’s have lunch”.

In those days a trip to the village shops for my wife could take hours as she knew and chatted to everyone she met. Regularly seen in the shops and local establishments were Bruce, Elton, Bryan and Nanette, Russ, Sandy, Nick, Ernie, Sam and Bernard to mention just a few.

Today the Estate features around 1,200 households, liberally spread across the Estate very much as Tarrant envisaged. Keeping a low density of housing sprinkled though oak and pines is only being maintained by the enforcement of single dwelling covenants.

The 52 acres of the River Bourne flows from Virginia Water lake and meanders through the Estate. This hidden gem offers a rare rich wetland habitat for both flora and fauna. Thanks to the legacy of Lady Cabrara and the Cabrera Trust this Nature reserve is here for posterity. Walkways through the Bourne Valley start in Harpesford Avenue close to Wellington Avenue and run through Trumps Green ending up by the railway station. John Pyle, Chairman of the Neighbourhood Plan Forum, says that: “The Virginia Water Neighbourhood Plan strives to preserve the open and green nature of the Estate for years to come. It will resolutely support the WERC’s enforcement of covenants, such as the prohibition on subdividing plots and creating multi-dwellings, to ensure that future development does not change Wentworth’s special character and the residents’ quality of life can continue to be enjoyed as Tarrant envisaged a century ago.”

What a buzz for Birtwistle

Head Tennis Professional James Birtwistle first arrived at Wentworth in 2003. “I’ll always remember the day I arrived for my interview,” he said. “It was a beautiful spring morning and there were four gentlemen teeing off and having great fun. I remember thinking. ‘Wow, how lucky are they.’ Then I arrived over at the Tennis & Health Club and it was buzzing. That was 19 years ago and I must say that it is wonderful to see that today the buzz has continued.”

Among the memories of his time at Wentworth, Birtwistle highlights the event in September 2012 celebrating Andy Murray’s victories at the Olympics at Wimbledon and the US Open, the Scot’s first grand slam title. “We had a mini grandstand, Sir Bruce Forsyth even took to the microphone. It was a seriously pinch-me moment.”

“Jamie Murray is a welcome visitor and does the odd clinic for us that is always well attended, and the Davis Cup team have been known to practise here, too. That’s what I love about Tennis at Wentworth, nobody expects it and when they see the courts and the overwhelming interest from our Members they are blown away. In particular,” he adds with a glint in his eye, “it’s when an avid golfer decides to rest the clubs and take up the racket … for me that’s pure success!”

“Times have moved on and around our borders there are many development threats. The Wentworth Residents’ Association is working with much support from our major stakeholders, committee Members, residents, the Neighbourhood Plan Forum, the Roads Committee, the Club, the European Tour and our trio of local and county councillors to mitigate the effects of these. We are positioning Virginia Water and Wentworth as the jewel in the crown of Surrey because of its situation in the leafy green belt, unparalleled access to Wentworth Club, Windsor Great Park, Chobham Common, water sports’ facilities, the University and many recreational and resort activities in line with the 2040 Local Plan. We want to preserve the quality of life first envisioned by Tarrant on this beautiful Estate and village for the next 100 years, whilst still accommodating inevitable change.”

Tarrant’s vision for a golfing estate has been much copied over the decades, but never quite replicated, certainly not by the projects which line the fairways with properties. Tarrant ensured Colt had wide corridors to work with, the houses kept well away from the courses behind the treeline. “If anyone followed Tarrant’s vision to the full today,” Blanch said, “they would still be on to a winner, but there may be barren years so they would need the courage of their convictions.” Tarrant, and his successors, needed the courage of their convictions to overcome the early difficulties, but, as Wentworth celebrates its centenary, the mystique endures. Thank you, WG.

“

Wentworth means many things to many people but to me it’s history, tradition, heritage but at the same time it’s modern and forward thinking, it’s a trail blazer.

Nick Dougherty, Professional Golfer and Broadcaster ”

Nice to sit here, to sit here nice

One of the most beloved residents of the Wentworth Estate was Sir Bruce Forsyth, the celebrated entertainer and presenter for more than seven decades. His wonderful connection with the Club was commemorated on August 18, 2020, three years after his death at the age of 89. A new bench was unveiled at the Halfway House for the East and West Courses in his honour, and bearing the inscription, “Nice to sit here, to sit here nice,” a nod to his famous catchphrase. “This Halfway House was Bruce’s favourite place to have a sausage sandwich and regroup before the back nine,” recalled his widow, Lady Wilnelia Forsyth. “He loved playing golf and was a proud Member of Wentworth for many, many years. The family and I are very grateful to the Club for remembering him in this way.”

a house there. Of course, by the time I met him, he had already managed to make this dream come true and when we got married, in 1980, Wentworth became my English home and remains so to this day.

In the winter months we would go to the warmth of Puerto Rico but come the spring, Bruce would be eager to get back to Surrey to the home and golf courses he so loved and he never got tired of telling me how beautiful the rhododendrons were when in flower.

Lady Wilnelia added: “I remember Bruce telling me how, when he first went to Wentworth, he dreamed of one day being able to buy

Writing this makes me both sad and happy as I think of all the memories. Sunday lunches at the Club, Bruce’s excitement to play in the BMW Pro-Ams, all the family gatherings and parties at our house, the phone call from the 18th telling me he and his friends were just finishing and would be back to the house for lunch in a few minutes and so, so much more.”

From the Highlands to Centenary Captain

Ally Hunter could not be more appreciative of being Captain of Wentworth Club in its centenary year. “It would be special whatever the year, but for Wentworth’s centenary it is that little bit more special, a real privilege,” said the Scot. “I don’t think it sank in what it meant until I got to put on the Captain’s jacket for the first time. That was quite a moment. I’d spoken to all the past Captains, but I don’t think you appreciate everything that goes into the running the Club and how hard all the staff work until you get to see the great machine behind the scenes providing such a wonderful experience for all the Members.

“Within weeks I was taking a team to play at Sawgrass in Florida and it is those moments when you are representing the Club at St Andrews or hosting some of the most prestigious clubs in the world at Wentworth, just as much as when we are staging big tournaments, that you realise the place our Club holds in the game of golf.”

As a boy, Hunter grew up in the Scottish Highlands playing shinty and football, but with a grandfather from St Andrews with golf in his blood and an amateur clubmaker to boot he provided young Ally’s first putter. From then the lure of golf became impossible to withstand.

It was on his grandparents’ television that Hunter first glimpsed the fairways of Wentworth at the World Match Play. “Our generation learnt all about the West Course from watching it on television, but times change and now the younger generations have already played it on Play Station.”

After moving back to the UK from Switzerland, Hunter told his wife that he was taking a break from golf, but wanted to join a gym. “It turned out the best gym I could find was here at Wentworth and so I joined as a member — and my break from golf did not last long after that,” he recalled. “But it is a good reminder that Wentworth is not just about the golf. The tennis and health sections are thriving and all types of Members are so well catered for.

“That the Captain now represents and acts as an ambassador for the whole Club is something I really embrace. It illustrates the evolution of the Club and I really enjoy working with Sally Wingrove from the ladies golf section, and Tom Canning and Claire Bovill from the tennis section, as well as key members of the staff. Being able to help raise funds for our charity this year, Greenhouse Sports, which provides access to sport and mentoring for all young people, is a privilege, but I think the best thing I have found so far is simply being able to meet so many more wonderful Members who are what make the club special.

“It is such an open and friendly Club with an interesting and diverse membership. And as Captain, there are always people wanting to have a word or two! It has been a challenging time for everyone in the last few years and it has been wonderful to see the Club come alive again for this centenary year.

“What foresight it was by Mr Tarrant in creating the Club. His vision is alive and well as you can see from the properties on the Estate and the quality of the refurbished Clubhouse, the golf courses and our other facilities. Mr Tarrant can be incredibly proud of what he created and Reignwood can be equally be proud of how they have taken that vision on since becoming owners, and augmenting it in their future plans for the Club. For all of us who love Wentworth, it could not be better placed entering its second century.”

Roses blooming at Wentworth

Justin Rose, Olympic Golf Champion for Team GB in 2016, is the latest star to make Wentworth his home. “There’s no other place like it in England,” said the 2013 US Open Champion, who recently moved onto the Estate with wife Kate and their children.

“It offers you so much in the way of community, but also you still feel connected to the outside community as well. When I used to get to come and visit Wentworth as a child, I was always wide-eyed and it was a really aspirational place for me. So to have the opportunity to spend a lot of time in the estate is quite a privilege.

“The PGA at Wentworth really has been the most special tournament to me because as a youngster I would come here and be one of those young boys behind the 18th hole always asking for a ball and enjoy being close up and personal with icons of the game. I can still remember to this day, just being in awe of seeing Nick Faldo and Seve and Greg Norman up close. I can remember specific shots that were hit and the feeling, more importantly, of being so excited to get back to my home club and try to emulate the shots that I’d seen and take inspiration from the day. I really felt like that gave me a glimpse into what it would be like to be a pro golfer. It helped me dream, it helped me visualise it, and it helped set the path for me in my head.

“Wentworth is fantastic place for us to have as a base and raise our family. The convenience of the Club and its amenities makes my life easier and gives me the opportunity to live and work at Wentworth in a really efficient manner. It helps me spend the maximum amount of time with my family and still get all the work done with my golf. The facilities for golf and fitness are first class, and we are excited to hear about the potential paddle courts as that’s something we enjoy together as a family and socially. It allows me the opportunity to play on an iconic golf course and get some wonderful practice in on a venue that hosts one of the biggest championships in the world. The logistics of living at Wentworth are extremely convenient; being so close to Heathrow Airport is helpful for me, and I am also in close proximity to all my friends and family who I grew up with. We are very lucky to have so many great schools in this area as well and our children have settled in well at nearby schools.

“I think the Club is really the heartbeat of the Estate at Wentworth. The amenities it provides, no matter what you are in to, whether general health and fitness, tennis, golf, whether it’s just a place to meet at the café, and the kids to go and play at the playground or ride bikes around, it’s a place that gives us so much flexibility as a family.

We recently enjoyed the cricket day that Wentworth organised which was a lovely way to meet people and enjoy a family activity all together and feel part of the Wentworth community.”

Wildfire cuts short Rose final

When the 2020 Rose Ladies Series culminated in a Grand Final at Wentworth a dramatic conclusion was hoped for, but not quite as it turned out. Kate Rose had read of Liz Young’s attempt to put on a one-day event for women professionals who had nowhere to play in the early stages of the Covid pandemic — and with husband Justin helped expand it into a series of events prior to the resumption of the Ladies European Tour. The Grand Final was meant to be a 54-hole affair starting at North Hants, Justin’s original home club, then moving to The Berkshire and concluding on the iconic West Course at Wentworth.

Previously, the big events for women at Wentworth had been played on the East. “It was such a big thing for women’s professional golf to have an event here on the West and being an Ambassador for the Club, I was really excited for the final to be here,” said Georgia Hall, the 2018 Women’s Open Champion. “With all the tournaments being cancelled, it was great that we were able to play some competitive golf at that time.”

Except the glorious summer weather led to a wildfire on Chobham Common getting out of control and jumping over the railway line into the woods between the 10th tee and the 12th green of the West. Valiant work by firefighters and the Club’s Greenkeeping staff, long into the night and over subsequent days and weeks, prevented further encroachment onto the course itself. The final round was cancelled for safety reasons with Alice Hewson, the 36-hole leader, declared the winner from Charley Hull, and Hall tying for third.

“It was such a shame what happened with the fire, so unexpected, though it was a very hot day,” Hall said. “I could see it all as we were approaching the hole where it was happening. I was one shot behind at that time but we were obviously advised to come back in. It was lucky no one was hurt and that was the main thing. The team here at Wentworth handled it so well. Despite what happened, there was lots of positivity from the day. I hope there is a professional event for women here again because I would love to play in it.”

“To say I feel at home at Wentworth is an understatement. It is in my blood.”

It’s hard to believe that in Wentworth’s centenary year I have been associated with this wonderful Club for more than half of that time.

I was first invited to represent Wentworth as a travelling professional on the fledgling European Tour in 1970 and was later offered the chance to become head professional after my good friend, Tom Haliburton, sadly died of a heart attack. Later still, I had the honour of becoming Club captain.

To say I feel at home at Wentworth is an understatement. It is in my blood.

The first time I came here was to caddie for Max Faulkner in the Wentworth Foursomes in 1968. Max, the former Open champion, was my coach at the time and I carried his bag as a favour. I remember that when I first saw the West course and the clubhouse, I was completely in awe. Coming from Bathgate, in Scotland, I had no idea courses could be in such wonderful condition.

It’s funny how things turn out. A year later I was back here as a player in my own right and competing in the Daks tournament. I led with two holes to play but finished six-six and ended up as a runner-up to Brian Huggett.

Later that year I played in the Ryder Cup at Royal Birkdale and got to know Tom, who also happened to be the captain of the PGA. Soon after, he reached out to me to ask if I’d like to join his staff at Wentworth. He explained that he had retired from tournament play and that the Club wanted representation on the tour. I didn’t need much persuading and officially came on board in 1970.

In October 1975, Tom and I were preparing to play in a pro-am tournament together when he had his heart attack and died. He was only 62 and it was devastating. Unbeknown to me, Tom had spoken to the owners of the Club and said he’d hoped I’d follow him as head professional when he retired. With that in mind, I was offered the position and chose to take it. It was the best decision I ever made.

I was 26, which was young to be a head pro, but I loved everything about the job. I was lucky that there weren’t as many tournaments as there are today and I could pick and choose. I always said I was a club pro who played the tournaments, rather than a tournament player who was also a club pro.

If I was competing, I always looked forward to getting back to Wentworth on a Monday morning and getting out with members on the Tuesday. I looked upon it as a way of practising for tournaments. Rather than hitting balls all day, you couldn’t have got a better, more challenging course to practise on.

There’s no doubt that being a pro here helped me to be successful. It was a good base, which is why so many of the top pros lived here. Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Sam Torrance — I encouraged them all to live on the Estate and remember driving around with Sandy and Sam, showing them houses.

We may have had different owners over the years but I’ve never lost that sense of belonging. The proudest thing for my wife Lesley and me is that, after I retired, the Club made us honorary life members in 1997. Our whole family enjoyed being here and my son, Jamie, even became Club champion.

The Clubhouse has been changed by successive owners. It would be fair to say that in the 70s and 80s we had a great course and a rundown Clubhouse that was a little frayed at the edges. In many ways it didn’t live up to expectations, especially when putting on big tournaments like the World Match Play and the PGA Championship.

It took courage to spend all this money. The first redevelopment was done under the guidance of Willy Bauer, a lovely man who was Chief Executive of the Wentworth Group. Willy was responsible for developing the fitness, health and tennis centre and building a new driving range. Under his leadership, Wentworth became the blueprint for many golf and country clubs in the UK and I was really saddened by his death this year.

Later, Richard Caring put his stamp on the West Course as well as the Clubhouse, and now Reignwood have taken the redevelopment to another level. Now I’d say we’re proud of the golf courses, which are in magnificent condition; and we’re proud of our first-class Clubhouse.

I’m lucky that I’ve travelled the world and played at some of the top venues. And I can honestly say that Wentworth now stands alongside the best, both on and off the course. It has an iconic status that is well deserved.

All the great players have played and won here, among them Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ernie Els, Colin Montgomerie, Ian Woosnam, Faldo, Lyle and Seve Ballesteros, who loved it here. I guess the only name missing from that list is Tiger Woods, who lost, ironically, to his great friend Mark O’Meara in the final of the World Match Play.

For obvious reasons, I had always wanted to play in that particular championship. In the early days there were only eight players and they tended to be major winners. The field was later extended to 12 and I was once the first reserve, but that was as far as it went. Then, in 1980, the European Tour offered a place to the winner of the Tournament Players’ Championship, at Moortown, and I won it. I was in!

I remember getting through to play Bill Rogers, the defending champion, in the quarter-finals and beating him at the last hole after being three down with eight to play. I then got beaten by Greg Norman in the semi-final, but went on to beat Peter Jacobsen in the third-place playoff. Sandy had been playing in the other semi-final and we both got a telegram out of the blue that said, “Good luck to Lyle and Gallacher from Gallagher and Lyle (the musical duo).” It was a lovely touch.

Needless to say, I had a good following that week, with lots of familiar faces lining the fairways. The Pros used to be given a house on the Estate (with a cook), but I already lived here. So, I invited my parents down and they stayed in the house while we kept the chef! It was certainly a week to remember. Like so many in my life here at Wentworth.

I guess I can’t reflect on my time here without thanking the Club for the statue on the first tee of the West. It was Willy’s idea to have one made to mark my retirement in 1996. It was created by David Wynne, a wonderful sculptor, and took a year to complete. I still have the maquette, David’s small preliminary model, at home and it serves as a reminder of my travels to Fulham to pose for him. The Club was going to find a place for the statu e around the back of the clubhouse, but they decided to leave it where it was unveiled. I could not be more honoured.

Acknowledgements

2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Wentworth Estate and the conceptualisation of Wentworth Club, which in turn heralds the beginning of a multitude of Centenary celebrations across the Club over the next 5 years. The Wentworth Centenary Book would not have been possible without the incredible direction and support from Reignwood Group along with the help and assistance of many people, including the Club’s Trustees, members of the Wentworth Residents’ Association and the Wentworth Estate Roads Committee, as well as many Club members who provided information and suggestions. Considerable thanks are due to golf writers Andy Farrell, Peter Dixon and John Whitbread for contributing the text, and to Tim Leney and his team at TC Communications for the design. The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable and extensive research undertaken by Club archivist Paula Reason, as well as sources such as Wentworth — A Host of Happy Memories, edited by Renton Laidlaw; The Life and Works of Walter George Tarrant, by Richard Norris, and additional research on Tarrant by Mavis Swenarton; and Creating Classics — The Golf Courses of Harry Colt, by Peter Pugh and Henry Lloyd; plus the Subterranea Britannica website for information on Wentworth’s Secret Bunker. Publishing this book was overseen by Sarah Wooldridge of IMG, to whom we owe every gratitude, while the project was masterminded tirelessly on behalf of Wentworth Club by Ruth Scanlan and Amy Watson, with the superb support of General Manager John Blanch.

Photographic credits

Sources for the photography in the book are listed below. Every effort has been made to contact the copyright owners to seek their permission before reproducing the pictures included in the book. Any error or omission in acknowledging ownership is regretted.

Getty Images

Alamy.com

Old Golf Images.com

George Hammond

Knight Frank DP World Tour

Clive Limpkin/ANL/Shutterstock

Printed in the UK by Kingsbury Press. This paper has been independently certified according to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC)®. Cover material used is REACH Compliant. REACH is a European Regulation and is an acronym for the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals. The overall aims of REACH are to: Provide a high level of protection of human health and the environment from the use of chemicals.