Chanchai Ruayrungruang is the man responsible for trying to rip the beating heart out of Wentworth, one of Britain’s most exclusive golf clubs.
The Beijing-based Reignwood Group had planned to introduce a new membership scheme that would see existing members charged a £100,000 ($141,000) debenture and new joiners £125,000 ($176,300), with the annual subscription also going up from £8,000 ($11,300) to £16,000 ($22,600). This would make Wentworth one of the most expensive golf clubs in the world.
Wentworth confirmed that annual fees will be raised slightly, but that plans to shaft 1,100 families who live on the estate will be scrapped. The club will still charge new members the extortionate debencher, but this must be seen as a win for everyone who has been involved in the club’s revolt.
They have had to overcome some legal challenges, not to mention one particular member who went behind his friends and stabbed them in the back.
This is such a great result for golf in Britain. The course has been open to the public for years, providing people with an opportunity to play on any of the three courses. These b******* tried to stop that from happening. They tried to reduce membership from 4,000 to 888 by pricing the majority of residents out, many of which already pour large amounts of their wealth into the club. The fact that “888” was chosen tells you a lot about the hard-nosed investors; the property rights of families were compromised because of a “lucky number”. BS
