New Wentworth Owner Hoping To Run Off Most Members

Thanks to reader Brian for Nick Cravens' Mail On Sunday story on a pending "cull" of the Wentworth membership.

Rogers says new owner Dr Chanchai Ruayrungruang--take that spelling bee contestants!--plans to clear his plan to replace old British guys with Russian and Chinese tycoons.

He will be making his plans clear at a Tuesday club membership meeting. Oh to be a fly...

Members who currently pay £8,000 annual subscriptions – after a one-off joining fee of £15,000 – will now be required to fork out up to an additional £80,000 to buy a 'debenture' share, or face being kicked out.

An insider told The Mail on Sunday that the club's Chinese bosses expect only 250 present members out of a total of 3,000 to remain after the price hike.

The source said they will be replaced by 600 'ultra high net worth' individuals – those with assets of more than £20 million each. Many of them will be Chinese or Russian tycoons.

Wentworth annually hosts the BMW Championship each May.