Club profile: Wentworth Club

The club has undergone significant change in the last few years including stunning interior improvements – a £13 million project that is perhaps the biggest in golf clubhouse history.

A £13 million renovation of the clubhouse at Wentworth has set new standards for luxury in the UK sports and leisure industry. The launch in May at the BMW PGA Championship was another step towards the club achieving its ambition of becoming the world’s premier private golf and country club.

The renovation of the 19th century clubhouse building, the former home of the brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, followed £7 million spent by owner, Reignwood Group, on redesigning the famous West Course.

It took eight months to refit the clubhouse in time for this season’s BMW PGA Championship, and the results are outstanding.

Stephen Gibson, chief executive at Wentworth Club, said: “Our ambition is for Wentworth to be the world’s premier private golf and country club. Our exquisite clubhouse interior is another demonstration of the commitment to this vision. The interior now provides members with the epitome of luxury and functionality. The clubhouse retains the Wentworth feel for which the club is known, but brings new innovations and technology.”

The renovation started in September 2017. At its peak, 150 builders were on-site at any one time to ensure that the work was completed in time for the BMW Championship, the flagship event of the European Tour.

London’s leading luxury interiors firm Thorp Design managed the design of the project.

With sport at the very heart of the club, the male and female locker rooms received particular attention. Luxurious new saunas and steam rooms were added to complete the ‘post-round’ experience in style.

Thorp Design recommended sports’ locker room specialist Ridgeway Furniture to Wentworth. The firm was recruited initially to undertake the manufacture and installation of the female golf changing room lockers and benches. After further meetings it was agreed that Ridgeway would also provide new lockers in the spa changing rooms and undertake a major refurbishment of the male golf locker room. This included new doors, locks, pelmets, mirrors and the ancillary fitted furniture within the changing rooms.

Gibson said: “Ridgeway are the locker room firm of choice in our industry. Wentworth wanted the very best to complement the high standard of the rest of the clubhouse. They were the obvious candidate. The project needed to be undertaken within a tight timescale, with many other trades operating in the same locations. The deadline date could not be moved at any cost and Ridgeway did not disappoint, completing their work on time and to budget.”

Elsewhere, the new pro shop provides a boutique style experience more akin to that found on London’s Bond Street, showcasing collections curated with leading equipment and apparel retailers.

The Hall of Fame houses the club’s vast collection of historical memorabilia – reframed and refurbished, including a famous image of The Ryder Cup which hangs proudly in the new club lounge.

While few clubs could dream of having a clubhouse like the one Wentworth Club enjoys, many can afford the luxury of a changing room transformation carried out by Ridgeway Furniture. Since its inception Ridgeway has manufactured tens of thousands of lockers that have been installed in traditional members’ clubs as well as some of the most prestigious golf clubs in the world.

The company has seen turnover increase by more than 100 per cent over the past five years and has invested more than £500,000 in a new factory increasing its capacity by over 50 per cent. The facility, at more than 18,000 square feet, means the company is now the UK’s largest dedicated manufacturer of wooden lockers.