Wentworth history: Colt, match play and the PGA

The story and its setting

Wentworth's history is larger than the annual championship now associated with its West Course. Its story includes a country estate, Harry Colt's course architecture, an unofficial international match that preceded the Ryder Cup, the Ryder Cup itself, women's amateur competition and decades of elite match play. For a visitor, the first useful distinction is between the club and its individual courses. The West supplies the best-known tournament images, but the East has an important history of its own.

From house and estate to golf club

The club's official chronology begins before golf. In 1805 Culling Charles Smith and Lady Anne Fitzroy built the house known as Wentworths. George Tarrant acquired the house and surrounding land in 1920, and Wentworth Club was founded in 1922. Golf transformed the estate's identity during the following decade, but did not create its earliest buildings or landscape from nothing.

The distinction helps explain why Wentworth feels different from a club established on coastal common ground. Its golfing development formed part of a wider estate story. The clubhouse, courses and surrounding property belong to related phases rather than a single founding moment. The club's timeline also records a later change in ownership in 2014 and the launch of its refurbished clubhouse in 2018. Those dates are useful landmarks when looking at older photographs: the institution has retained its name while its setting and facilities have continued to change. Source: Wentworth's official timeline.

Colt and the East and West courses

Harry Colt designed the East Course, which opened in 1924 and was originally known as the No. 1 Course. The West followed as the championship course. There is a small but material discrepancy over its opening date: the club's current timeline places it in 1927, while Golf Monthly's course histories give 1926. We follow the club's chronology here and retain the disagreement rather than silently turning the two dates into one.

Both dates place the West in the same period of rapid development, but they should not be used interchangeably in an exact anniversary claim. A history-minded visit benefits more from identifying the two designs than from treating every event at Wentworth as something that happened on the West. The East opened first; the later course became the annual championship stage. That division gives the estate two different kinds of significance, one connected with its formative international golf and another with the professional events that made its reputation worldwide. Official chronology; independent course history and date discrepancy.

1926 and the Ryder Cup connection

Wentworth hosted an informal match between British and American professionals in 1926. Golf Monthly identifies the East as its course and places Samuel Ryder among those who watched. The event belongs among the Ryder Cup's precursors, rather than the official competition's results. The first Ryder Cup was played in 1927 at Worcester Country Club in the United States.

This is an important distinction at a venue sometimes described as the competition's birthplace. Such a phrase expresses its association with the idea; it does not mean the first official Ryder Cup took place here. Nor should the 1926 East Course match be relocated to the West merely because the latter is now the more familiar tournament course. The two stories meet later, when Wentworth hosted the actual Ryder Cup in 1953. Keeping the stages separate allows you to follow the competition's development without flattening an unofficial match, the creation of the trophy and a later official edition into the same event. Source: the East Course's 1926 match; official Ryder Cup origins.

The 1953 Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup reached Wentworth officially on 2–3 October 1953. The club's seventy-year retrospective identifies it as the tenth edition. The DP World Tour also records the West Course as the venue, linking the international contest to the same course that later became familiar through the PGA Championship and World Match Play.

That appearance gives Wentworth a place on a much shorter list than the general catalogue of professional tournament venues. It also offers a useful comparison with its recurring events. A Ryder Cup is a concentrated episode within a course's history, while a championship staged repeatedly builds a long sequence of memories over the same ground. Here both kinds of association coexist. Use the complete Ryder Cup results page for the match's formal record, then return to this course history for the way it fits between the early East Course encounter and the West's later tournament life. Source: club dates; DP World Tour course history.

Four decades of World Match Play

The World Match Play Championship began at Wentworth in 1964 and remained there through 2007. Arnold Palmer won the inaugural edition and took the title again in 1967. The DP World Tour's later tournament history separates that Wentworth era from the competition's move to Spain, where Ross Fisher won in 2009.

Those dates matter because the event's history continued beyond this course. Wentworth supplied its long original home, but not every subsequent World Match Play result belongs here. Its match-play identity also differs from the regular stroke-play championship. The closing holes could decide a head-to-head contest before a final had used its full allotted distance, and a player's route to the trophy depended on surviving opponents rather than compiling the lowest field-wide aggregate. Reading the two competitions together reveals why the West became associated with both sustained scoring and direct confrontation. Source: official World Match Play history; Palmer's wins and the later transition.

Ernie Els: champion and designer

Ernie Els won the World Match Play seven times, giving him a connection with Wentworth that later extended from competition into course design. A contemporary DP World Tour account of his sixth title records another consequence of his success: it secured the 2004 Order of Merit. His association with the West therefore belongs to both its sporting record and its physical development.

That combination is worth remembering when looking at the present course. A famous player's name in a design account can refer to work carried out long after an original architect laid out the holes. Colt remains central to Wentworth's origins; Els's later work concerns adaptation and renovation. Neither contribution needs to erase the other. The club's current surfaces and hazards are the result of a course being maintained for modern championship use, while retaining an identity inherited from its earlier design. Source: Els's seven match-play titles and design role; the sixth title in 2004.

The PGA Championship finds a permanent home

Wentworth first staged the PGA Championship in 1972, and the event has returned every year since 1984. This does not mean the championship itself began at Wentworth: the DP World Tour dates its foundation to 1955 at Pannal. Its earlier travelling years belong in the championship history, while Wentworth's permanent role begins later.

The recurring event has created a particularly clear sequence of winners. Colin Montgomerie won three consecutive editions from 1998 to 2000. His final-round 69 in 2000 left him three shots ahead of Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke and Andrew Coltart. The achievement links a single player across successive years on the same course, making the annual championship an especially useful thread for visitors tracing Wentworth through time. It is a different form of continuity from the one-off Ryder Cup: spectators return, recognise the holes and add the next year's finish to the memory of the previous one. Source: championship origins and permanent venue; Montgomerie's third consecutive win.

A historic course kept changing

Major renovation after the 2009 championship included rebuilding all eighteen greens. The DP World Tour's contemporary report describes a ten-month closure and replacement putting surfaces built to USGA specifications. Further extensive work began in 2016, led by Ernie Els Design and European Golf Design, with advice from Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjørn and David Jones. The course reopened in April 2017.

The later programme included work to every green and the putting green, alongside changes to bunkers. It illustrates why a course's founding date cannot be used as a description of every feature visible today. Championship history survives through recognisable holes and recurring events, but maintenance methods, playing surfaces and individual hazards can be extensively revised. When comparing old and new scoring, attach the year to the performance and remember which version of the course was in play. Source: the 2009–10 programme; the 2016–17 renovation.

A new championship era in 2017

The renovated West staged the first Rolex Series event in 2017, and Alex Noren supplied a finish to match the occasion. Starting the final day seven shots behind, he returned a ten-under-par 62 to win by two. The DP World Tour describes an eagle at the eighteenth after an approach to six feet, a decisive contribution to a round that overtook the leaders.

For spectators, that finish explains the appeal of looking beyond the last group alone. A player earlier in the field can transform a championship by posting a score, leaving others to chase a target that suddenly looks very different. Noren's win belongs to the course's renovated era and to a change in the tournament's place within the Tour's schedule. It is another layer of Wentworth history, rather than evidence that the venue stopped developing once it became established. Source: official account of Noren's comeback; round details.

Donald reaches world number one

Luke Donald's 2011 PGA Championship victory carried a consequence beyond the trophy. He defeated Lee Westwood in a play-off and became world number one for the first time. The DP World Tour's retrospective records the ranking change as part of the Wentworth finish. The episode connects the course to a wider contest for the leading position in the game, while remaining a particular championship result rather than a claim about every round Donald played there. Source: the 2011 championship and ranking.

Championships hosted

Championships at Wentworth history appear below, bringing together the competitions covered in this History section. Qualifying courses are included.

Sources and useful official links

• Confirmed: Source: club dates
• Reported: Source: the East Course's 1926 match
• Confirmed: official Ryder Cup origins
• Confirmed: Source: championship origins and permanent venue
• Confirmed: Source: official World Match Play history
• Confirmed: Palmer's wins and the later transition
• Confirmed: Source: Els's seven match-play titles and design role
• Confirmed: the sixth title in 2004
• Confirmed: Montgomerie's third consecutive win
• Confirmed: Source: the 2009–10 programme
• Confirmed: the 2016–17 renovation
• Confirmed: Source: official account of Noren's comeback
• Confirmed: round details
• Confirmed: Source: the 2011 championship and ranking
• Confirmed: Course and championship history
• Confirmed: Course and championship history
• Confirmed: Course and championship history
• Confirmed: Course and championship history
• Confirmed: Course and championship history
• Confirmed: Course and championship history
• Confirmed: Course and championship history
• Confirmed: Course and championship history
• Confirmed: Course and championship history
• Confirmed: Course and championship history
• Confirmed: Course and championship history
• Reported: Course and championship history
• Confirmed: Course and championship history
• Confirmed: Course and championship history

Useful reading for your visit

• BMW PGA Championship 2027 at Wentworth
• Where to stay for the BMW PGA: Virginia Water, Windsor and Surrey
• Golf history, where it happened

Visit today

• Wentworth Club visitor guide
• BMW PGA Championship 2027 at Wentworth
• Where to stay for the BMW PGA: Virginia Water, Windsor and Surrey

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