Wentworth, West Course

A gothic house called Wentworths stood on this Surrey ground from 1805. The builder George Tarrant bought it with two hundred acres in 1920, and the club was founded in 1922. Harry Colt designed the East Course in 1924 and the West in 1927. In 1926 a friendly match between Britain and the United States was played on the East, the forerunner of the Ryder Cup; the Ryder Cup itself came in 1953. The World Match Play ran here from 1964 to 2007. The PGA Championship arrived in 1972 and has been played at Wentworth every year since 1984. The European Tour has its headquarters on site.

The West is 7,284 yards, par 72; the East is par 68 over 6,201 yards and held the first Curtis Cup in 1932. Ernie Els reworked the West in stages from 2005 to 2017. Paul Casey won the 2009 BMW PGA on the old greens; the course then shut for a rebuild, and when the eighteen new USGA-spec greens appeared in 2010 Casey said the work had stripped the West of its character. Els came back after the 2016 championship to put sub-air under every green. The West carries another name. Its fairways were left to grow wild in the war so aircraft could not land, and German prisoners from a nearby camp were brought in to clear them; an officer watching said let this be their Burma Road.