Wentworth Golf Club West Course

Tournaments including the Ryder Cup in 1953, the Canada Cup - later called simply the World Cup - in 1956, countless World Matchplay events and the PGA Championship since 1984. Players including Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, Colin Montgomerie and Tiger Woods. Much of the history of golf is wrapped up in Wentworth West, as much a part of these 18 stunning holes as the dramatic woodland and the colourful rhododendrons. The course is another example of the heights Harry Colt achieved in his heyday as one of the world's foremost course designers. The variety and diversity of the holes, marked most especially by the changes in elevation, lift Wentworth West above the mundane into the very highest company among the great courses.

The ever improving technology that powers modern golf left Wentworth West facing an uncertain future as players found Colt's design was getting that bit to easy for them. Step forward Ernie Els who is sponsored by Wentworth and who lives on the Wentworth. In 2009, the big, popular South African was charged with improving and refining the course a task which involved much rebunkering and lengthening certain holes. Far from removing the spirit of Colt which so permeated the old set up Els' stunning work actually reinvigorated the old spirit of the course, the spirit that Colt would have envisioned all those years ago. Today Wentworth West stands proud as a firm but fair test of all the things that makes golf great.