Wentworth golfers declare victory as owner Reignwood scraps a proposed £100,000 joining fee, but the club’s tennis captain and mining grandee Kirill Klip is still on the warpath
Golfers may have declared victory in the battle for Wentworth Golf Club after Chinese owner Reignwood scrapped plans to charge members £100,000 to rejoin, but the club's tennis captain and resident mining boss is still on the warpath.
Following months of discussions, Reignwood announced on Friday it was backing down on a number of proposed measures that had members threatening to leave.
On the same day, Wentworth's tennis captain and TNR Gold chair Kirill Klip received a letter from the club's chief exec Stephen Gibson, asking him to attend a hearing about the nature of his protests against the proposed membership restructure.
Klip has landed in hot water with Wentworth management before. Last month execs threatened legal action against him after a neighbourhood group he is a member of announced it was assessing its legal powers to disrupt the PGA golf championships being held at the club in May.
The latest hearing is scheduled for Monday, the day before a general meeting for members where one of the proposed resolutions will be to demand that the club retract all legal and disciplinary threats against Klip.
In a letter seen by City A.M., Gibson wrote to the Russian-born mining boss last Thursday, citing accusations of racism, encouraging harassment of Reignwood's London-based head Ni Songhua and making "ill-founded, inflammatory" claims against club management as reasons for the hearing.
Klip, who has been one of the most vocal campaigners against the changes, defiantly told The Capitalist: "I am not going to this meeting before the extraordinary general meeting, when we can all discuss and vote on critical issues for our club. I think I have the right to have my lawyer with me as well."
"It looks like (Gibson) is trying to fabricate any case to silence the opposition to his plans to destroy British Heritage – our club with 94 years of history."
The club declined to comment further, saying the hearing is a private matter between the tennis captain and Wentworth management.