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Investigative reporters at the Telegraph have discovered that a massive loan was taken out by the new Chinese owners of Wentworth Club to finance the £135 million purchase from former owner Richard Caring.

Reignwood Group, who are aiming to reduce the membership of Wentworth to just 888 members, a lucky number to Chinese, are asking members to pay £100,000 to rejoin the club. a debenture which has no guarantee of being resold.

The discovery that Reignwood’s directors took out a $155 million loan (£110 million) from Siam Commercial Bank to fund the purchase has fueled the row netween the owners and club members.

The members complain that the Bejing based conglomorate has saddled them with crippling debt that makes no financial sense. The interest on the loan could amount to $5 million when Wentworth’s profit last year only amounted to £3.5 million.

Mr Ni Songua, the Vice President of Wentworth Club has said this week that “protestors are sending the wrong signals to overseas investors in the UK”.

China’s Lin Xiyu says that this week’s World Ladies Championship at Mission Hills Resort Dongguan will be the ideal warm up for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro where she will be targeting individual and national glory.

Although only individual medals will be awarded when golf returns to the Games this summer for the first time since 1904, the World Ladies Championship’s innovative format includes a team competition based on the combined scores of two players from the same country.

Lin said: “This tournament is kind of similar to the Olympics because we are playing for ourselves but also as part of a team and I’m here with Pan Yan-Hong. We were part of the same Province team before, when we played on the National team, so we know each other. We are a team but we are playing our own games.

“I think that will give me experience and also Mission Hills and the National Team have helped me a lot throughout my career, so I think it’s an important tournament and I’m glad to be here.”

This is a big year for many of the Olympic hopefuls in the field of 126 competitors, who have taken their preparations to the next level in 2016. Denmark’s Nicole Broch Larsen is looking fitter, stronger and hungrier than ever after a successful start to the season, which included a third place finish in the recent RACV Ladies Masters in Australia.

Last week seven time major champion Inbee Park, 27, expressed her concerns about the Zika virus. She said she would be taking advice of her doctor before committing to play for South Korea. She wants to know if the virus can affect a pregnancy years after a person has been exposed to it. Park plans to start a family soon and has said she wonders whether the Olympic Games are being staged in the right place.

Rickie Fowler hit the best golf shot of his life on Monday at the annual Cigar Aficionado-Wine Spectator Pro-Am to benefit Ernie Els for Autism at Old Palm Golf Club in Florida.

Fowler, along with a number of other pros and celebrities, took a crack at a 113-yard shot that, if they aced, would raise $1 million for the research and education programs done through Els for Autism. After a number of players, including Rory McIlroy, tried and couldn’t make the ace, Fowler stepped up. But first, he changed out of his golf shoes. And he decided to use Luke Donald’s pitching wedge.

He always referred to me as “that woman” so I wasnt all that inclined to watch the Billy Foster profile on Golfing World this week.

But he was, for five years, Seve Ballesteros’ caddie and for surviving that long he deserved some sort of medal.

In the film he read out the letter which he received when he was first employed by Seve. He read this out in something like Seve’s voice, and said

“You have to be aware that on the course the player is always right and there should be no arguments”

Now that was telling it like it was. The caddie was always wrong, and Seve was always right.

But Billy’s eyes filled with tears when he read this, and he talked about his five years of working with a genius, which he was. It was probably the worst gig ever in golf, to be Seve’s caddie, but all of them seem to love and miss him regardless.

NASCAR champion Kevin Harvick has had this replica of the 12th hole at Augusta National built in his back yard. Well jell? We all are.

By the end of 2016 it is estimated that more than 300 UK golf clubs, 15% of all clubs, will also have a FootGolf facility on site.

Two golf clubs, Grimsby in Yorkshire and Burstow in Surrey have closed down their golf business to focus solely on FootGolf.

Clubs which have a FootGolf course have reported up to 300% increase in visitors bringing in a huge increase in spend on green fees and food and drink sales.

FootGolf’s appeal to under 16s has drawn in families who have tried golf after visiting the club for the first time, being the most effective driver for new memberships.

Gareth May, the UK Development Manager for UK FootGolf says the hybrid sport should be seen as an opportunity, not a threat. The courses need minimal upkeep. It is transforming golf facilities across the country, a remarkable phenomenon. It is an extremely popular new sport because it is inclusive and not expensive.

Three time major champion Padraig Harrington has been approached by Darren Clarke to become European Vice Captain at this year’s Ryder Cup matches at Brookline.

The Irishman has played in six Ryder Cups but has never had a backroom role.

He said it was difficult to see himself playing his way into the 2016 team so he would now be there one way or another.

Thomas Bjorn and Paul Lawrie are also expected to be appointed to Vice Captain roles.

On March 8 nine top Brazillian golfers will test the new Olympic golf course in Bara da Tijuana. The test event will be closed to the public as only a delegation from the International Golf Federation and a team from Rio 2016 will act as observers. The 18 hole stroke play exhibition will be used to test both the course and the results system and the deployment of 104 volunteers.

The players, Alexandre Rocha, Rafael Becker, Daniel Stampf, Rafael Barcellos, Rodrigo Lee, Miriam Nagl, Victoria Lovelacy, Candy Hennemann and Lucian Lee will go iut in 3 groups of 3, and will give their feedback after the round.

The Olympic golf event will take olace between 11-20 August in front of  a potential 15,000 fans. It will be the forst Olympic golf event since the St Louis Olympics of 1904.

The Rio Olympic golf course has been built woth private funding but after the event it will become a public facility to promote golf  in Brazil and host top level competition.

More scary photobombing at the Honda Classic this week.

There have been some interesting interviews with Darren Clarke and Davis Love III,this year’s Ryder Cup Captains. What fascinated me was their approaches to their teams and the object of winning were so very different.

Love talked about the massive task the Americans have to win the cup again in such an objective manner. It was all about strategy (but not tactics I noted). He acknowledged the good ideas Paul Azinger came up with (see my post The Podfather below), but it was all completely detached and hands off.

Clarke on the other hand is clearly focussing on his players as people. He said “I’m going to be the kind of Captain that will put my arm around a player”. It is this kind of human bonding which had always brought the Europeans together as a team, and is, in my view, a much more winning formula than chosing personalities for pods.

It’s understandable that in such a deeply competitive society and  golf tour that the Americans don’t bond as players, they’re too afraid to get close to each other, and it is for them just a one week every two years.

They are missing the trick. Perhaps its just been too long since they won, and if they do win at Hazeltine, then they might allow themselves to hug each other.

Until then it will still be a team of twelve individuals playing for themselves under a common flag. Or four groups of four playing in their little pods, competing with the other pods as well as the Europeans.