Wentworth Golf Club has revealed that its membership database has been hacked by cybercriminals.
Wentworth, whose patrons include some of the UK's most rich and famous celebrities, announced it had suffered a data breach from “an unauthorised third party".
Home to the headquarters of the European Tour, Major winner Georgia Hall and Ladies European Tour player Annabel Dimmock are both amongst the Wentworth members affected.
Other famous members of the exclusive Surrey venue include Sir Michael Parkinson, cricket’s Kevin Pietersen and presenters Ant and Dec.
Worried members
A total of 4,000 members were affected, and even though the situation is considered 'low risk', some members have expressed concern over their personal security.
The luxurious club, who currently charges £150,000 to join upfront, has asked its patrons to ‘remain vigilant to any unusual or unexpected approaches by phone, email or through social media’.
Some said they first spotted something was wrong on January 4 when a member's email communication informed them that their files were encrypted and requested bitcoin payments to unlock them.
After investigating further, Wentworth has now confirmed that its ClubHouse Online system was accessed and a data file exported
Wentworth General Manager Neil Coulson broke the news to members in an apologetic email.
It said: "The export file in question contains your personal details including your name, gender, home address, email address, landline number, and date of birth.
"I fully appreciate this will be concerning for you but we have taken third party specialist advice and have been assured there is not enough personal information in the file to enable improper access to your private account and therefore it is considered a low risk.
Meanwhile, one member told the Mailonline: "This hack is very worrying. I don’t know what the implications are or why they have waited so long to tell us.
"I emailed them a week ago asking if they had been hacked and they didn’t answer or acknowledge."
Exclusive venue
Wentworth was bought by Chinese investment company Reignwood Investments for £135 million in 2014.
Since then it has tried to instigate a number of changes, including attempting to make the club more exclusive by reducing the membership from 4,000 to 900.
The venue hosts the annual BMW PGA Championship and also famously staged the Rose Ladies Series Grand Final, which was sadly cut short by wild fires.
Georgia is currently over in a America waiting to kick off her season at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champion. Hopefully this latest news won't stop her from performing at her best.
