‘Well, knock me down with a feather, crows are ruining our game of golf’

CROWS have been causing problems at the oldest golf club in Leeds.

The feathered fiends have been swooping on Headingley Golf Club and stealing members’ balls – sometimes before they’ve even made it past the first hole.

John Hall, club secretary, said: “About a week after it first started I was playing with a group and I had a ball pinched. It was taken from in front of us on the 18th hole.”

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He said the ball thefts had become “a very regular occurrence” for the past six weeks, with ball-pinching hot spots around the first, second and 18th holes.

If they were all premium balls, the brazen bandits would have collected a little nest egg worth more than £400.

Mr Hall said: “Crows will take the eggs of other birds, so if they see a golf ball they may consider it to be an egg and steal it.”

The RSPB advised players to use fluorescent balls instead of white ones. The rules of golf state that if a ball in motion is accidentally deflected or stopped by any outside agency, there is no penalty.

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The ball must be played from where it originally lay, and if the ball is not immediately recoverable, another may be substituted.

Mr Hall, a member for 35 years, said: “This time of year we are not playing any competitive golf so it doesn’t really affect anybody. The competition season starts at the end of April, so hopefully the situation will sort itself out.”

So far, members have not been tempted to take action.

Mr Hall said: “Obviously there’s been calls to go out and try and shoot them but that’s not what we do.”

The father-of-two added: “Balls go missing – it’s not the end of the world.”

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