VANDALS have destroyed the hard work of green-keepers at one of the city's oldest and most "down to earth" clubs.

Yesterday morning, head green-keeper of Tolladine Golf Club, Rob Shaw, found his carefully manicured third and fourth greens had been attacked during the night.

Vandals had ripped up clods of smooth turf with shoe heels, and cut long ridges in the greens with the edges of their shoes.

Mr Shaw believed it was caused by teenagers, but could not rule out the possibility someone with a grudge against the 107-year-old club was responsible.

Walkers use the course as a short cut between Tolladine Road and Newtown Road, Ronkswood.

Last week, four flagpoles were reported stolen to the police.

"It starts to feel that this is a personal attack against me - the members never see the damage because it's repaired as quickly as possible," he said.

He said continual vandalism, although inexpensive to repair, could cost the club dearly by scaring off potential full fee-paying members.

The damage cannot be repaired until the spring-time when the grass starts growing again.

"The club's been through a bad patch - we nearly went under last year - but we've worked really hard to smarten it up. Some of the members were over the moon with what we've done."

"We are a down-to-earth club for local people, and I try to talk to the kids and encourage them to play golf when I see them on the course.

"A lot of members have put their own money into keeping this club going - they remember it during the good years, and recent times when things haven't been so good. But things were really starting to look up until this happened," he added.

The club, with 150 members on Tolladine Road, has been on vandals' hit list for years.

Last summer, the club had to pay for a new water tank after the one used to irrigate the nine greens was the target of a pickaxe attack.

Last week, former club green-keeper Wayne Kings, was awarded £12,031 by an employment tribunal after it ruled he was unfairly made redundant in February 2004 because the club was struggling with a flagging membership.

Police confirmed they were investigating the vandalism, and said if anyone had seen anything suspicious as they walked across the course, the were aekd to report it to Worcester police on 08457 444 888, quoting 81S/070205.