A LATE-night intruder at a golf club damaged a putting green by digging up more than 36 divots.

Bosses at Towneley Golf Club and Professional Shop, in Todmorden Road, Burnley, called police when they opened up at 7am on Monday after discovering the churned up green.

It is the latest incident to hit the course, which has been plagued by vandals and anti-social youths in recent months.

Damien Hartley, head green-keeper at Towneley Golf Club, said: “There was quite a bit of damage but we’ve managed to repair it.

“It is frustrating that there has been so much money invested in the course and we’ve done such a lot of work here, but we still get incidents of mindless vandalism like this.

“We thought it had stopped but over the last few weekends it seems to be starting up again, possibly with the warm evenings we’re getting.”

Mr Hartley said he and his team had been finding some damage nearly every Sunday morning which had been caused overnight.

He said: “The park has got a bit of a problem with youths drinking, so I think a lot of it stems from that. We come in to find damage. We have flags stolen and we’ve got dry-stone walling which is sometimes pushed over.

“Sometimes we’ll find around 300 empty cans across the course on a Sunday morning.

“It is just idiots doing it and there’s nothing we can really do.”

The divots created in the latest attack were believed to be caused by a golf club and police are investigating.