GOLFERS encounter all kinds of problems during a round - but rarely have to put up with wild boars charging at them from the rough.

That is the prospect facing the nervous members of rural Garesfield Golf Club.

Boars have taken over woodland that borders the course and are creating havoc on the fairways.

Geoff Dunn, secretary of the club at Chopwell, Gateshead, said: "They have been spotted in the rough by the sides of the fifth, sixth, 11th, 12th and 13th fairways.

"The worry is that if they damage a green it could cost us as much as £10,000.

The boars escaped from a local farm in February and have made the 400-acre Chopwell woods their home.

The wood's new residents have upset villagers by digging up a wild flower meadow, damaged a recreation field in Chopwell, and ploughed a woodland clearing with their tusks.

One boar has already been shot by forestry officials who believed it posed a danger to the public