With its manicured greens and a membership list boasting the likes of Sean Connery and Tim Henman, Sunningdale is justly proud of its reputation as one of the world’s premiere golf courses.

But the Berkshire club now faces embarrassment after police and the RSPCA launched an investigation into claims it used cruel and inhumane bird traps on the course.

Animal welfare officials were called in after naturalists conducting a survey at the 118-year-old course came across two crows in a “distressed, disoriented and weak” condition caught in the Larsen traps on land adjoining the famous course.

One of the crows had been reportedly left in an exposed area in full sunlight without cover. Inside the traps, which use live birds to lure others, the other had been left with dirty water and rabbit carcasses to pick at, according to the people who discovered them.

Although one of the crows was dead, nearby Wildlife Aid Foundation(WAF) managed to save the other and rebuilt its damaged wing using transplanted feathers.

Crows have been known to steal golf balls after mistaking them for other birds’ eggs, which they feed on.

But Sunningdale says it laid the traps in an effort to protect other species of birds and reptiles from the crows.