Multi-million-pound golf deal driven off course by midges

But now, the midge has claimed its biggest scalp to date by helping to scupper a multi-million-pound buyout of a prestigious Scottish golf club.

A rich golf enthusiast who has overseen a seven-figure revamp of the celebrated Wentworth course has revealed he scrapped plans to buy Loch Lomond Golf Club after being "bitten to death" by the insects.

Richard Caring said he visited the former home of the Barclays Scottish Open when it was up for sale but was, in part, put off by the swarms of insects.

Instead, , the exclusive course now rests in the hands of its members after a buyout worth around 35 million was completed earlier this year.

Mr Caring, who admitted that the reason for his pulling out of the prospective deal sounded "ridiculous," said he was deterred from doing any deal after visiting the 7,100 yard parkland course.

In an interview with Golf International, he said: "Yes, I thought about it. And I went up there a couple of times. But, to be very honest with you - and this will sound ridiculous - when I was there in August I was bitten to death by the midges. It really put me off."

The 61-year-old tycoon, who started out his career by hawking clothes around the West End of London, has amassed a fortune estimated in the region of 600m and boasts a formidable portfolio.

Along with Wentworth, which he bought in 2005 in a deal worth around 130m, he owns several of the most exclusive restaurants and nightclubs in London, including The Ivy, Scott's, Le Caprice, Annabel's, Harry's Bar, and members' club, Soho House.

Loch Lomond Golf Club, a favoured course of celebrities including Sir Sean Connery, was put up for sale when former owner Lyle Anderson lost control of it after failing to re-negotiate his debts with Bank of Scotland in 2008.

The problems with midges at the course have been well-documented. During the Scottish Open three years ago, Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell was thwarted by a swarm of the insects. He revealed he was so desperate to escape them that he hit his tee shot at the par three 17th hole too quickly and bogeyed the hole. At the time, he said: "I was being chewed up by midges and pulled the trigger a little too quick because I wanted to get off that tee. We were being bitten so badly I just lost my concentration."

The club has installed dozens of bat boxes around the course. Midges form part of a bat's diet and there were hopes the mammals would take a bit out of the area's midge population.The midges have also proved a scourge at the nearby Carrick course, where officials have spent tens of thousands of pounds on gas-powered midge traps to try and prevent golfers from being bitten. The machines attract the midges by pumping out carbon dioxide, which the creatures mistake for human breath.

A spokeswoman for Loch Lomond Golf Club said the club did not wish to comment.