GARETH Bale's well-known love of golf left his Spurs teammate red-faced after being told Tottenham built the Wales star a personal miniature golf course at the club's training ground.

Wales forward Bale rejoined Spurs on a season-long loan in September after seven years at Real Madrid, and scored his first goal in Sunday’s 2-1 Premier League win against Brighton.

Spain full-back Sergio Reguilon also swapped the Santiago Bernabeu for north London on the same day, and was tricked by teammates who told him that a putting green was installed by the club in preparation for the Wales international’s return.

The putting green has been at Hotspur Way since it was built, but Reguilon took the bait.

Speaking about Bale to Spanish radio show El Larguero (SER), Reguilon said: “He’s very happy and I see him in a different light. He seems happier with the habits here.

“What did surprise me is that they’ve created golf holes for him at the training centre.

“They are only short holes but I couldn’t believe it.”

Bale’s love of golf became something of a lightning rod during his injury-plagued later years at Real Madrid, with one of the club’s former directors of football telling Spanish radio the Welshman’s priorities appeared to be Wales, golf and Madrid – in that order.

Bale did little to defuse the situation when Wales qualified for Euro 2020 and he posed, with his smiling teammates, in front of a Wales flag that bore the same ‘Wales. Golf. Madrid’ slogan.

The Wales forward, 31, is working his way back to match fitness at Tottenham after recovering from an injury and spending a large part of last season on the substitutes’ bench.

Bale has made two league appearances for Spurs since his return, coming on for the last quarter in both the 3-3 draw at home to West Ham and the 2-1 home win over Brighton – in which he scored the winner.

Spurs boss Jose Mourinho has also used Bale in two Europa League matches.

After the Brighton match, Mourinho said of four-time Champions League winner Bale: “He knows we care about him and we know he cares about us, the team and the club, Spurs. He’s the perfect fit, he’s very calm, very intelligent, he has good feelings.

“He had bad feelings before, because the training process was hard, and his body was suffering a little bit, but we gave him what he needs as a whole.”

For Wales, Bale played the first half of the Nations League opener against Finland, and the full 90 minutes against Bulgaria, but was sidelined through injury for last month’s trips to Dublin and Sofia.

The Wales squad for the upcoming friendly against the USA and the Nations League matches against Ireland and Finland will be announced today (Thursday).

The squad was due to be announced on Tuesday morning, but the FAW cancelled that press conference as news broke of the arrest of manager Ryan Giggs.

Giggs will not be involved in Wales’ upcoming international camp after being arrested on suspicion of assaulting a woman.

A statement released earlier this week on behalf of Giggs said he denied “all allegations of assault made against him".

Wales top their Nations League group with 10 points from four games and are unbeaten in competitive football for nine games.

Coach Robert Page will stand in for Giggs to manage Wales in the three upcoming internationals.

Additional reporting by PA.