Angry Tennis Players Lob Suits at Resort : Thousand Oaks: Some are upset that North Ranch Country Club has opened its courts to public lessons and tournaments.

Bruce Linder stood up in small claims court Tuesday and said the exclusive Thousand Oaks country club where he has played tennis for 15 years had gone bad.

“There’s much more noise, there’s crowding,” he testified. “It’s worse than playing on public courts.”

But North Ranch Country Club officials countered that their club is better than ever, and that Linder is simply upset because of a conflict between his wife and the new tennis pro.

Linder, though, is the third tennis member this year to take North Ranch Country Club to court. The members are angry that the golfer-dominated club has opened the tennis courts for public lessons and tournaments, and that management backed out of a promised expansion of the tennis clubhouse.

The first member to sue was awarded a refund of his membership, $4,250. The second lost, and on Tuesday, Judge Pro Tem Jeff Graff took the third case, Linder’s, under submission.

At the heart of the conflict may be a phenomenon that members said is a problem in country clubs across the United States: Golfers and tennis players just don’t get along.

Linder testified Tuesday that at North Ranch, “The golf is well-run. The tennis is an absolute disaster.”

Linder, a technical manager at Litton Industries, aired a litany of complaints about North Ranch management: Non-members have been invited to social events; a member fell and hit his head and went unattended while the tennis pro hosted a junior tournament; non-members broke the club dress code, wearing blue jeans in the clubhouse.

Worst of all, Linder said, are the children.

“There is zero supervision of these children,” he testified. “They go running and screaming up the hillside. The tennis lounge is full of children sitting there totally unattended.”

Mel Rabinowitz, chairman of the club’s tennis committee, said the complaints are unfounded. “I kind of feel that I don’t belong to the same club as Mr. Linder,” he testified. “It’s no noisier than it’s ever been.

Club President David L. Shane acknowledged that the value of tennis memberships had declined since they were first sold in 1990. But he pinned the decline on the recession, not mistakes by club management.

Club officials said they spent $150,000 renovating the tennis clubhouse, and that many other private country clubs make their courts available to non-members for lessons.

The club has 12 courts and about 140 tennis members. There are also 560 golf members, and 300 social members. The tennis members pay $4,500 for a membership, then spend an additional $158 a month for dues. They also must spend $250 a month on food and drinks at the club.