This is golf for the super rich

Oct 20 2007 By Our Correspondent, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE name on the locker read Ernie Els. When I looked inside, there was a pair of highly polished size 12 shoes. Could they be his?

But there was no Ernie to be seen … so I settled for another complementary beer from the fridge next to the bowls of fresh fruit and wondered when he had last been around.

This is golf millionaire-style, I thought. Everything to hand in a locker room of leather and luxury with a man on standby to polish your shoes while you are out on the course.

The elite who play here aren’t the sort of people who help themselves to extra bars of chocolate and a pocket full of pencils just because they are free.

So neither did I.

Instead I shall hang on to my single pencil as proof that I have played golf at The Champions Club and that I am one of the fortunate few.

The plan is to have a series of Champions Clubs around the world, all offering understated sumptuous luxury for those people who are used to that sort of thing.

This one was in Moyvalley in County Kildare, Ireland and it has the personal signature of Darren Clarke stamped on it.

He helped design the course and insisted that The Champions Club standards were met.

Sister establishments in more exotic parts of the world will bear the signature of other champion golfers.

Don’t bother popping over for an impromptu round. They won’t let you in.

You can take out corporate membership for an eye-popping amount (if you have to ask you can’t really afford it). You can be invited by a member, or you can stay at the adjacent Moyvalley Hotel and book a round as a hotel resident. And that’s it.

It is exclusive and therefore it has to be good. And it is very, very good.

Imagine a five-star hotel built to look deliberately unobtrusive from the outside and you get a flavour of the clubhouse. Inside you sink into the carpets and admire the artwork on the walls or the 360-degree view of the course around you.

Outside is equally impeccable. The 7,370-yard course is new but does not look it. In time it will become superb.

There may be things that money can’t buy, but a top quality golf resort is not one of them.

If you would like to experience that “champion” feeling you can book a hotel break for two nights including one dinner and a round of golf from 175¢ per person.

Find our more at: www.moyvalley.com

Moyvalley can leave the wallet feeling a little battered, so by way of contrast how about booking in at Corballis Golf Course just north of Dublin? Not a bad little links course with some stunning views and a real cross-section of locals enjoying the game.

Some great holes (and some pretty ordinary ones too) at a bargain midweek price of 15¢ (about £10).

Corballis is Ireland’s only pay and play public links and shares a stretch of coastline with some of the country’s best-known courses. There’s a great pub down the road so what more could you ask?

For more on Irish golfing and other holidays of all prices look up www.discoverireland.com

on course writer Steve Catchpool in his personal golf cart “champion” feeling it can be yours, for a price, at the Moyvalley course in County Kildare