Golf: Somewhat appropriately, Darren Clarke yesterday had all the appearance of a sharp businessman.

Dressed in designer-grey pinstripe suit, and with hair suitably gelled, the Ryder Cup player had just arrived at the Champions Club at Moyvalley after a journey that involved flying into Dublin Airport on his private jet and taking a helicopter to the Co Kildare countryside to officially launch a private members club that is set to become the most exclusive in Ireland.

The course at Moyvalley, designed by Clarke, is the first to be licensed with the Champions Club brand.

The aim is that another five or six at locations around the world - all designed by International Sports Management (ISM) players including Clarke, Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, Paul McGinley and David Howell - will be included in a portfolio where members will have reciprocal playing rights.

By the way, it will cost you €75,000 to become a member.

"Give us a profile of your typical member?" The question was put to Chubby Chandler, the head of ISM who has devised the concept of the Champions Club, which will have courses around the world designed by players from the company's stable.

"Typical member? Darren Clarke," replied Chandler.

"A wealthy guy who wants to spend time at a private members club."

Moyvalley, a €100 million project funded by Co Antrim-born property developer Alastair Jackson, has been named as the first course to be part of the exclusive worldwide concept aimed at delivering the highest "five- to six-star standards", as Clarke put it, for wealthy golfers.

Projects are being considered in Mauritius, Bahrain, Dubai, Spain and England.

Jackson has also developed the New Forest course near Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, and has plans for another complex, including a course designed by Mark O'Meara, at Kilmeaden, Co Waterford.

The development at Moyvalley includes plans for apartments and houses ranging in price from €500,000 up to €2 million as well as a hotel.

The course is ready for play, and will this weekend stage the Darren Clarke Foundation, with Ireland's top boys and girls receiving coaching from the golfer and playing in a tournament, but it won't officially open until next March.

Clarke, who played the course in the run-up to the European Open in July, has designed a layout that measures 7,369 yards off the back tees (with the option to lengthen it should it be required).

However, the Ulsterman's design approach is such that the layout will test elite golfers off those tees, but offers handicap players a tough but enjoyable test.

"I don't want players coming in off the golf course saying, 'I'm not going back out there again'. I want people to walk in and say, 'that was fun, that was different'. I want to make golf fun for people more than anything else."

The first tranche of memberships priced at €75,000 (the figure is expected to increase in the second phase of offers) has been released at Moyvalley and the course will only be accessed by members and their guests or residents of the hotel.

A ceiling of 450 members has been set.

"This is an exciting, new venture which will add to Ireland's rich golfing heritage and provide standards previously only aspired to," said Dublin solicitor Dougie Heather, the chairman of ISM.