Hungarian reports this week that Irish investors were investing €500 million in one of their golf clubs turned out to be a little over the top. However, Irish businessman William O'Brien is investing 500 million Hungarian forints (about €2 million) in his dream golf development 200 km south-west of Budapest, writes Una McCaffrey

It is not every day that an Irishman invests €500 million in Hungary, but that's what Dubliner Mr William O'Brien was reported to be doing earlier this week.

Hungarian daily newspaper, Napi Gazdasag (literally "Daily Business") reported on Monday that a group of unnamed Irish investors was planning to build "Europe's biggest golf course" in a small village about 200 km south-west of Budapest.

A local politician seemed to back up the story, telling the newspaper that he had met with Irish investors who planned to build a golf complex spanning more than 12,000 acres.

The purchase of a castle was said to be part of the deal, with the future investment said to include two golf courses, other sports facilities, a luxury hotel, restaurants and a holiday village of 300 houses.

The fact that the local politician is up for re-election soon may have had some influence on how he told the story.

After all, it might seem like you were doing your bit for your region if you had managed to attract a €500 million, long-term investment. This would be particularly true if the development was promising to bring 3,500 jobs to the area. Whatever the reasons for his enthusiasm or the source of the politician's story, it turned out that such massive expectations were the result of little more than exaggeration.

The development was indeed a 500-million story, but the currency in question was Hungarian forint rather than euro. When the sums are done, that amounts to about €2 million.

The Irish investors are not, as might have been expected, the usual financier suspects either (see panel). In fact, the man behind the development is not at all well-known and has, in the past, tended to operate businesses that would not, in the usual run of events, attract much publicity.

Mr O'Brien, known as Willie, is a 50-year-old businessman from Malahide. His best-known company involvement in the past has been in luxury Malahide restaurant Cruzzo, which he jointly owns with two Dublin associates.

Cruzzo, which is run through a company called Ryeglen Services, is a rather fancy affair, where typical fare includes delights such as pan-fried calf's liver and fillet of sea bass. Still, it can hardly be equated with owning Istabraq.

Mr O'Brien said this week that he had also held interests in shipping and property, while filings at the Companies Registration Office record a directorship at a company called The Spokesman Advertising.

While by no means in the league of the Desmonds or Magniers of this world, Mr O'Brien nonetheless holds something in common with the type. He told The Irish Times earlier this week that he hoped to fund his dream golf development with the help of investors ("friends of mine") rather than bank loans.

"I'm hoping not to borrow too heavily," he said, dismissing the numbers first reported this week as "wild figures".

Mr O'Brien described how he had visited a popular tourist area of Hungary about a year and a half ago as part of a holiday.

Holidays quickly turned to business, with Mr O'Brien before long making contact with an elderly gentleman who was interested in selling on his interest in a golf complex close to the village of Hencse, about 170 km south of Budapest and close to the picturesque Lake Balaton.

The vendor, who still inhabits a large country house on the property, wanted to sell to someone who would undertake to retain the physical integrity of the course and its surroundings.

Mr O'Brien, already an established entrepreneur, saw an opportunity: a beautiful area that already attracted tourism from no fewer than seven neighbouring countries but which was distinctly under-serviced by golf courses. Something clicked.

Hungary as a whole is home to fewer than 10 internationally recognised 18-hole golf courses, of which the Hencse development, first constructed in 1994, is one.

Green fees at the par-72 course cost in the region of €43 per person, with a single room at the neighbouring golf lodge costing €77 per night.

The course is built on 90 acres of rolling countryside filled with lakes and trees, with Mr O'Brien having acquired a further 100 acres for development, but declining to reveal how much he has spent.

Initially, Mr O'Brien plans to construct apartments at the site, which is located just a few miles from Hencse, a small village of just 400 inhabitants.

A single "show house" is also to be built in this first phase of what Mr O'Brien sees as a long-term commitment.

He admits that he is keen to acquire more land in the surrounding area but wants to get this part right first, building on existing tourism links with the wealthy holidaymaking nations of Austria and Germany.

"I don't want to be jumping ahead of myself," he said this week, no doubt fully aware that a Hungarian newspaper had already done this job for him.