Gábor Széles, the wealthy industrialist with a bent for “royal indulgence,” wasn’t just blowing smoke when he said he’d build a golf course in Zalacsány, Hungary.
Széles has turned the formerly abandoned Batthyány Castle into a hotel, as he promised he would, and the Zalai Hírlap reports that the Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed golf course that’s under construction on his 400-acre property is expected to open next year. “If this comes through,” Széles told the newspaper, “Hungary will finally step on a growth path it has not been on for about 500 years!”
The course will anchor a community called Zala Springs, which at build-out will also have 400 villas, more hotel rooms and a spa. Széles thinks he can complete the whole shebang by 2016.
