'Augusta is a second home to me' says Aberdeen entrepreneur

So what's it all about, Bryan Hendry?

FROM THE "METRO SPIRIT" WEBSITE - "AUGUSTA'S INDEPENDENT VOICE

A bid to operate a city (Augusta) golf course by a world-famous Scottish golf course developer was tossed out by Augusta’s procurement department on a technicality

BY SCOTT HUDSON

AUGUSTA, Georgia - A company called The Patch of Augusta LLC responded to a request for proposal to privately operate the city’s municipal golf course and Augusta’s procurement department tossed the bid out on a technicality.

“I feel I should speak out on this issue, and the city attorney has told me it’s OK for me to do so, but I really want to avoid people thinking the wrong things,” explains Augusta Commissioner Don Grantham.
The Patch, a front for a group of international investors, attempted to quietly enter the room and discuss a possible lease agreement to operate the Augusta Municipal Golf Course, but were tripped up at the threshold by the city’s procurement department.
Included in the city’s bid package was the demand for an Augusta business license.
However, the owners of The Patch of Augusta LLC were not able to purchase a business license to operate a golf course in which they had no agreement to run. In other words, to get the bid they needed a license, but to get the license they needed to have won the bid.
Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver, City Administrator Fred Russell, Recreation Director Tom Beck and nine of the 10 Augusta commissioners were all unaware of who created the company that submitted the bid.
Grantham knew, but since he has ties to Forest Hills Golf Club and is attempting to avoid a conflict of interest, he kept that information to himself.
The bid was thrown into the trash before it was unsealed.
The man behind the proposal is Brian Hendry (pictured above by Cal Carson Golf Agency), of Aberdeen, Scotland. Hendry hails from the United Kingdom, but has long been an Augusta taxpayer, owning several properties here.
Hendry is also an expert when it comes to operating golf courses.
“His companies maintain golf courses all over the world,” Grantham said.
Aberdeen and Augusta have many things in common. Aberdeen is recognized as the birthplace of golf with the sixth oldest golf club in existence. Augusta is known for hosting the most prestigious golf tournament in the world.
Hendry is mum on his plans for Augusta, but it is possible to look at what he is doing in Aberdeen to find a template.
The Hazlehead Municipal Golf Course in Aberdeen was designed by Alister MacKenzie, the same man who designed the Augusta National. Today, the course is derelict and losing more money than the Augusta Municipal Golf Course.
This same group of investors is entering a deal to lease Hazlehead for 99 years and immediately invest around $40 million to totally renovate the course. They are planning to install some of the same technologies, such as underground temperature control, used at Augusta National.

“We should close the deal and be in control of the Aberdeen course within six months,”

Hendry said. The investors have promised that 80 percent of the course memberships will go to the local people of Aberdeen and the prices for a local person to play will remain at the discounted rates they are today.

“Municipal golf courses are important and I believe they serve a purpose in allowing everyone who wants to have it the ability to play golf,” Hendry said.

According to press accounts from Scotland, the group plans to spend the American equivalent of $115 million in developments around the Hazelhead course, to be renamed the Mackenzie Golf Club. They will install a five-star resort hotel and professional golf academy. If you live in Aberdeen, it will cost very little to play Mackenzie Golf Club, but the international golfer wanting the full Aberdeen experience will pay a pretty penny. In addition, Hendry personally purchased the historic Aberdeen Tivoli Theatre and is spending around $8 million restoring it to its 1872 glory.
Hendry’s Augusta attorney, Ben McElreath, has filed an appeal to Augusta Procurement’s decision to toss out the bid before commissioners could have a look at the plans being presented. Word is that, now that Augusta’s commissioners know Hendry’s name and global endeavors, they are scrambling to fix the mistake.
Currently, no one in Augusta knows what Hendry has planned for the Patch. Speaking by telephone from his home in Aberdeen, Hendry will only say he is committed to Augusta and that this city is his second home.
“Whether or not I am involved with Augusta’s municipal golf course, I will still be a part of Augusta,” he says. “I love Augusta.”


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Editor Colin Farquharson's footnote: The above American newspaper/free sheet article is riddled with inaccuracies, such as Hazlehead golf course is "derelict," but interesting to know that Brian Henry, the man who was responsible for finding a major sponsor (Aberdeen Asset Management) for this week's Northern Open championship at Meldrum House, is still pursuing golfing projects at home and away. I, for one, thought that his Grand Plan for Hazlehead municipal golf course had been spiked some time ago.