Lions Municipal Golf Course: Muny's Future and May 2027

"We feel good and very optimistic." Scotty Sayers, co-chair of the Muny Conservancy, said that about the Conservancy's talks with the University of Texas on the night of September 10. The fifth annual Imagine Muny gala filled ACL Live at the Moody Theater, and Tanya Tucker, Wade Bowen, Jack Ingram and Ray Benson's Asleep at the Wheel played for it. The evening reached its $1 million fundraising goal.

For anyone who lives near Enfield Road, that is good news, and it still leaves the main question open. The money will improve Lions Municipal Golf Course. A permanent answer for the land runs on a different date. The enrolled text of HB 2421 gives the Save Historic Muny District until May 31, 2027, to sign a purchase or preservation agreement with the landowner, or the district dissolves. As of today, October 4, 2026, that is just under eight months away.

What the million dollars actually buys

West Austin News reported that the gala money goes straight to youth golf and course upkeep. The planned work includes a new Scotland-inspired putting green, a larger driving range, new fencing, tree work and a regrade of the 18th hole. All of these are real improvements to the course people play every week. None of them has a published start date yet, and no closures of holes or the range have been announced in connection with them.

The bigger plan is waiting. Ben Crenshaw's design firm, Coore & Crenshaw, has already drawn up a full restoration of the course and clubhouse. That restoration only happens with a long-term lease or a purchase. So this fall's money pays for care on a course the Conservancy hopes to rebuild, and the rebuild hinges on an agreement nobody has announced.

That split reflects how the course is held. The City leases the land from UT and runs it as a public course, and the Austin Business Journal described that arrangement in August 2026 as years of five-month rolling leases. Investing in a putting green fits a five-month horizon. Investing in a full restoration needs a much longer one.

Why the land is so hard to pin down

Community Impact reported in October 2025 that Austin leases Muny from UT for less than $500,000 a year. The property has been appraised at more than $680 million. It is one of several Austin tracts UT holds under an early-1900s land gift that requires the sites to benefit the university. UT spokesperson Mike Rosen told the outlet that the university "will continue to strive to be good stewards of the Brackenridge land for the benefit of the current and future generations of students we serve."

Set those two figures side by side and the stalemate makes sense. The yearly rent is less than a tenth of one percent of the appraised value. Community Impact noted that a price that high probably puts an outright purchase out of reach for both the City and private conservation groups. The trustee is bound to serve the university, the tenant pays a small fraction of the land's value, and neither one can easily make the first big move. Rolling short-term leases are what that standoff looks like day to day.

Ken Tiemann, who chairs the Save Historic Muny District, put the scale this way at a March 2025 hearing:

"The value of 141 acres in West Austin, it frankly would be the largest historic preservation from a financial standpoint possibly ever. ... It's complex, and I think the value of the land, nobody wants to make a mistake."

The deadline written into state law

The Save Historic Muny District was created by legislation that then-state Sen. Kirk Watson carried in 2019. Its original job was to work toward preserving the course by May 2021. Lawmakers extended that deadline in 2021 and again in 2023. In 2025, a bill from state Rep. Donna Howard moved it to May 2027, and Community Impact reported that some lawmakers said this could be the district's final deadline.

The enrolled text of HB 2421 is specific. The district must dissolve by May 31, 2027, unless it has signed an agreement with the owner of the Muny land by then. That agreement has to provide either for buying the land or for preserving it "as a public golf course, publicly available parkland, or a combination of those uses." The same condition applies to the district's power to enter a revenue contract with the City.

The law does not mention the City's lease. The five-month terms keep running on their own track. What expires next May is the district that exists to negotiate a permanent answer.

Here is how the timeline looks from where things stand now:

1. 2019: The Save Historic Muny District is created, with a May 2021 target.
2. 2021 and 2023: The legislature extends the district's life twice.
3. 2025: HB 2421 moves the dissolution date to May 31, 2027.
4. October 2025: A City spokesperson says Austin's talks with UT are continuing, and no deal has been reached.
5. May and August 2026: UT Regents agendas list general closed-session real estate items but no item that names Muny. That does not rule out private discussion.
6. August 2026: The Austin Business Journal runs "53 Years of 'Save Muny'" and writes that the question "may finally be answered soon."
7. September 2026: The gala reaches its $1 million goal, and Sayers says he is optimistic about talks with UT.
8. May 31, 2027: The statutory deadline.

No public source so far shows a plan to ask for another extension. Rep. Howard, who carried the 2025 bill, was at the gala.

What the course is protecting

West Austin News describes Muny as 141 acres over a water recharge zone, with wildlife habitat and hundreds of heritage oak and pecan trees. The course is also recognized as the first public golf course in the South to desegregate. Crenshaw, a two-time Masters champion who first played Muny at about eight or nine years old, remembered it this way: "You got to play with whomever. You got to make friends, and you got to learn to play."

That is also why the gala money leans toward youth golf. The Austin Golf Academy, led by PGA professional Erik Lopez, lists Lions as its home base, and the Conservancy's site has its contact details.

Muny this fall, on a practical level

The Conservancy's 2026 calendar shows the course closed on Tuesday, October 6, for overseeding and on Monday, October 19, for maintenance. The City's course page also says the driving range closes at 1 p.m. on Mondays until further notice.

The rates currently posted on the Golf ATX fees page are still labeled "New Fees Effective 10/1/2025." Since the City's new fiscal year started October 1, call the pro shop before you count on these numbers.

Austin residents can buy a $5 annual Golf ATX Resident Card at Lions for discounts on green fees and merchandise. Weekday tee times open online at 9 a.m. seven days ahead. Weekend times open online the Monday before at 8 p.m. Cisco's Muny Cafe is in the clubhouse, and its number is 512-542-9459.

The next neighborhood gathering at the course is the West Austin Neighborhood Group annual meeting on Saturday, November 7, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Lions Muny clubhouse patio. Lunch from H-E-B True Texas BBQ and dessert come with renewing or joining.

The organizers also encourage anyone who wants to help to contact the mayor's office, the governor's office, the UT System Board of Regents and the UT administration directly.

If you own a home near Muny and want to talk through what the course's future could mean for your street, Olivia Osborne follows the May 2027 deadline closely and is happy to walk you through it. When you want a current number to start that conversation, get your instant home valuation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.