"Let them play." According to the Muny Conservancy, that was Mayor Taylor Glass's instruction to staff in late 1950. Two Black youths, one of them a nine-year-old caddie, had come to play Lions Municipal Golf Course. The Conservancy describes what followed as the first peaceful desegregation of a municipal course in the South. The National Park Service listed the course on the National Register of Historic Places on July 7, 2016.
Seventy-six years after that afternoon, Muny's calendar runs on two timelines. Through the end of the year, the grounds crew's schedule is published down to the hour. The agreement that lets the City run a public course on this land is a short-term rolling lease with no long-term deal behind it. Everything happening at 2901 Enfield Road this fall fits inside that gap, including how the money raised in September is being spent.
What Muny’s Uncertain Future Means When Buying a Tarrytown Home
Lions Municipal Golf Course is part of what draws some buyers to Tarrytown: open space, mature trees and a public course close to home. But buying near Muny requires separating what exists today from what is guaranteed for the future.
The University of Texas System owns the course land. Preservation efforts and proposed improvements should not be treated as a permanent guarantee that the surroundings will remain unchanged. The May 31, 2027 deadline concerns the Save Historic Muny District’s preservation agreement—not an announced closing date for the golf course.
Evaluate the Home Beyond Its Proximity to Muny
A home near the course may offer a setting you value, but proximity alone does not establish a price premium. Recent comparable sales, condition, lot size, street location and usable outdoor space should guide your evaluation.
Ask yourself: Would this home still meet my needs if the nearby land’s use or appearance changed? That question is especially useful when a view or open-space setting is a major reason you are considering the property.
Check the Actual Experience at the Property
“Near Muny” can describe very different homes. A property overlooking the course has a different relationship to it than one several blocks away. Walk the surrounding streets and visit at different times to evaluate traffic, parking, privacy and activity. Confirm whether the advertised view is visible from the spaces where you would actually spend time.
If permanent open space is essential to your decision, ask what recorded protections or binding agreements support that expectation. A listing description or preservation proposal should not substitute for that verification.
Base Your Offer on Today’s Evidence
Muny’s future is a factor to investigate, but it does not, by itself, establish that nearby home values will rise or fall. Build your offer around the property’s current features and comparable sales, while weighing how comfortable you are with uncertainty.
When I help buyers compare Tarrytown homes, I look at the specific house, lot and street—not just the neighborhood name or nearby landmark. If you are considering a home near Muny, I can help you assess recent sales, identify questions that need verification and decide how the location fits your plans.
The calendar you can actually put on the fridge
The Muny Conservancy's calendar shows the course closed for overseeding from 7 a.m. Tuesday, October 6, 2026, through 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 7. The City's GolfATX page lists only "October 6" for overseeding, with no end date. Plan around the Conservancy's two-day window.
After that, the pattern is easy to follow. GolfATX closes Lions every third Monday for maintenance, except on holidays and major tournament dates. For the rest of 2026, the Conservancy's calendar gives the specific days:
Date | Closure | Hours |
|---|---|---|
Monday, Oct 19, 2026 | Full-course maintenance | 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
Monday, Nov 16, 2026 | Full-course maintenance | 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
Monday, Dec 21, 2026 | Full-course maintenance | 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
Mondays come with one more limit. The irons-only driving range closes at 1 p.m. on Mondays "until further notice," according to the City. The same GolfATX page still carries a spring notice that the range would close May 11 for irrigation and resurfacing, with about four weeks of work expected. No source we found confirms when that project finished. If range time matters to your morning, call the pro shop before you go.
Seven days is the longest booking window you get
Players can plan only a week out, and weekends come with stricter rules. GolfATX's booking process for Lions works like this:
- Weekday rounds: online tee times open at 9 a.m., seven days in advance. Phone reservations at (512) 978-6869, which spells MUNY, begin 30 minutes before the first tee time. In-person bookings start when the pro shop opens.
- Weekend rounds: Saturday and Sunday times open online only, at 8 p.m. on the Monday before. The pro shop starts answering weekend calls on Tuesday.
- Accounts: you need a user account to book online. Set one up before Monday night, not during it.
City rates took effect October 1, 2025. Lions green fees are $35 Monday through Thursday, $41 on Friday and $44 on weekends and holidays. Evening rounds cost $29, $31 and $34 on the same schedule. Sunset play is $28, juniors pay $20, and nine holes cost $28. Carts cost $18 per golfer. A non-golfer riding along pays $10 at age 13 and up, a rate the City's course page says includes pets. Children 12 and under ride free. The pro shop takes credit and debit cards only, and Cisco's Muny Cafe is on site at 512-542-9459.
Demand on those seven-day windows is high. The Conservancy says Muny handles more than 60,000 rounds a year and is home course for about a dozen middle and high school teams. Lions also hosts the Firecracker Open, which the City calls Texas' oldest amateur tournament. The Conservancy also names the Austin Golf Academy, led at Lions by PGA professional Erik Lopez, among the course's youth programs.
What a $1 million night buys on a short lease
On September 10, the Muny Conservancy held its fifth Imagine Muny gala at ACL Live at the Moody Theater. Tanya Tucker, Wade Bowen, Jack Ingram and Ray Benson's Asleep at the Wheel performed, and West Austin News reported that the evening met its $1 million fundraising goal.
According to that report, the money goes to youth golf and course upkeep. The list includes a new Scotland-inspired putting green, a driving-range expansion, fencing, tree work and a regrade of the 18th hole. Each of those is an improvement to the course as it stands now. None of them requires settling who controls the land in ten years.
The larger plan is a different matter. The Conservancy's restoration proposal includes a new entrance on Lake Austin Boulevard, new and renovated clubhouses, a teaching range, green space for public events, an education and history center, and trails connecting toward the Hike-and-Bike Trail. Coore & Crenshaw, the design firm co-founded by Conservancy co-chair Ben Crenshaw, has already drawn a full restoration of the course and clubhouse. West Austin News reported that "a long-term lease or purchase would unlock even bigger plans." Neither the Conservancy nor the press coverage gives a construction schedule for the restoration or for the gala-funded projects. For now, all of that work is funded or proposed. None of it has been announced as underway.
The rolling lease under the fairways
The Lions Club opened Muny in 1924 on part of UT's Brackenridge Tract as a nine-hole course, and the lease passed to the City in 1936. Ninety years later, the University of Texas System still owns the land. On August 14, 2026, the Austin Business Journal described "years of 5-month rolling leases" and said the question of Muny's future "may finally be answered soon." The ABJ preview does not spell out how the five months work, whether as a lease term or as a notice period. No public source we reviewed gives an end date for the current arrangement.
The gap between the rent and the land's value is wide. Community Impact reported in October 2025 that the City paid less than $500,000 a year to lease Muny and that the property had been appraised at more than $680 million. Using those two figures, the appraisal is more than 1,300 times the annual rent. That number is a valuation. Community Impact did not report it as an asking price or an offer. The same story quoted UT spokesperson Mike Rosen saying the university would continue to steward the Brackenridge land for current and future students.
A state deadline also applies. HB 2421 extended the Save Historic Muny District until May 31, 2027. The district dissolves on that date unless it reaches an agreement with the landowner to buy the land or preserve it as public golf, public parkland or both. The law gives the district more time to make a deal. It does not extend the City's lease, and it does not require UT to sell. On October 8th 2026, that deadline is just under eight months away.
At the gala, co-chair Scotty Sayers gave the most recent public read on the talks with UT. "We feel good and very optimistic," he said, adding that the Conservancy wants "to be a part of the conversation" as UT weighs the property's future. State Rep. Donna Howard and Austin City Council Member Marc Duchen attended, along with Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott. The Conservancy asks neighbors who want to help to contact the mayor's office, the governor's office, the UT System Board of Regents and the UT administration.
What the land holds, and what is still unsettled
West Austin News describes Muny's 141 acres as sitting over a water recharge zone, with hundreds of heritage oak and pecan trees and habitat for wildlife. Crenshaw first played there at eight or nine. He told the paper that "Muny provides a respite from the bustle of life." Of the dates that matter to that land, three are fixed. The tee sheet opens seven days ahead. The grounds crew's closures are posted through December 21. The preservation district's deadline is May 31, 2027. The date that matters most, when UT and the City or the district reach a long-term answer, has not been announced.
Muny's lease question matters to many Tarrytown homeowners and to people deciding whether to move near Enfield Road. If you would like a measured read on how the course fits your own plans, Scott Pate is glad to talk it through. Schedule a private consultation.
