Lions Municipal Golf Course, Historic public golf course in Austin, United States.
Lions Municipal Golf Course is an 18-hole public golf course in Austin, Texas, built on land leased from the University of Texas. The layout follows natural slopes and shifts across the terrain, so each hole presents a different playing situation.
Lions Municipal Golf Course was established in 1924 by Austin Lions Club members, with B. F. Rowe overseeing design and construction; by fall 1924 the wooded tract held nine holes, and the back nine was completed by September 1925. The clubhouse, designed by Edwin C. Kreisle, opened in 1930. In 1936 the Austin Municipal Golf and Amusement Association transferred its lease to the City of Austin, which began improvements in 1936–39.
Muny was the first public golf course in the South to desegregate, in late 1950, after the Supreme Court's Sweatt v. Painter ruling and before Brown v. Board of Education. Mayor Taylor Glass recalled conferring at City Hall about whether to arrest two young African Americans who walked on to play. African Americans had helped build the course and worked there as caddies.
Tee times can be booked in advance through the pro shop or online, which is worth doing to secure your preferred slot. Early morning and late afternoon rounds tend to move more smoothly with fewer groups on the course.
Ben Hogan played an exhibition at Muny in 1950 before the US Open and, standing on the tee of the daunting seventh hole (today's #16), asked "Where's the fairway?" He birdied the par 4, which golfers still call Hogan's Hole.
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