Muny Gave Up on Buying Its Land. Here's What Tarrytown's Golf Course Is Betting on Instead

"I think when people don't know much about it and they start studying it, they quickly realize this is a hundred-year-old asset that has provided so much enjoyment to the community," Ben Crenshaw told Golfweek at the Imagine Muny 5 gala in September. That night at ACL Live's Moody Theater, Tanya Tucker headlined a lineup that included Jack Ingram, Wade Bowen, Asleep at the Wheel and a surprise set from Dale Watson. The event beat its $1 million fundraising goal for the Muny Conservancy.

The money is not going toward buying the land under Lions Municipal Golf Course. For years that was the plan for saving Muny. The people leading the effort have now dropped it, and that change explains almost everything about what Tarrytown's course will look like over the next year.

The purchase price outran the fundraising

Muny covers roughly 141 acres of the University of Texas's Brackenridge Tract. The City has leased the course from UT for decades and now pays less than $500,000 a year, according to Community Impact's October 2025 reporting. The same report put the property's appraised value at more than $680 million.

Those two numbers set the terms for everything else. At current rent, the City would need more than 1,300 years of lease payments to match the appraisal. Community Impact noted that the price likely puts an outright purchase beyond the reach of both the City and private conservation efforts. UT also has its own constraint. The land came to the university through an early-1900s gift that requires it to benefit the university, and a UT spokesperson told the outlet the school still sees the property as an asset for its students.

Ken Tiemann, who chairs the Save Historic Muny District, described the scale to Community Impact last year:

"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."

By this September the Conservancy had adjusted. Golfweek reported that Crenshaw and his longtime business partner Scotty Sayers used to picture buying the land from UT at a fair market price. That goal got harder as Austin's real estate boom pushed land values up. So the group shifted toward working with the university on maintenance and stewardship while it keeps pressing for a long-term lease.

Where the $1 million is going instead

Without a purchase fund to fill, the gala money can go into the course itself. West Austin News reported in its September 29, 2026 issue that proceeds are headed to youth golf and course upkeep, with these projects named:

• A new Scotland-inspired putting green
• An expansion of the driving range
• Fencing
• Tree work
• A regrade of the 18th hole

The report lists these as where the money will go. It does not say any of them are finished or give start dates, so they're best treated as planned work.

The same West Austin News story points to a much bigger project waiting in the background. Crenshaw's design firm, Coore & Crenshaw, has drawn up a full restoration plan for the course and the clubhouse, and the report says a long-term lease or a purchase would unlock those larger plans. The Conservancy's Imagine Muny vision goes further still. It describes restoring the historic clubhouse and adding a new clubhouse, a restaurant, a pro shop, event rooms, a teaching pavilion, trails and public event space. The page is undated and lays out a proposal, not an approved construction project.

That gives Muny two tiers of improvement. The putting green, range, fencing, trees and 18th hole fit under the course's current short-term arrangement. The clubhouse and full restoration wait on a long-term lease or a purchase, and the lease is now the route the Conservancy is pursuing.

The clock behind the lease

The short-term arrangement is shorter than many people assume. An Austin Business Journal preview from August 14, 2026 describes "years of 5-month rolling leases" and says the question of Muny's future "may finally be answered soon." Five-month terms make it hard to justify a clubhouse rebuild, which is part of why the larger plan sits on hold.

The firmest date comes from the state. The Save Historic Muny District was created by 2019 legislation from then-state Sen. Kirk Watson to work toward preserving the course. Lawmakers have extended its life several times since. The latest extension, HB 2421, filed by state Rep. Donna Howard, moved the district's dissolution deadline from May 31, 2025 to May 31, 2027. The bill sets that date as the deadline for an agreement with the landowner to buy or preserve the land as a public golf course, public parkland, or both. It also lets the district contract with the City for utility-fee revenue, but only if a landowner agreement is in place. Community Impact reported that some lawmakers said this could be the district's final deadline.

As of today, October 12, 2026, that leaves about seven and a half months. Here is how the record reads:

1. 2019: The Save Historic Muny District is created with a May 2021 target.
2. 2021 and 2023: Lawmakers extend the district twice for lack of a local agreement.
3. September 1, 2025: HB 2421 takes effect and moves the deadline to May 31, 2027.
4. October 2025: A City spokesperson says talks with UT are continuing, and Howard calls the process a "difficult negotiation."
5. August 2026: ABJ describes five-month rolling leases.
6. September 10, 2026: Imagine Muny 5 passes its $1 million goal, and West Austin News reports that Sayers gave the crowd a hopeful update on the talks with UT.

No signed agreement between the City and UT has been announced. Optimism from the Conservancy is a reasonable signal of where things stand, but it is not a deal.

What the course costs to play while the talks continue

None of this changes the experience at the first tee for now. Muny still runs as a City course through GolfATX, with public tee times. The City's current fee schedule, effective October 1, 2025, lists these Lions rates:

Online booking for weekday rounds opens at 9 a.m. seven days ahead. Weekend tee times open online the Monday before, at 8 p.m.

Those rates matter to the bigger story. A historic course this close to downtown, open to anyone for $35 Monday through Thursday, is exactly what the Conservancy wants a long-term lease to protect. The course is listed on the National Register and is nationally recognized as one of the South's first desegregated golf courses, a history covered in the Texas Historical Commission nomination. Golfweek reported that the course has been part of Austin since 1924.

The Conservancy also wants more than donations. West Austin News reported that organizers are urging residents who want to help to contact the mayor's office, the governor's office, the UT System Board of Regents and the UT administration. The Muny Conservancy's news page collects the coverage as it comes in, and it's the quickest way to follow the May 2027 deadline.

At Ace Team ATX, we follow Tarrytown landmarks like Muny closely because they shape daily life in the neighborhood. If you'd like to talk through what a long-term lease, or no deal at all, could mean for the streets around the Brackenridge Tract, we're glad to walk you through it in English or Spanish. Let's find your Austin home.

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