AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Lions Municipal Golf Course, or MUNY, celebrates its 100th anniversary this upcoming October. MUNY was the first public course in Austin and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its leading role in the desegregation of Austin's public facilities.
Erik Lopez is a self-proclaimed product of MUNY. The course manager and head professional at Lions was born in Austin, started golfing at 5 years old, earned a full-ride scholarship to play college golf and has managed public golf courses for the city of Austin for the past 25 years.
“I’m homegrown. My family really didn’t have a lot of money growing up. I grew up on food stamps, so I didn’t have the money to play a whole lot," Lopez said. "Lions gave me a sanctuary. It gave me a home."
Beyond the course’s impact on him, Lopez gets to see how MUNY impacts the community every day. For him, that impact is only as effective as it is accessible.
“City of Austin golf is about affordability. It’s about inclusion,” Lopez said.
Although prices have gone up significantly since the course opened in 1924 — when a monthly membership fee cost 50 cents — Lopez remarked that a round of golf at MUNY is still a bargain.
"Thirty dollars a round is a steal in my opinion," Lopez said. "In this day and age, you go to a bar and buy a round of drinks and you’ve already spent $100."
He notes that public courses have fees in order to remain solvent and that prices should never be a barrier to those interested in golf. Lions offers evening rates, sunset rates, junior rates, senior rates and 9-hole rates. A full menu of prices for public golf courses in Austin can be viewed here.
Lopez also highlights that MUNY's significance is not just about how much you pay into it — it's about how much you get out of it.
“The green space, the time outdoors, the zen time. It’s a huge plus for your mental health," Lopez said. "This golf course has some beautiful trees. We’ve got hawks. We’ve got ducks that fly in. We’ve got tons of turtles and deer, all sorts of wild animals that call this place home."
According to advocates for the course, the significance of outdoor spaces like Lions goes beyond improving mental health. Holly Reed, president of the West Austin Neighborhood Group, said MUNY is an invaluable green space in an increasingly dense urban area.
“We are working right now with environmentalists to calculate how much of a carbon sink it is — to see how much CO2 it's absorbing and how much oxygen it's providing,” Reed said.
Golf in Austin began as an exclusive game for rich, white men. Despite MUNY's efforts to break down these barriers, golf can still be an intimidating space to enter for people who don't feel themselves represented in that cohort, Lopez said.
Lopez argues that golf is outgrowing its historical exclusivity.
“The number one fastest growing demographic in golf is women. That’s the cool thing about golf; it’s evolving from what it was,” Lopez said.
He notes that it is important that MUNY be made to feel like a sanctuary for anybody with an interest in playing golf. Lions has a rich history of promoting inclusion in golf, and Lopez believes that effort must continue in the present.
“Come out on any given day of the week, and every ethnicity in the world is here,” Lopez said.
In driving around the course, it's apparent that for a sport that hinges on tradition and a strict rule book, MUNY is still doing its best to keep golf weird in Austin.
For every few players in polo shirts and khakis, there’s a player in a bucket hat, a t-shirt and athletic shorts. Some players even enjoy the grass by taking on the course barefoot. Behind a group of elderly gentlemen, visitors may come across a group of high school girls working on their game, or even some middle schoolers just looking to enjoy their summer outside.
From his own experiences growing up at MUNY, to the stories he hears from people who come through the door every day, Lopez believes in the transformative power of golf. At Lions, he says the goal is to make sure that experience is available for everyone.
“It gives people a sense of being, like ‘Hey, I’m proud to be out here, I’m proud I can play’. Lions is built to be a home to everybody,” Lopez said.
On Oct. 3, Lions golf course will celebrate its centennial anniversary. The celebration is designed to honor the course’s history, its integral role in the desegregation of Austin and the efforts taken to preserve the course over the last 50 years.
The event is open to all and free of charge.
“The community is invited," said Mary Arnold, a longtime advocate of the golf course's preservation and a current board member of the Save Historic MUNY District. Arnold also emphasized that the celebration would help to recognize the course’s founders.
“The centennial is being hosted by the Lions Club, since the Lions Club started it back in 1924,” Arnold said.
According to the event schedule, prominent local figures will be in attendance, including Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, who is scheduled to make the Presentation of Day Proclamation at 10 a.m. In 2019, as a state senator, Watson brought forth the bill that created the Save Historic MUNY District.
Lopez expressed the community’s excitement for the event.
“It’s going to be huge,” he remarked. “I mean there’s going to be thousands and thousands of people out here.”
