Playing Through
Lions Municipal Golf Course is an Austin treasure that deserves to be saved
By Thomas Hackett, Fri., July 18, 2008
At first, Michael Cooper didn't want to get caught up in the controversy. Golfers seldom do. Playing a game that puts a high premium on comity, they are the least outspoken of all athletes.
But Cooper, a 39-year-old insurance executive, had just won the 2008 Firecracker Open at Lions Municipal Golf Course, and if he wasn't obliged to offer his opinion about the precarious future of the course before that win, he was now. When I caught up with Cooper by phone, he was playing on a slightly better course than Lions – Pebble Beach. But a big barrel of a guy, Cooper wanted me to understand that he's a Muny Man at heart.
I know there are people out there – the Whole Foods crowd – who believe that all golf courses, even scruffy public courses, are necessarily bastions of elitism. I invite those people to play a round at Lions, an 80-year-old layout crammed into 141 acres between Enfield Road and Lake Austin Boulevard. The course doesn't make a fuss about collared shirts, as a lot of clubs do. "You'll see guys playing in tank tops and flip-flops here," says Cooper. "That's what makes it so great."
And although the course is short, a mere 6,000 yards, and players of Cooper's caliber can take it deep, shooting in the low 60s, Lions is not without its creative challenges. It's got par 4s where the smart tee shot is a 7-iron. If you can't work the ball, hitting fades and draws, you're going to have trouble. All of which is why golfers as accomplished as Ben Crenshaw are so fond of Lions, and so anxious to save it once again.
Crenshaw stands in opposition to his fellow Austinite and former University of Texas teammate Tom Kite, who is contriving to cancel the city's lease on land owned by UT, and convert Lions and the surrounding area into an upscale resort course. "You're not maximizing the value of the property," he recently told the Austin American-Statesman.
Of course, that all depends on how you define "value." If all you mean is the financial profitability of the real estate, Kite is surely correct. But value can mean so much more than that. It can mean personality and spirit and accessibility – attributes that Crenshaw and his beloved Lions have in spades and that the calculating Kite never has.
And Cooper? Where does he come down on all this?
"I'd rather not get into that," he first said. But then he started talking about the thrill of winning the Firecracker for the second time, playing against the 15-year-old phenom Brenden Redfern and the 62-year-old six-time winner Billy Clagett, and he couldn't help himself. "I'm a property-rights guy," he admitted. "But I will say this. Here's a perfect opportunity for the citizens of Austin to step up and save Lions."
It may not be quite that simple. The UT Regents may not be interested in offers from the city. But basically, he's right. If there's the will to save Lions, there's a way to save Lions.
We can start by telling Kite to kiss off.
Please write Mr. Hackett at playingthrough@austinchronicle.com.