Lions Municipal Golf Course

Lions Municipal Golf Course ("Muny") opened in 1924 as the first public golf course in Austin. In 1950 it became the first golf course south of the Mason-Dixon Line to desegregate, Austin's mayor and two other council members let a round continue with black players, setting precedent years before Brown v. Board of Education. Ben Crenshaw, a two-time Masters champion and native Austinite, grew up playing Muny. Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Betsy Rawls, and Tom Kite all played it. Lions was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016 and to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places the same year. It's listed in the Texas Golf Hall of Fame and on the Texas Registry of Historic Golf Courses, honored as much for its civil-rights significance as its course design. A genuine historical landmark, for any golf trip to Austin that values the game's American history, Muny is the essential round.