Posted: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 05:55 AM - 6,823 Readers

By: News 8 Austin Staff

If you've lived in Austin for a while perhaps you've heard of the
"Save the Muny" campaign. We caught up with some local golfers who have some type of pull with the issue, one
way or another.

"You can never build another Lion's Municipal," Lion's Municipal
Golf Pro Lloyd Morrison says.

"Just part of Austin Old Muny," former UT Golf Coach Pat Weis says.

"To me I look at it like a museum," says former Longhorn and
Ex-LPGA golfer Cindy Figg-Currier.

"West Austin would not be the same without Muny," adds Champions Tour golfer Ben Crenshaw.

Sentiments run deep when it comes to saving 80 year old Lion's
Municipal Golf Course.

The public facility sits on the Brackenridge Tract, which is owned
by the University of Texas and includes about 500 acres of prime
real estate along Lake Austin just west of MOPAC.

But the amazing thing is several former Longhorns are amongst the loudest voices who want Lion's Municipal to remain in tact.

"There was much history from SWC championships being played there under Harvey Penick," Cindy Figg-Currier says. "I believe
it was Harvey's brother who designed some of the holes."

"I used to take my golf teams out there before we had a nice
course like they have now," says former UT women's golf coach Pat Weis. "I just went wherever I could find to take them to practice and we went out there quite a bit." Weis adds, "I just think it would be a very unfortunate thing to happen to lose that course."

In a statement released from the University of Texas System

"The Cooper Robertson firm out of New York is nearing completion of its charge to develop at least two potential master plans for the Brackenridge Tract. The firm's primary responsibility parallels that of the UT System Board of Regents; to identify best uses of the tract set aside for UT Austin so that it benefits its students, faculty and staff."

Lion's Municipal Head Golf Pro Lloyd Morrison says, "You cannot reproduce this. No tract of land to build it on. No amount of money to put into the golf course.

The Hills of Lakeway Country Club is the host course for the
Triton Financial Classic this weekend for the Champions Tour and you can find both the pros and cons to this save the muny campaign right here when you are talking about Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite, both former Longhorns."

"I am very much a proponent for saving muny," Crenshaw says. "It should be preserved. It's meant way too much
to too many people in this community. If they (UT Board of
Regents) change it in any way it will break the veneer or the
atmosphere that it has always enjoyed."

"I guess it's in the hands of the UT board of regents as to whether they want to keep any golf at all out there," says Kite. "Obviously we have all voiced our opinion that having
some sort of golf out there would be great. Whether they keep it in the current form that it is in right now or come up with some sort of other plan."

To which Crenshaw adds, "There is some other acreage
that they (UT Board of Regents) can develop."

240 golfers between the ages of 6 and 18 are teeing it up at
Lion's Municipal Friday to show support for "Old Muny".