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Butler pitch and putt1/11/2024 If you get hungry, you’ve got excellent food options. The Clubhouse offers custom merchandise, equipment rentals, and more. In fact, they can accommodate private groups from 20 to 500 guests. In addition to the golf course, Butler offers a putting green, beer garden, central courtyard, and private event spaces. The course is open daily, but check the website for occasional closings for private events. It takes anywhere from one to two hours to play, depending upon how busy it is. Simply drop a drop a ball into the chute at the first tee and it’s easy to track when it’s your turn. Tee times cannot be reserved as this is a first-come, first-play basis course. Golf legends Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite golfed this course back in the day. Hole #7 is the signature hole and features a pond right in front of the green. There are a few hills and trees to contend with as you play. It’s a 9 hole, par 3 pitch and putt golf course that opened in 1949 and has been making golf fun and accessible for all ever since.Įach hole on the course ranges in length from about 60 to 100 yards. There is still a lot more research and funding needed to rebuild the greens, but improvement is on the horizon.īutler Park Pitch and Putt has been and continues to be an important golf landmark to Austin golfers old and young.įor more information on the course and its history visit their website.Butler Pitch and Putt is located at West Riverside and Lee Barton Drive just south of Lady Bird Lake. “It’s around $10,000 per green – we have 10 with the practice green so it’d be a whole lot cheaper to do that.” “It would eliminate watering, mowing and fertilizing,” Kinser said. Kinser is looking at artificial grass for multiple reasons. To rebuild one green with live grass costs $100,000 per green – meaning it would cost over $1 million to update the greens. “It’s so busy and you’re supposed to rebuild your greens every 30 years…ours have been the same for 66 years.” “I want to put in artificial grass on the greens,” Kinser said. Kinser said updating the greens is the next big project. Customers enjoy the golf, but many have complained about the condition of the greens – an understandable problem considering the age of the course. The names of hundreds of Pitch and Putt golfers who have sunk holes-in-one are posted on the wall – an honor only the lucky and talented have known. New names updated to the Hole-In-One Butler Wall of Fame in 2015Ī tradition that is well known around the Austin golf community is adding names to the esteemed Butler Wall of Fame that is displayed in the clubhouse. Anyone can play, but they’re pretty competitive about it.” “It’s usually a lot of caddies from different courses around the area that play in. Although the Tuesday night tournaments are played for fun, Kinser said there is no lack of healthy competition. However, a two-man scramble, blind draw tournament is still played every Tuesday evening at 6 p.m.– a tradition that has lasted 15 years. Last year 38,530 rounds were played at Butler Park Pitch and Putt.ĭue to its size and the fact that regulars don’t like the idea of the course closing for the day, tournaments aren’t frequently held at Butler. The changes helped and Kinser said business has picked up a lot over the years. Kinser hired the professionals she needed to make the necessary improvements around the course. In 1995, Lee Kinser became the sole owner and general manager of the course and began renovations. Lee recalled a time when a customer stormed into the pro shop and loudly declared his angst with the poor condition of the course. Winston Kinser truly loved the course, however an overly thrifty mindset and lack of maintenance caused the course to suffer overtime. “I loved my father-in-law,” Kinser said, “we worked here together for years…he loved it here.” She and her father-in-law had a close connection and bonded over the course, working together for 15 years. Lee Kinser, who was once married to Winston’s son Al, was introduced to the course and immediately fell in love with it. He wasn’t crazy about idea of hiring employees so he recruited his family to run the course. Winston, his brother and business partner, was left to pick up the pieces and run the course alone. Sadly, Douglas Kinser died suddenly within one year of the course’s opening.
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