"This is an effluent dispersal system, for the record," a Lago Vista council member said on January 15, 2026, just before the city awarded the golf course irrigation contract. The council member explained that "effluent dispersal" is what the bond for the project says. You can watch the exchange in the January 15 City Council meeting video. It explains most of what is going on at the course this fall, including the trenching you may have seen from the cart paths and how the fairways will look once the new system is running.
The Lago Vista Golf Course is the 18-hole public course where the city holds its free Movies on the Green. It is also where Lago Vista disposes of treated wastewater. When that system works poorly, the grass shows it. The replacement now underway is scheduled to reach substantial completion in December, which is the same month as the season's last movie on the lawn.
The bond paid for a utility, and the golf course is where it runs
The city's FY 2025–26 Annual Capital Improvement Program Report, dated October 2026, groups the Golf Course Irrigation Replacement Project with its wastewater work. It sits next to the treatment plant upgrades and lift station design. The report says construction "remains on schedule" and calls the project "a critical component of the City's long-term effluent reuse and disposal strategy."
The treatment plant upgrades are being split into independent design and construction packages, but one project is tied directly to the golf course. Rehabilitation of Effluent Pond #17 is set to start only after the irrigation work is done, "to maintain continuous effluent distribution capacity" during the pond repairs. Put simply, the course has to be able to take the city's treated effluent before the pond can be taken offline. The same report lists a separate Cedar Breaks Irrigation Expansion engineering proposal that is headed to council, so reuse planning goes beyond the course.
The contract went to Diamond Golf International for $3,615,632.23. At the January meeting, staff and council members noted that the city had budgeted $5.5 million for the project and that later estimates had run between $4.2 and $4.4 million. The winning bid came in close to the roughly $3.5 million figure from preliminary design. One council member said it was among the two lowest bids while also being the highest-quality proposal.
The old system had problems for years before the contract. A golf course advisory committee renovation document from June 2023 described uneven watering, irrigation heads that didn't work, brown patches, and very little water reaching the rough.
Green when it rains, patchy when it doesn't
At the April 28, 2026 Golf Course Advisory Committee meeting, the course manager described those problems from the ground. The green color people saw from the road that spring came from rain, not sprinklers. During dry stretches, he said, the only green showed up in spots where individual heads were still working, with brown all around them. He added that the course had done nothing to its tees and fairways except mow them, "because of our irrigation current situation, which will change in a big way."
Even so, play kept growing. The manager gave these annual round counts at the April meeting:
| Period, as described in April 2026 | Rounds played |
|---|---|
| Three years earlier | about 17,000 |
| The following year | about 24,000 |
| Last year | about 32,000 |
| 2026, trending as of April | 36,000 to 37,000 |
He set those numbers against municipal courses he considers competitors, which he said play at least 45,000 to 60,000 rounds a year. He put more rounds and a better-conditioned course together, saying golfers go where greens can be putted on and fairways have grass. His forecast was that the course would be in the black in fiscal year 2027–28, about a year after the irrigation work is done. That forecast is his, and it assumes the new system performs.
One hole at a time while the trenches go in
Work got off to a slow start. In April, the manager told the committee that the pipe delivery schedule was "everything" and that Diamond Golf's suppliers expected delivery between May 11 and June 3. He thought work would begin by early to mid-June at the latest and finish around November. The city's October report now gives December for substantial completion.
Golfers were told the course would stay open during the work. In January, city staff told council that the main trench line could be dug while people played, and that lateral lines would be installed with one hole closed at a time. In April, the manager said the worst case was two holes closed, never nine. A golfer who reaches a closed hole takes net par, so the round still counts toward a handicap. He also pointed out that every trench has to be resodded afterward.
The course's posted operating procedures say carts follow the 90-degree rule unless management declares "Cart Path Only," and management can restrict carts as conditions require. With fresh sod on the ground, check the cart rule at the golf shop before you head out.
The same grass hosts movie night
The construction is happening on the same open lawn the city uses for its free events this fall. The first Movie on the Green, Hocus Pocus on Friday, October 16, was canceled because of high winds, which can be a problem on an open fairway. These are the remaining city and community dates through December, according to the City of Lago Vista's events notice and related city postings:
- Saturday, October 31, 11 a.m. The Lago Vista Public Library's Spooktacular Halloween with Staci Gray. Costumes welcome.
- Saturday, October 31, 6 to 8 p.m. The free annual Trunk or Treat from the Lago Vista ISD Education Foundation, in the Lago Vista High School PAC parking lot at 5185 Lohman Ford Road.
- Friday, November 13, 5:30 to 8 p.m. The Goonies at Lago Vista Golf Course.
- Monday, December 7, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The Annual Christmas Tree Lighting in the City Hall parking lot.
- Friday, December 11, 5:30 to 8 p.m. Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas at Lago Vista Golf Course.
The city says all of its events are free. Both November and December screenings start at 5:30 p.m., an hour earlier than the October slot. That fits the shorter days. Because one showing has already been canceled for wind, check the city's page on the afternoon of the event.
The clubhouse makes an evening at the course easy. The Bunker Bar & Grille lists public hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, and is closed Monday. Both movie nights are Fridays, so the grille's posted hours cover them. Those hours were posted without a date, so a quick call is a good idea. The city also posted on October 22 that the Clubhouse pickleball and tennis court lights are out during evening hours, with no estimate for when they will be restored. If you were planning a game before the movie, play in daylight.
This winter looks green; next summer is the real test
Once the new heads are working, the lawn will look different through the seasons. The manager said the course does not overseed with winter rye. Overseeding a whole course now costs $70,000 to $80,000, he said, and many Texas courses do it so they stay bright green from November through March. Lago Vista's dominant Bermuda grass goes dormant and turns tan when the weather cools. Even so, he expected the course to "look good next winter with the new irrigation, whether it rains at all or not."
May through August will be "our telltale," he said, because that is the first full growing season in which the new system has to keep the fairways alive on its own. He and the superintendent also planned to start a pre-emergent program on the tees and fairways so the new water doesn't just feed weeds. He called late summer and fall of next year "the rebirth of Lago Vista Golf Course."
There is also some outside money. The manager said the Texas Golf Association's Project Muni program had approved a $15,000 grant, the program's maximum, after a USGA agronomist visited the course. The grant requires the city to put up a matching amount. He said he could not find any record of the course receiving a grant before in its roughly 55 years of private, public, and semi-private ownership.
The next items on the city's list will be noticeable around town as well. The October report names Phase 3A street rehabilitation, which covers Austin Boulevard, Deep Creek, and other eligible roads, as an upcoming council decision and the next construction to begin. It does not give dates yet. At the golf course, substantial completion in December comes first, followed by work on Effluent Pond #17, and then next summer's dry months, which will show whether fairways that were green only in wet years can stay green on the new system.
If you live along the fairways and want to know how the irrigation rebuild could show up on your side of the fence, Austin Lakeside Properties keeps up with Lago Vista's course and city projects as they move forward. Explore our Lago Vista neighborhood page, or reach out and we can talk it through. Let's Connect.
