City gets involved after students saw adult entertainment club's event at Texas golf course

AUSTIN, Texas - The city of Austin is now looking into an incident at Avery Ranch golf course where a local high school golf team says players saw "lewd behavior and scantily dressed people".

Austin City Council member Mackenzie Kelly is taking action because she says there was a code violation, but the club that put on the tournament says it was supposed to be a private event they've been doing annually.

"I was both shocked and somewhat disgusted," said Kelly about her reaction to hearing about what happened in her district Monday. "This is not something I would want any child to be exposed to based on the photos and evidence of the event that I’ve seen."

Players with the Vista Ridge High School golf team showed up to the Avery Ranch golf course for practice that afternoon; at the same time the Yellow Rose, an adult entertainment club, was hosting their annual golf tournament. The course had been rented out by the Yellow Rose, but the players were using the driving range.

Pictures shared with FOX 7 Austin show scantily clad women and one parent told FOX 7 their child saw topless women driving a golf cart. 

Photo of people participating in an adult entertainment club's event at Avery Ranch golf course which was going on at the same time the Vista Ridge High School golf team arrived for practice. 

In a letter to parents Tuesday, the golf coach said in part: "A very inappropriate situation occurred at Avery Ranch.... Unfortunately, our golfers did witness some lewd behavior. Coach Brown immediately canceled practice."

They also said they’ve talked with golf course management who said they weren’t aware inappropriate actions would occur, and they don’t condone them.

However, the Yellow Rose said in a Facebook post that they had not received reports of "lewd behavior" and the women were wearing bikini bottoms "no different than you would see at Lake Travis on a summer weekend."

The club also said they'd been playing their annual charity golf tournament at Avery Ranch for the last four years and that any attempt by the golf course to "feign surprise [as] to the adult nature of the tournament is disingenuous."

"If somebody saw something they deemed offensive, The Yellow Rose sincerely apologizes," the club said. "This was supposed to be a private event."

So was this just bad scheduling or an actual violation of city code? Council member Kelly says the course did break the rules. 

"This would’ve fallen under adult entertainment use which is generally permittable in the city of Austin through CS1 zoning," said Kelly. "However Avery Ranch is in a public utility district and so adult entertainment use is not permitted."

Kelly said she's having someone from the code department talk with course management. "Right now I’m just focused on ensuring this does not happen again," she said.

FOX 7 Austin has reached out to course management and has not heard back.