Texas golf course that had strip club/high school incident suffers significant fire, destroying 83 carts

Firefighters were investigating the cause of a blaze that destroyed more than 80 golf carts at Avery Ranch Golf Club in Northwest Austin early Monday.

Crews were dispatched to the club near Brushy Creek around 5:30 a.m. after someone on the property saw flames and called 911, according to Thayer Smith, a division chief with the Austin Fire Department. Cedar Park and Round Rock firefighters also responded, fire officials said.

At the club a few minutes later, firefighters saw heavy smoke coming from a building used to store golf carts.

The building was locked, so the crews tried to break in. But before they could bust down the door, flames started coming through the roof, Smith said.

“Ultimately, the fire pretty much destroyed the building,” Smith said, adding that about 80% of the structure collapsed atop 83 golf carts. “The golf carts created a very significant amount of fire with all the fuel and plastic and rubber. So, quite a significant fire load and everything was destroyed.”

One firefighter received a minor burn to his arm while fighting the flames, according to Smith. No other injuries were reported.

This blaze destroyed more than 80 golf carts at Avery Ranch Golf Club in Northwest Austin early Monday.

The Austin golf course had found the spotlight back in October when nearby Vista Ridge High School golf team members who arrived at the course for practice were surprised when a local adult entertainment club was conducting its annual charity tournament.

Vista Ridge golf coach and assistant athletic coordinator Keith Allen sent a letter home to parents explaining the situation. The letter said those conducting the Yellow Rose Cabaret’s annual charity golf tournament were “acting very inappropriately” and that the team’s golfers “did witness some lewd behavior.”

It was later determined that the club had violated an Austin zoning code when it allowed an adult entertainment club to host a tournament including topless women, an official said.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Firefighters were told to remain at the club all day, working to extinguish flames that were likely to start up again because of the heat.

As of Monday morning, Smith said investigators were still unsure how the fire started and did not have a cost estimate for how much was lost.

Golfweek contributed reporting to this article.