Pickleball is becoming the new golf

High-powered execs are increasingly trading in shouts of frustration and hot dogs at the turn for loud thwacks and yells of “You stepped in the kitchen!” Pickleball is starting to replace golf as the corporate sport of choice, according to a new Bloomberg report.

• Corporate bookings at pickleball clubs across the US spiked in June from the previous month, per PodPlay, a sports venue booking platform.
• Pickleballerz club in Chantilly, Virginia, has seen corporate bookings roughly triple since 2021, according to Chief Marketing Officer Greg Raelson.
• New York’s Life Time health club is fielding 10–20 corporate booking inquiries/week – more than 5x last year’s volume.
• Ace Pickleball Club, which has locations in various states, sees a steady flow of corporate gatherings, co-founder Joe Sexton told Bloomberg, with event requests at new locations piling up even before they open.

Behind the trend: As anyone who’s picked up a club can corroborate, golf is both expensive and beautifully frustrating to master (in the water again??). It’s also time-consuming. Pickleball, on the other hand, is cheaper to play (two rounds can cost a firm ~$80 vs. $600-$700 to entertain on the golf course), much easier to pick up, and takes less time.

🏓 Zoom out: Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the US, with participation increasing an average of 223.5% over the last three years to reach an estimated 48 million players. For context, ~41 million Americans played golf in 2022.