Pickleball tournament packed with players on Senior Day

Kyle Turk, Grand Haven Tribune, Mich.
·2 min read

Aug. 4—Over 40 teams were involved in Wednesday's pickleball tournaments at Mulligan's Hollow, and to ask event organizers, they could have added quite a few more.

Ideal weather made it a perfect day for play in the Coast Guard Festival's annual tournament, the first major tournament played on the resurfaced courts near the Tri-Cities YMCA.

The self-funded project takes pride in their newly furnished setup at the Mulligan's Hollow courts, which included new benches, resurfaced courts and portable nets that can be used on the adjacent tennis courts.

"We have people come in from out of town, they see online that we're a friendly group," tournament organizer Bob Helder said. "Our goal is making the game better, making the game fun. Making the facility look nice is part of that."

Over 90 players were involved in the mixed doubles format, which included a healthy number of locals in addition to teams from Hudsonville, Ada and other nearby towns. This year marked the ninth playing of the tournament after 2020's edition was canceled with the rest of the festival.

As part of the Senior Day of the festival, the tournament was limited to those 50 and over.

"The committee has been wonderful about promoting it," recently-elected Lakeshore Pickleball club president Carrie Rodgers said. "We put it on Senior Day for a reason, we want to show that seniors can stay active too."

Placing that many players into eight-team flights also proved challenging for Helder and his army of volunteers. Pickleball, which is played much like tennis on a smaller surface, also takes its official rating system from the United States Tennis Association. It places individuals on a numbered scale, from 1.0 for beginners to 5.5 and up for top-level players.

"We started at 8 a.m. sharp, and even just having mixed doubles, we can run into about 3 p.m.," Helder said. "We just don't have enough time in the day for more teams.

Lakeshore Pickleball is also anticipating its member tournament in September, and with the new courts and a 300-plus membership, Rodgers and others are excited about the game's direction among locals.

"With a shirt, a lunch, a whole day's worth of play, it's a lot of effort that goes into organizing that many people," Helder said. "When you have great help, it runs a little better."

You can email Kyle at kturk@grandhaventribune.com or find him on Twitter @KyleTurkGHT.