Pickleball in Newport Beach.

Newport Beach is the rare city where a single venue defines the pickleball identity, and that venue is the Tennis and Pickleball Club at Newport Beach at 11 Clubhouse Dr. TPC was the world’s first private pickleball club when it added courts in 2020, and it now has 31 dedicated pickleball courts (with LED lights and a stadium court) alongside 15 tennis courts (including a European red clay court, the only one in Orange County). The club has 800+ pickleball members at $200/month and hosts every major tour: the PPA Newport Beach Open in March, the APP Newport Beach Open in July (including the Humana Cup and AARP Champions divisions), MLP Newport Beach, the PPA Challenger Series, and the annual Newport Beach Shootout. The facility started as the Irvine Coast Racquet Club, was annexed by the storied Balboa Bay Club (a Hollywood elite hangout for Lauren Bacall, Johnny Carson, and John Wayne), and has since become Sean’s transformation project into a world-class racquet destination.

For non-members, the Newport Beach pickleball scene is smaller but real. The City of Newport Beach runs free dedicated outdoor courts at Bonita Canyon Sports Park (4 lighted courts), plus dual-line tennis/pickleball at San Joaquin Hills Tennis Center, and indoor sessions at Newport Coast Community Center. Newport Dunes Resort has 4 dedicated courts on the Back Bay for paid play. Big Canyon Country Club adds private member courts. About 5 minutes inland in Costa Mesa, OC Pickleball Club offers 8 dedicated indoor courts for those who want indoor play in a city where the climate barely demands it. For premium indoor, Pacific Athletic Club in Thousand Oaks (90 minutes north) has 9 temperature-controlled acrylic courts with DUPR-rated tournaments.

The Newport Beach pickleball calendar is one of the most pro-tour-heavy in the country, with three major tour stops (PPA, APP, MLP) typically running at TPC across the year. The PPA Newport Beach Open in March is the first major SoCal Open-level event of the year after the PPA Masters Slam in Palm Springs in January. The APP Newport Beach Open is one of APP’s signature events and is often called a favorite among APP pros. Local pros include the Johnson siblings (Jorja, Hunter, JW), who won their first PPA partnership title at this venue in 2023. For a city of about 85,000 residents, Newport Beach hosts a remarkable share of professional pickleball, making it a year-round destination for serious amateurs who want to play where the pros play.

This is a working guide to where to play and what’s on the calendar. If you spot something wrong or out of date, send a note to letsplay@dinkin.app and it lands in our inbox.