Pickleball in Bainbridge Island.

In 1965, three Bainbridge Island neighbors (Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum) made up a game to entertain bored kids on a summer afternoon. Sixty-plus years later, that game is the fastest-growing sport in the United States, and Bainbridge Island remains its undisputed birthplace. The original court is on private property and the family asks visitors to be respectful and not show up unannounced, but the public can play the next best thing: the Founders Courts at Battle Point Park. Eight dedicated outdoor courts, completed 2020, with interpretive displays along the walkway telling the story of pickleball’s invention, an oversized doghouse honoring “Pickles” (the founders’ dog), and open play every day from dawn to dusk. The Bainbridge Island Pickleball Club, a non-profit, maintains the courts in partnership with BI Parks. Free public access, equipment checkout available, webcam for checking conditions before you drive over.

The rest of the island’s pickleball footprint is small but practical. The Battle Point Park tennis courts are striped for pickleball overflow. Strawberry Hill (Bainbridge Island Tennis Center) has 4 lighted dual-line tennis/pickleball courts as another free public option. The Bainbridge Island Aquatic & Recreation Center has indoor pickleball drop-in for rainy-season play, and The Salt House is a small dedicated indoor club for those who want climate-controlled winter play. Most local pickleball runs through the Founders Courts and the BI Pickleball Club’s organized programming, which is the friendliest you’ll find anywhere (one local ambassador framed it as their “responsibility to be the friendliest and most welcoming pickleball group in the world,” and the locals back it up).

The year’s marquee event is the Annual Founders Tournament, August 5-9 in 2026 (7th annual). It’s held at the Founders Courts and serves as a fundraiser for the Bainbridge History Museum, which itself hosts a pickleball history exhibit with original wooden paddles and the first rules book. Players come from across the country to compete on the courts where the game was born. Beyond that signature week, the local tournament calendar is steady but small: BI Pickleball Club member round-robins year-round, and the USA Pickleball Pacific Northwest Regional rotates through the broader PNW (Bainbridge, Seattle, Portland, Bend) annually. Combined with the easy ferry ride from Seattle, a visit to Bainbridge is one of the most accessible pickleball pilgrimages in the country, and the kind of trip every serious player should make at least once.

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.