Buckskill Tennis Club, Hamptons' only public grass courts, stands apart

Why Buckskill stands apart

Buckskill Tennis Club is one of those rare Hamptons places that feels both prestigious and surprisingly open. It has three natural grass courts, six Har-Tru courts, and one Deco-Turf court, and it says plainly that it is the only club around where players can use two Grand Slam surfaces and the only club with grass courts open to the public.

That matters in a part of the East End where tennis access is often wrapped up in membership, seasonal expense, and private-club etiquette. A Hamptons.com profile from 2013 made the same point years ago, describing Buckskill as the only public club with grass courts. The niche has lasted because the need has not changed: if you want to hit on grass without getting pulled into the private-club circuit, Buckskill is still the answer.

A true surface sampler for the East End

The court mix is the club’s biggest calling card, but it is also the thing that tells you exactly who the place is for. Three grass courts give you the feel of a surface that most local players only hear about in Wimbledon season, six Har-Tru courts cover the familiar clay-court rhythm of the Hamptons summer game, and the single Deco-Turf court adds a hard-court option for players who want pace and bounce.

For serious hitters, that mix turns Buckskill into a training ground with real surface variety. For summer players, it removes a common East End compromise, where you usually get one surface, one access lane, and a price tag that reflects scarcity. Buckskill offers the opposite feeling: a sample platter of Hamptons tennis without forcing you to choose between prestige and playability.

More than a court booking

Buckskill is built to be a place you stay awhile. The clubhouse includes a full-service snack bar, a well-stocked pro shop, racquet stringing, bathrooms with showers and changing areas, and a lounge area. That combination makes it feel less like a stop-and-go court reservation and more like a full tennis day, especially in the middle of a busy summer schedule.

The club also extends its reach beyond Buckskill Road. Through Hamptons Tennis Company, its off-site lessons program can bring instruction to a player’s own backyard court, which is a practical fix for one of the region’s most familiar problems: Hamptons traffic. For seasonal residents with private courts, that home-coaching model keeps professional instruction in the picture without turning a lesson into an ordeal.

Programs that make family tennis easier

Buckskill’s clinic schedule is one of the clearest signs that it is trying to stay useful to everyday players, not just visiting regulars. Adult clinics run in the morning and afternoon seven days a week, including weekends, and weekday adult clinics are scheduled at the same time as junior clinics so parents and children can be on court at once. That setup is more than convenient; it turns tennis into something the whole household can build around instead of something one person does while everyone else waits.

The pricing structure backs up that family-first idea. Clinic packs can be used for both adult and junior clinics, and the club says they can be shared by the whole family. Current rates listed by the club include a $99 drop-in clinic, a five-pack for $460, a ten-pack for $850, a 25-pack for $1,980, and a 50-pack for $3,700.

In a Hamptons tennis culture where Scott Rubenstein of East Hampton Indoor Tennis has described the median age of players as “greying,” that shared-pack approach feels like more than a bargain. It reads like a response to a local sport that needs younger players, returning players, and families who want to stay in the game without treating every session like a luxury purchase.

How membership and access work

Buckskill still has limits, and that is part of what keeps the experience orderly. Members may book one hour for singles or 1.5 hours for doubles per day if time is available, and the same person may not be a guest of the club more than three times. The rules suggest a club that is trying to balance public-facing access with some predictability for its members.

That balance is exactly what makes Buckskill unusual in the East End. It is public enough to be part of the wider Hamptons tennis routine, but structured enough to protect the day-to-day flow of people who use it regularly. In a region full of seasonal bottlenecks, that is its own kind of luxury.

A seasonal club with deep local roots

Buckskill operates seasonally from spring to fall, and business profiles place it at roughly 45 years old, with one listing saying it was established in 1980. The club is owned by Kathryn and Doug De Groot, names that are tied closely to East End tennis culture. The same family footprint also connects Doug De Groot to 27Tennis on the Napeague stretch, which helps explain why Buckskill feels less like a one-off amenity and more like part of a larger local tennis network.

That seasonal identity does not disappear when the courts come down. In November 2023, The East Hampton Star reported that a 20-person crew was converting the tennis club into the Buckskill Winter Club, beginning its 21st year of operation. In November 2024, the paper described an even bigger winter buildout, with 30 people turning four Har-Tru courts into a 16,800-square-foot regulation-size ice rink over Thanksgiving, ready for opening day.

That winter pivot gives the property a year-round public role that most tennis clubs in the Hamptons simply do not have. It also explains why Buckskill has become more than a summer sports address; it is a community fixture that keeps changing shape without losing its local purpose.

What Buckskill is for

Buckskill makes the most sense if you want one of three things, and ideally all three:

• public grass-court access without private-club barriers
• family-friendly clinics and shared pricing that make regular play realistic
• surface variety that lets you move between grass, Har-Tru, and hard court in one place

It is also a smart fit if you live locally, spend summers on the East End, or want to keep your game sharp while working around Hamptons traffic and seasonal crowding. The extra layer is community: Patch reported that the Buckskill Winter Club has offered free skating opportunities for Bridgehampton students, framing the operation as part of a “community of giving.”

That is the part that makes Buckskill stand out most. In a tennis landscape often defined by who can get in, who can afford it, and which surface they can reach, Buckskill offers something simpler and rarer: a real game day on grass, in public, with enough structure and pricing flexibility to keep families and serious players coming back.