Doug De Groot’s Yearslong Campaign Brings Public Padel Court to Southampton

After an yearslong campaign to bring padel to the East End, Doug De Groot succeeded in installing a padel court at the Triangle Tennis Club on Hampton Road, a development that expands recreational options in Southampton Village and gives local players access to a growing international sport.

Doug first conceived the idea of building a publicly accessible padel court "about eight years ago." A "puzzling permit denial" prevented him from finishing one "last year" at the Buckskill Tennis Club, which he owns with his wife, Kathryn. Undeterred, De Groot moved forward and, with Southampton Village’s blessing, has one up at the Triangle Tennis Club on Hampton Road.

The court is a compact, enclosed glass-and-wire 10-by-20-meter playing space that sits over a Har-Tru tennis court. Construction details include a plywood base and a blue turf covering that is heated in the winter, which makes for soft footing on cold days. The net is somewhat lower than a tennis net, and the balls look and feel like tennis balls but are a bit softer. Those specifics give the game a distinct feel from tennis, platform tennis, and squash while preserving familiar elements for racket players.

Padel is a fast-moving paddle game that combines the serving and volleying of tennis with squash’s off-the-wall shots. First played in Mexico in 1969, padel has been popular in Spain and the rest of Europe, in Scandinavia, and in South America for years. De Groot summed up the international pedigree succinctly: "It’s extremely popular in Spain . . . some of the best players are from Argentina and Brazil." Scoring follows tennis conventions, and the ball is served underhand off a bounce, with the server getting two chances.

An introductory session one Saturday morning featured Doug, his son Jonny, the writer, and Luke Burke. The morning’s play highlighted the sport’s defining patterns: after the serve, players close to the net duke it out with hard-hit volleys punctuated by overhead smashes or tantalizing lobs that can wind up dying in the back corners. Retrievers at the back can play smashes and lobs off the glass back wall or off adjacent glass side-wall sections, but those shots are harder to master than similar plays in platform tennis with its bouncier ball and taut wires or maybe even in squash, which means, of course, that if you want to excel in padel you’ve got to practice.

De Groot laughed when asked where the nearest publicly accessible padel court was; his offhand reply was simply "Miami." His son Jonny ventured that one could be found in Lancaster, Pa., "a tennis hotbed." Locally, the Triangle installation gives Southampton players a chance to learn the nuances of padel without traveling long distances.

For players who swing between tennis, platform tennis, and squash, padel offers fresh angles, different footwork demands, and the social, doubles-forward play that has fueled its global growth. Check with the Triangle Tennis Club for current availability and programming; expect beginners to need time on the court to master wall play and transition volleys. De Groot’s persistence has put padel on the village map, and the new court could well be the seed for lessons, leagues, and more courts in the seasons ahead.