APA weekend spotlights 293-player Charlotte Amateur Open, Nashville Gold Cup

The Amateur Pickleball Association used a packed May 16-17 weekend to show how organized the amateur game has become, with the Charlotte Amateur Open at Pickleball Charlotte Sharon Lakes drawing 293 registered players and the Nashville Gold Cup on the same slate at Pickleball Kingdom Nashville North in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Charlotte was set for Pickleball Charlotte Sharon Lakes at 8401 Sharon Lakes Rd., Charlotte, North Carolina 28210, while Nashville landed at 90 Volunteer Dr., Suite 480, Hendersonville, TN 37075.

APA’s tournament model made the scale even more telling. The group says it has nearly 150 tournaments planned for 2026 and serves players from 2.5 through 5.0 skill levels, with brackets sorted first by skill and then by age group depending on field size. Its round-robin-first format gives players more matches and more court time than a straight single-elimination draw, which is exactly the kind of structure that keeps amateur fields full and competitive.

That matters because the amateur scene is no longer a side note to the sport. A 293-player field in Charlotte is a serious draw, not a casual club day, and the Nashville stop shows how quickly APA is filling weekends across multiple markets. For everyday players, this is the accessible ladder that sits beyond the pro circuit: regulated brackets, repeated match play and a calendar built to reward frequent competition instead of one-and-done entry fees.

The wider numbers around pickleball back that up. USA Pickleball’s 2025 Annual Growth Report said the Pickleheads court-location database grew to 18,258 places to play nationwide, with 82,613 known courts. It also said April’s National Pickleball Month included more than 230 sanctioned events across the country. Pickleball.com’s counters point in the same direction, listing about 3.7 million matches played, 20.5K tournaments hosted, 1.4K active tournaments, 5.8K active clubs and 430 active leagues.

APA is also tying competition to incentives. Its PicklePerks program lets participants earn money through registrations and victories, then apply those earnings to future tournaments or apparel. In Hendersonville, Pickleball Kingdom’s facility page describes the site as serving greater Nashville with premium climate-controlled courts, leagues, lessons and year-round play, and a facility listing says the location has 12 indoor courts.

Taken together, Charlotte and Nashville reflected a tour that is not just filling the calendar, but helping build the infrastructure that keeps amateur pickleball moving, from local clubs to indoor venues to full weekend brackets.