Park City Pickleball Summer Classic starts on Thursday

Pickleball's popularity is growing. Photo: Park City Municipal

PARK CITY — The inaugural Park City Summer Classic pickleball tournament will start on Thursday at the courts in City Park.

The event is sponsored by the Park City Pickleball Club and sanctioned by USA Pickleball.

It’s the first open tournament ever hosted by the club.

“Through COVID… we didn’t feel it was good to bring a lot of people in from the outside to come to play in an event like this,” said Greg Leitzke, president of the PC Pickleball Club. “So we kind of kept it low-key to just club member players.”

The tournament will allow the club to work out its new and growing member base. The group was founded two years ago, with an initial membership of around 30. They now have over 600 members.

That falls in line with the sport’s growth around the world. Leitzke said in 2016 about one million people were playing pickleball — it’s now more like five million.

Courts at the MARC will be used starting on Friday. Registration is closed as 199 people from all over the region are already signed up to play.

The tournament is also a warmup for the highly competitive Tournament of Champions (TOC) in Brigham City next week. Some of the best players in the country will head to the trailblazing event — it was the first-ever pickleball tournament to offer prize money and have certified referees. Additionally, the TOC was the first competition outside of Nationals to be ranked Tier 1.