Golf’s writers just clocked the glass. The clubs, the lenders, and the builders already had.

Carly Cummins just asked golf a question it would rather not hear. In a Golf Monthly column out of the UK — syndicated on Yahoo on November 3 — she argues that padel is starting to replace golf for busy parents and executives, including the business-networking crowd that used to live on the first tee. The pitch is blunt: a match takes about an hour; split four ways, a court costs each player under £10 (about $13); and indoor padel can run year-round. That is not a lifestyle brochure. That is a calendar argument.

Golf operators will recognize the receipts. One tennis court converts to about three padel courts, and golf facilities are already adding glass: Riyadh Golf Club put in four courts, the UK’s Mad Swans paired a 12-hole course with padel, and even a driving-range owner is adding courts. So is the U.S. hook: the PGA Show added a racquet-sports section — padel court included — at its January 2026 Orlando show. When golf’s own trade floor parks glass next to the drivers, the conversation has left the tip-sheet stage.

The Primetime Take:

The number that stuck with us is that four-way split: under £10 a player, about $13, for a game that fits in about an hour. That used to be golf’s product — get the right four people in the same place and let the relationship do the work. Padel is just packaging it tighter and cheaper, and indoor courts can skip the weather wait. We don’t have to take Cummins in isolation, either. Porsche Design is already drawing padel into collector-car clubs aimed at West Palm Beach and Dallas. When a golf magazine and a luxury car-club concept start making the same argument, the country-club calendar is the thing in play.

To read the whole article from Golf Monthly, click here.

Porsche Design is pairing with Miami’s Newgard Development Group on members-only collector-car studio clubs. Padel shows up on the amenity list next to a spa, dining, and coworking. The first two sites are West Palm Beach and Dallas, with a target of 2028 and more U.S. locations planned. Each club gets 22 studios, invitation only. You do not have to own a Porsche to get in. Nobody has published a court count.

The Primetime Take:

This is the country-club thesis wearing a different badge. Porsche is not building a rec center off to the side of the lot. It is putting padel next to the cars, the dining room, and the spa — the rooms where people already linger. The missing court count is worth noting, but the amenity list is the tell: padel is being treated as part of the club, not a novelty next door.

To read the announcement from Porsche, click here.

Court Club, a private tennis, padel, pickleball, and wellness project in Palm Springs, Florida — West Palm Beach area — just secured a $10.8 million construction loan, according to South Florida Business Journal on November 4. The club is slated to open in March 2027 with a 12,000-square-foot clubhouse and a Padel Pavilion.

The Primetime Take:

Lenders do not write eight-figure construction checks because a sport looks good on Instagram. They write them when they believe the building gets used. A multi-racquet club clearing $10.8 million in construction financing, on the same stretch of Florida where Porsche wants a car-and-court clubhouse, is the money rhyming with Golf Monthly’s column. The calendar argument is not only a column. It is showing up in loan documents.

To read the whole article from South Florida Business Journal, click here. You can check out their site here.

POP Padel, led by CEO Chris Louis, is coming to market with a simple offer: “You provide the space, we provide the courts.” POP says it covers 100% of court capex. The first partner sites are Cherry Hill Health & Racquet in New Jersey (three indoor courts, open January 2026), Pickle Juice in Ventnor, New Jersey (its website lists an October 2026 opening), and Penn Oaks in West Chester, Pennsylvania (planned for December 2026, three courts). The target is seven courts by the end of 2026.

The Primetime Take:

A lot of clubs want padel and do not want to become a construction company. POP is betting that the bottleneck is not demand. It is the check for the glass. If you already have the building, and someone else covers the court capex as POP says it will, the “we should add padel” conversation gets a lot shorter. A seven-court target by year-end is a starting lineup, not a national footprint, and that is fine. The model is the story.

To check out POP Padel, click here. For locations, click here.

ManyTown published a November 4 profile of Ben Nichols — “The padel prophet” — that lands on a clean prediction: “Padel club becomes the new run club.” His next local goal, the piece says, is a public padel festival to get Charleston on court.

The Primetime Take:

That run-club line is doing real work. Run clubs are not about split times. They are about who you see on Saturday morning and whether the city has a default place to bump into people. If padel starts playing that role in Charleston, the sport stops being a tip for insiders and starts being part of how the week is built. A public festival is the right next swing: get people on the glass who have never had a reason to walk through the door.

To read the profile from ManyTown, click here.

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