On a Saturday morning at Lake Mayer Community Park, the paddle-and-ball rhythm starts before eight and doesn't let up until the humidity chases people home. The courts are free, county-run, and full. Across town at Chatham Racquet Club, a very different scene is unfolding: members checking in for a clinic, a pro shop stocked with paddles, a calendar full of tournaments. Both places are proof that pickleball has taken over Savannah the way it's taken over most of the country. What's less obvious, until you actually map where the courts and the money are, is that the city's pickleball boom has split cleanly into two tracks that don't talk to each other, and there's a real gap sitting in between.
The Free Courts Are Already Full
If you live near downtown or the southside, you already know the three places everyone plays for free. Lake Mayer Community Park, run by Chatham County at 1850 East Montgomery Cross Road, lists pickleball as an official park amenity alongside tennis, basketball, and fishing, and it doesn't cost anything to show up. Daffin Park has courts too, though they're pickleball lines painted over old tennis courts, which means a taller net and a regular crowd of players who've been showing up long enough to know each other by name. Forsyth Park's tennis courts double as pickleball space if you're willing to bring your own portable net and share with tennis players first.
None of this is new information if you've already got a paddle in your car. What's worth noticing is that all three of these public options were built for tennis first and repurposed for pickleball second. Nobody poured a slab specifically for the sport at these parks. The courts absorbed the demand because they already existed, not because the county planned for a sport that didn't have a name yet when Lake Mayer went in.
That matters because it means the free tier of Savannah's pickleball scene is running at capacity on infrastructure that was never designed for it, while a very different kind of investment is happening a few miles away, aimed at a completely different customer.
The Real Money Went Somewhere Else
Chatham Racquet Club, tucked into the Southbridge neighborhood, tells the clearest version of that second story. The club was originally the Chatham Tennis Club, and it had fallen into disrepair before Phillip and Mackenzie Whiteley bought it in December 2022 and rebuilt it around both sports. Mackenzie grew up in Washington state, where pickleball was invented, and has made growing the sport locally part of the club's identity. What was once six barely-playable tennis courts is now a facility with six hard and six clay pickleball courts, guest access, and a full events calendar. This September the club is hosting the 1st Annual Frank Callen Boys & Girls Club Pickleball Fundraiser Tournament, running September 19 through 21, and last November it ran the second annual Beth Brock Pickleball Charity Tournament benefiting ALS research.
That's a membership club turning pickleball into both a community draw and a fundraising platform, which is a different function than a free public court can serve. It's also a bet that people will pay to play somewhere nicer, with lights, clay surfaces, and organized competition, rather than wait their turn at Lake Mayer.
The bigger version of that same bet is happening at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club, where Franklin Creek has become the busiest property on the campus. The club's pickleball league has grown nearly tenfold since it started in 2017 and now counts more than 700 active players, numbers big enough that the club is in the middle of a nearly $6 million expansion. New courts finished construction earlier this year, and the pavilion that will anchor the expanded campus is on track to open this fall, with landscaping and a full member welcome planned for October or November. That's a private, gated investment scaled to a membership base that's already there, not a public amenity anyone in Savannah can walk up to.
Between Chatham Racquet Club and The Landings, real capital is flowing into pickleball in this area. It's just flowing into private clubs that require a membership or a guest invitation to use, which leaves the free public courts as the only entry point for anyone who isn't already paying dues somewhere.
The Part Nobody's Building
Here's the piece that doesn't show up if you only look at either side separately. None of the public courts are indoor, and neither is Chatham Racquet Club or The Landings. Every option inside Savannah city limits depends on the weather cooperating. When it's raining, or when a Lowcountry summer afternoon hits the kind of heat index that makes standing outside unpleasant, there is currently no indoor pickleball facility to walk into anywhere in Savannah.
The nearest one is Dill Dinkers, an indoor club on Hilton Head Island at 3 Mathews Drive. When it opened, the club's director told a regional lifestyle magazine that players showed up from well beyond the island itself, driving in specifically because there wasn't another indoor option nearby.
"There just isn't anywhere else for indoor pickleball around here."
That's a real drive from most of Savannah, not a quick errand, just to play on a day when the outdoor courts aren't usable. It's a real gap, and it's the kind of thing you only notice once you've tried to map every court in the city and realized the weatherproof column is empty everywhere except one address on a different island in a different state.
Reading the Map
| Where to Play | Access | Cost | Courts | Indoor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Mayer Community Park | Public, county-run | Free | Dedicated outdoor courts | No |
| Daffin Park | Public | Free | Painted onto tennis courts | No |
| Forsyth Park | Public, shared with tennis | Free, bring your own net | Shared courts | No |
| Chatham Racquet Club | Private, guests welcome | Membership plus guest fees | 6 hard, 6 clay | No |
| The Landings Golf & Athletic Club | Private, members only | Membership | Recently expanded at Franklin Creek | No |
| Dill Dinkers | Public membership or day pass | Day pass or membership | Indoor courts | Yes, but on Hilton Head Island |
Laid out this way, the pattern is hard to miss. Every court built for casual, drop-in play in Savannah proper sits outside. Every serious investment dollar has gone toward private membership infrastructure, also outside. The one indoor option anyone can pay to walk into is across the state line.
So Where Do You Actually Play Tonight
If the courts are dry and you don't mind sharing with tennis players, Forsyth Park or Daffin Park will get you a game with almost no planning. If you want dedicated courts and don't want to pay anything, Lake Mayer is the move, especially on weekend mornings before the heat sets in. If you're ready to pay for a nicer surface, lights, and an actual league, Chatham Racquet Club or a Landings membership gets you there, assuming you can get through the door. If it's pouring rain and you really need to play, the honest answer right now is that you're driving to Hilton Head Island.
That last part is the piece worth sitting with. A sport growing fast enough to justify a $6 million private club expansion still doesn't have a single indoor, pay-per-visit court inside the city it's booming in. Whoever fills that gap first, whether it's a new business or an existing recreation department, is going to have a built-in customer base waiting on the other side of a rainy Tuesday.
For more on how residents are actually using Savannah's green space day to day, our guide to parks, squares, and trails around the city covers the walking and running side of the same story. And if you're exploring what daily life looks like across different pockets of Savannah, our full Savannah neighborhood guide is a good next stop.
Homes by TLC lives in this market every day, on the courts and off them. If you're weighing a move to Savannah or just want a local's read on a specific pocket of the city, reach out to Homes by TLC anytime.
