About Us
The original inventor of PickleBall didn’t set out to poach players away from tennis, but that’s what’s happened. In 2024 the number of Pickleball monthly participants surpassed tennis for the first time.
PickleBall has made racquet sports more accessible, more fun, and more popular to a broader audience.
Mark Hernandez wants to do the same thing for golf.
Mark’s an expert golfer, but a beginner in pickleball. One day, back in the COVID days, he had an idea… what if he could design a golf ball and a set of clubs that would simplify golf and make it as easy to play as pickleball.
Like all inventors, he went down the rabbit hole of experimentation, prototyping, fine tuning and dreaming. The more he worked on his idea, the more inspired he got.
“It was just a wild hair at first, but when I started playing around with those early versions of the ball and clubs, I got really excited. It just brought out the kid in me, and, everyone I showed it to thought it looked really fun.”
As Mark researched the business opportunity it became quite clear that the timing was just right for his idea.
“I started looking at trends in the golf industry, the restaurant industry, in Pickleball and the entertainment industry, and I noticed this convergence of trends…”
“Golf is changing. People are looking for alternatives to the traditional, country-club style of golf. They’re also looking for more exciting places to eat and drink. So chains like PopStroke, Chicken & Pickle, Top Golf and PuttShack are popping up everywhere.”
“Then, when TopGolf got bought up by Callway for 2.1 billion dollars, that’s when I knew I was onto something.”
Mark launched his business officially at the PGA show in January, 2024. He hired a golf architect to design a model PickleGolf course, he lined up a turf company and hired marketing help. Now he’s just looking for the right financial backers.
“A faster, easier, more inviting version of the game is an undeniably appealing idea,” Mark says. “Now we just have to bring it to life with our first location.”
