The third annual Curaleaf Boca Raton Pickleball Masters tournament from Jan. 17 to 21 at Patch Reef Park was a success.
The event turned out more than 600 players, and for the first time, added the Senior Pro Tour with all the top 50+ Champions Pros competing for their largest prize pool ever with more than $28,000 just for Senior Pros and a total event purse of more than $40,000 for Pro payouts.
“The highlight was seeing former top tennis legend Ivan Lendl winning his first pickleball Gold Medal with Boca Raton resident and businessman Brian Levine in the Men’s 5.0 Doubles,” said Carl Foster, tournament director of the Masters. “Lendl told me in an interview on court, ‘I won my first ATP Tennis title in 1980 at River Oaks Country Club, and now in 2024, I won my first Gold medal in pickleball at age 64 — 44 years later. I will always remember the Boca Masters and Patch Reef Park.’”
Also, playing at Boca Masters was former top tennis pro and NCAA Tennis Champion while at Georgia, Michael Pernfors, who played Davis Cup and top singles and doubles player on tour for two decades. Pernfors is now playing pickleball and training with Lendl as they both have homes in the Vero Beach area.
More than 36 states and six foreign countries were represented at this year’s Boca Masters.
“We had a record weekend with thousands in attendance including Boca Mayor Scott Singer and Mayor Shelly Petrolia from Delray Beach attending,” Foster said. “We had a record number of viewers on our live stream airing worldwide on Inside World Pickleball’s YouTube Channel and Amazon Prime’s PICKLE TV with over 50,000 streams over the weekend with coverage from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.”
Foster credited their new title sponsor, Curaleaf, Baptist Health and the Palm Beach County Sports Commission. There were more than 30 exhibitors, an expanded food court, and for the first time, they had Pickleroll install their court on the Stadium.
“We are pleased that the Boca Beach and Parks and the city of Boca added six new permanent pickleball courts giving us 12 permanent courts and we added 12 taped courts plus a Stadium court with VIP umbrella seating on court that sells out every year,” he said. “We are looking forward to 2025 as plans have been approved to build 18 covered courts at Patch Reef Park and that will help take the Boca Masters to another level as the pickleball capital of South Florida.”
