THE peninsula’s first padel club has opened at St Andrews Beach.
St Andrews Beach Padel Club is holding a soft launch during the month of October, with all court bookings free.
The club will officially launch on 31 October, with free casual play, coaching sessions, and showcase tournaments available for attendees.
The club was founded by actor Frank Magree, civil engineer Rob Noseda, and tennis and padel coach Pete Crozier.
The three were part of the Section 1 tennis team at St Andrews before discovering padel in Bali.
Magree said after learning about the sport, he noticed padel clubs started popping up around Melbourne.
“We were travelling around 90 minutes to go and play, and then we just said, ‘Hang on a second, why don’t we just build our own club?’,” said Magree.
St Andrews Beach Padel Club is the 39th club in Australia, and the first on the peninsula.
Magree said padel is a great alternative to tennis and is easier on the body.
“We were the Section 1 team, but we were getting injured, and two of us had hip replacements, and now [padel is] going to give us another 10 years playing competitively,” said Magree.
Padel is a racket sport played in doubles. The court is around two-thirds the size of a tennis court and surrounded by glass walls that come into play.
Magree said the sport is relatively easy to pick up.
“It’s the kind of sport that anyone can pick up really quickly,” said Magree.
“We’ve got a lot of people who have good hand-eye coordination through tennis, but even people that aren’t coming from tennis backgrounds are having so much fun with it.”
He said thanks to the underarm serve and long rallies, it’s an easy sport to enjoy.
“You’re closer together, because it’s like a three-quarter tennis court and so it’s a lot more social as well,” said Magree.
“And after a rally, everyone’s having a laugh.”
Magree said they have received lots of support from the community so far.
“Everyone’s buzzing because we’ve built a club that we’d want to go and play at,” said Magree.
“It’s not just a couple of courts; it’s a nice little clubhouse that’s going to have a liquor license, and we’ve made it quite beautiful.”
Anyone is welcome to book a free session during October on Playtomic and attend the hard launch event on 31 October.
“We’re going to have some of the top players in Australia coming and doing some demos,” said Magree.
“Anyone can just turn up, come, have a quick hit on court, and we’ll have some music and some food and drinks.
First published in the Mornington News – 13 October 2026
