Golf Pro turns Pickleball Pro - Denise Boutin, USAPA Gold Medalist

by elizaled on Apr 8, 2015

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In the PickleballCentral Winner's Circle, Anna interviewed a former Golf Pro, Denise Boutin.  Of course, The Villages had something to do with her 'conversion' to pickleball.  Enjoy!

Hi, my name is Denise Boutin and I live in the Villages, Florida. And I’ve been playing pickleball for six or seven years, but I moved to the Villages because I am a retired golf professional and I moved there to play golf. And once I started playing pickleball, I don’t play a lot of golf, but I started playing and went back and forth to New York to work and then I decided I wanted to play full time. So in 2010, I quit, I stopped working and then I’ve been playing pickleball consistently ever since then. So really more full time for four years.

And so, all that practicing and all that hard work, how did it pay off for you today?

Today, my partner, Alison Fulton, who would play in 55+, because I am actually 60, and we took gold. And we had a great match against the people who took silver and one of the other people from that match is from the Villages as well, so we play against each other all the time. So we, uhm, we have a lot of talent where we are because we have 150 designated pickleball courts in (an) over 55 community. And all of us are pretty much over 55.

Right. So what is it about pickleball that is different? You said you went to the Villages to play golf. You ended up, what?…

Well, pickleball was a sport that I didn’t have, my learning curve was much steeper than my golf learning curve and I really liked it and I used to play tennis and I couldn’t because I injured my shoulder and then since the pickleball paddle is shorter and the ball was a little slower and the court is smaller, I could start playing it and it gives me great exercise and it’s fun. So, and it’s very social. So and you can test your patience, your persistence, your tenacity and your ability to focus.

Thank you so much.
Oh, you’re welcome. Thank you.