A Golden Ticket event is a highlighted pickleball tournament where category and division winners are granted pre-registration access (Golden Tickets) to the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championship (AKA Pickleball Nationals). If you earn a gold medal at a Golden Ticket event, you have secured a guaranteed spot to compete at Nationals.

Golden Tickets are the only guaranteed path to register for Pickleball Nationals, the premiere year end tournament hosted annually in November.

The USA Pickleball National Championships is the premier professional and amateur tournament in the sport of pickleball. Established in 2009, the National Championships has evolved into the first and only pickleball tournament in which players must qualify to participate. The 2023 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships hosted over 3,500 players, making it the largest-ever pickleball tournament in history.

To be eligible to participate in the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships, you must have played in a qualifier tournament. This year, there are 10 qualifiers—or Golden Ticket—tournaments being held across the United States.

A player enters a qualifying "Golden Ticket" event (listed above) and wins a gold medal in their skill/age bracket. As a gold medal winner, the player receives a “Golden Ticket” or the pre-registration opportunity to compete at the USA Pickleball National Championships.

All players who participate in any of the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championship qualifying events (listed above) are eligible for the Pickleball Nationals registration lottery. As a lottery eligible player, once all Golden Ticket players register for Pickleball Nationals, a lottery of all eligible players is utilized to fill all remaining spots within the divisions.

All events, including singles, will offer a pool-play format. If there are not enough teams for pool play, then a round-robin bracket will be played. The format is subject to change at the Tournament Director's discretion.

The top four teams (2 from each pool or 4 from a round-robin bracket) will move forward to the next round.

All pool-play matches, as well as all pre-medal matches, will be one game to 15, win by two points. The medal matches will be best 2-of-3 games, win by two points.

The gold-medal winners of each event will earn a Golden Ticket to the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships.

This is an MMP format.

For a CONFIRMED spot in an event, both partners must be registered and paid. Players without partners or whose partners have not registered and paid within 4 days of their signup, will be moved to the waitlist. Once their partner signs up, they will be moved back into the event - IF THERE ARE SPOTS REMAINING IN THE BRACKET AND THE TOURNAMENT.

We have 5 year age breaks planned for 50 and above.
We have 10 year age breaks planned below 50.
Skill levels are 3.0 to 5.0 (No 5.5, or higher, rated players may participate).

In addition to an unrivaled player experience and the opportunity to compete at some of the best facilities around the country, players will receive an exclusive gift bag as a result of attending and participating in a USA Pickleball-operated Golden Ticket event. Players participating at APP and UTR-operated Golden Ticket events will receive a commemorative lapel pin.

No. Those who have already earned a Golden Ticket in one of the three 2023 Golden Ticket events that qualify for the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships are good to go.

Nothing has changed with your Golden Ticket and you are fully eligible to compete at the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships.

SEP 20-23, 2023 | Atlantic City, NJ | USAP

NOV 5-12, 2023 | Dallas, TX | USA Pickleball Nationals

DEC 3-10, 2023 | Daytona Beach, FL | USAP

MAR 6-10, 2024 | Sacramento, CA | APP

MAR 20-24, 2024 | Miami, FL | APP

APR 3-7, 2024 | Mesa, AZ | USAP

APR 15-21, 2024 | Las Vegas, NV | USAP

MAY 1-5, 2024 | Rockwall, TX | USAP

MAY 8-12, 2024 | Cincinnati, OH | APP

MAY 22-26, 2024 | New York City, NY | APP

MAY 29 - JUN 2, 2024 | Macon, GA | UTR

JUL 3-7, 2024 | Newport Beach, CA | APP

JUL 10-14, 2024 | Denver, CO | UTR

The following two APP tournaments in 2024 will now offer Golden Ticket opportunities:

MAR 6-10, 2024 | Sacramento, CA | APP

MAR 20-24, 2024 | Miami, FL | APP

MAY 8-12, 2024 | Cincinnati, OH | APP

MAY 22-26, 2024 | New York City, NY | APP

JUL 3-7, 2024 | Newport Beach, CA | APP

The gold medalists at the above tournaments will earn “Golden Tickets” for the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships.

The following UTR Sports tournaments in 2024 will now offer Golden Ticket opportunities:

MAY 29 - JUN 2, 2024 | Macon Open (Macon, GA) | UTR Sports

JUL 10-14, 2024 | Denver Open (Denver, CO) | UTR Sports

The gold medalists at the above tournaments will earn pre-registration for the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships.

The following USA Pickleball tournaments in 2024 will now offer Golden Ticket opportunities:

APR 3-7, 2024 | Mesa, AZ | USAP

APR 15-21, 2024 | Las Vegas, NV | USAP

MAY 1-5, 2024 | Rockwall, TX | USAP

The gold medalists at the above tournaments will earn pre-registration for the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships.

The 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships will be held November 10-17, 2024 in Mesa, Arizona. Click here for additional information. 

More information will be announced in the coming weeks about pre-registration for the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championship.

The winners of each age respective age bracket will receive a Golden Ticket.

Example #1:

In a qualifying event, a 35+ age bracket has less than four teams in their bracket and therefore must be combined with a 19+ age bracket. In that combined bracket, the winners of both the 19+, as well as 35+ age groups, will each win a gold medal and a Golden Ticket to the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships. Hypothetically, in this scenario, the 35+ age group has Teams A, B, and C. The 19+ age group has teams D, E, F, G, and H. The brackets are combined. Team F wins their bracket, a gold medal and a Golden Ticket. Furthermore, team "F" won the overall combined bracket. (The overall winner of the combined bracket is irrelevant because in order to be the overall winner, you must have won your individual bracket in the first place so you have already received a Golden Ticket for that win). The highest-finishing team within the 35+ age bracket also wins a gold medal and a Golden Ticket.

The winner of the 19+ age bracket and the 35+ age brackets would be based on which person/team advanced the furthest within the bracket. If the top two players/teams left within the same age bracket (19+ and 35+) end up being eliminated from the tournament at the same time/position within the bracket (tied for fifth), then the finishing position medals would be determined by a tie-breaker system:

Tie-breaker #1. Who beat who if they played each other in the winner’s bracket (they couldn't have played in the consolation bracket and end up tied because one of the teams would have been eliminated while the winner of the match would have moved on, thus finishing higher).

Tie-breaker #2. If the players/teams within the same age bracket never played each other but were eliminated from the tournament in the exact same finishing position, then the medals are determined by a point differential tie-breaker system.

Example #2:

In a qualifying event, a 75+ age bracket and a 70+ age bracket must be combined with a 65+ age bracket. The winner of the 65+ age bracket will earn a gold medal and a Golden Ticket to the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships. In addition, all 70+ and 75+ age bracket teams will receive a Golden Ticket to the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships (this is due to the fact that all 70+ and greater aged teams that participated in a qualifying event automatically receive a Golden Ticket).

We have greatly expanded the opportunities for players in the 70+, 75+, and 80+ age brackets to obtain early registration to the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships. Players in these age brackets have a different qualification path than all other age brackets. All they have to do in order to qualify for Pickleball Nationals is play in one of the Golden Ticket tournaments listed on this web page. 

Example #1: I play in one of the qualifying tournaments listed in the link above, but my bracket gets combined. Do I need to medal in my combined bracket to get early registration to the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships?

A. No. All you need to do is play in the tournament. If you play in the 70+, 75+ or 80+ age brackets in any of the Golden Ticket tournaments listed above in the link, you will get a Golden Ticket for Pickleball Nationals.

Example #2: If I get a Golden Ticket for Pickleball Nationals by satisfying the requirements in Example #1, does my partner also have to play in one of the Golden Ticket tournaments?

A. Yes, your partner will need to play in a USA Pickleball qualifying tournament to be eligible to participate at this year’s National Championship.  Please click on the Golden Ticket tournaments list above.

Example #3: If I am 70+, 75+ or 80+ years old and I play in one of the Golden Ticket tournaments listed above, does this mean I automatically get a Golden Ticket for the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships?

A. Yes.

Example #4: If I played in the Diamond Regional tournaments in the 70+, 75+, or 80+ brackets, does that get me early registration for the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships?

A. No. However, it does qualify you to register for the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships lottery. You are also now qualified to play in Pickleball Nationals with any Golden Ticket winner who elects to partner with you in your age/skill bracket.

If you are a Junior Player that did not qualify for Nationals via a qualifying tournament, you can still register using the process below:

Send an email to nationalsreg@usapickleball.org and include the following information:

• Junior player's first and last name
• Date of Birth
• USA Pickleball membership number
• Let the registration team know that it is for JUNIOR-only events