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Where to Play Pickleball in Davao

PlayPickle.phAugust 25, 20267 min read
davaowhere-to-playcourtsmindanaophilippines

If you're in Davao and wondering where the pickleball is, the short version is: there's more of it than you'd guess, most of it is cheap or free, and almost all of it runs on a schedule you'll want to know before you drive out.

The short answer

We currently list eight pickleball venues in the Davao region, adding up to nineteen courts. Five of them are in Davao City itself. The other three are spread out — one in Tagum City, one in Santo Tomas, and one down in Matanao.

Three of the eight are completely free. The most expensive is ₱150 per person, which is exactly the median paid rate across our whole directory, so nothing in Davao costs more than the national norm. You can see them all on the Davao courts page, or keep reading for what each one is actually like.

The thing that makes Davao different from Manila or Cebu is the schedules. Only three of the eight venues open every day of the week. The rest run on specific days — Saturdays only, Tuesdays and Thursdays, Friday and Sunday mornings — and if you turn up on the wrong day you'll find a locked gate. So the practical skill for a Davao player isn't finding a court, it's matching one to your week.

As always: court information in the Philippines changes fast. Everything below comes straight from our directory, but call ahead before you make the trip. Every court page on the site has a phone number.

Davao City: five venues, mostly outdoor

Davao City holds five of the eight listings, and they lean outdoor and daytime.

[FPB Sports Complex](/courts/davao/fpb-sports-complex) in Pillar Village, Poblacion, is the one to know first. Two outdoor courts, open 6am to 10pm every single day, for ₱20 to ₱50 per person. That's about as close to free as paid pickleball gets, and the sixteen-hour daily window means you can play at dawn or after dinner and skip the midday sun entirely. If you only remember one Davao court, make it this one.

[Flores Village Pickleball](/courts/davao/flores-village-pickleball) is a single outdoor court, free, open 6am to 5pm daily. The 5pm close is the tell — this is a daytime court. Come early. One court also means no backup if it's busy, so it's more of a quiet-morning venue than a Saturday-crowd one.

[Flores Village Phase II](/courts/davao/flores-village-phase-ii) is a separate listing on Astral Street in Bangal Phase II, a few kilometres from the first one. Two outdoor courts, ₱100 per person, 8am to 5pm every day. Same daytime-only rhythm as its namesake, but with a second court and a later start.

[Matina Town Square (MTS)](/courts/davao/matina-town-square-mts) in Pag-Ibig Country Homes is Saturdays only — but it's a serious Saturday: 5am to 8pm, fifteen straight hours, across three indoor courts at ₱100 per person. If your week is spoken for and Saturday is your only real day, this is the obvious pick. Indoor also means the weather can't cancel you.

[MTS Davao](/courts/davao/mts-davao) on the Davao-Cotabato Road in Talomo is a different listing with the widest window in the region: Monday to Thursday, 6am to midnight, on four covered courts at ₱150 per person. Covered means roofed but open at the sides, so you get shade and rain cover without being sealed in. The catch is that it stops dead at the weekend, which makes it the natural weekday partner to Matina Town Square's Saturday block.

Put those last two together and you've got covered or indoor play five days out of seven in Davao City, for ₱100 to ₱150 a session.

Beyond the city: Tagum, Santo Tomas, and Matanao

The other three venues are a proper drive from Davao City, and each one has a narrow schedule. None of them is a court you stumble onto — they're courts you plan around.

[Covered Court DRMC Gym](/courts/davao/covered-court-drmc-gym) in Tagum City is free, with two covered courts, and runs Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6am to 10pm. It's an unusual shape: two days a week, but the whole day on each. Tagum has no other listing, so if you're local and either of those days works, this is a genuinely good deal.

[Northgate Covered Courts](/courts/davao/northgate-covered-courts) in Santo Tomas has three covered courts at ₱50 per person, open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 7:30am to 10pm. It sits a good way north of the main Davao cluster — DRMC in Tagum is the nearest other listing — so this is a make-the-trip venue rather than one you pair with a city session.

[South Philippine Adventist College](/courts/davao/south-philippine-adventist-college) in Camanchiles, Matanao, is free and opens at 5am — but only on Fridays and Sundays, and only until 11am. Two courts, listed as both indoor and outdoor. Six hours, all of them in the cool part of the day. Matanao has nothing else listed and the nearest venues are around 50 kilometres away, so for players down that way it's worth building the week around.

What it costs to play in Davao

Davao is cheap. Across our directory, the median paid court is ₱150 per person; in Davao you have:

  • Three venues that are completely free — Flores Village Pickleball, Covered Court DRMC Gym, and South Philippine Adventist College
  • ₱20 to ₱50 at FPB Sports Complex, and ₱50 at Northgate Covered Courts
  • ₱100 at Flores Village Phase II and Matina Town Square, and ₱150 at MTS Davao

So the ceiling is the national median and the floor is zero. If you're still deciding whether pickleball is your sport, you can play a full week here without spending more than the cost of a paddle. For the bigger picture on what the sport costs, we've written a guide to how much it costs to play pickleball in the Philippines.

Play early — the courts are telling you to

Look at the opening times again: 5am at Matina Town Square and South Philippine Adventist College, 6am at FPB, Flores Village Pickleball, MTS Davao, and DRMC. And look at how many close by 5pm.

That's the Mindanao sun shaping the schedule. Three of the five Davao City venues are fully outdoor, and outdoor pickleball at 1pm here is a different sport from outdoor pickleball at 7am. If you're new, start early — you'll play better, last longer, and enjoy it more. If early isn't possible, aim for after 4pm at the venues that stay open late, or take the covered and indoor options: MTS Davao, Matina Town Square, DRMC, and Northgate.

Whatever you pick, bring more water than you think you need. Outdoors, expect to be soaked through regardless.

Getting into your first game

Walking onto a court for the first time is the intimidating part, so here's how it tends to work:

  • Look for open play. Most venues run sessions where anyone can show up and get rotated into games. You'll switch partners constantly, which is the fastest way to improve.
  • Say you're new. It works. Experienced players generally like teaching, and they'll ease off to keep rallies going.
  • Find the Facebook groups. Much of the Philippine pickleball community organises on Facebook — pickup games, last-minute slots, who's playing where tonight. Search for pickleball groups covering Davao and you'll plug in faster than any website can manage.
  • Call before you go. With schedules this specific, a wasted trip stings. A one-minute phone call confirms the day, the hours, and whether there's space.

If you've never played at all, our beginner's guide to pickleball covers the rules, the gear, and what day one looks like. And if the kitchen line has you confused, we've got the kitchen rule explained too.

Ready to play?

Davao's pickleball scene is still emerging. Eight venues is a modest number for a region this size, and the sport is spreading faster than any directory can track. If you know a court we're missing — in the city or anywhere in the region — we'd genuinely like to hear about it.

In the meantime, browse the Davao courts page for full hours, rates, and contact numbers on every venue above, check the events page for tournaments and clinics, or see every pickleball court in the Philippines if you're travelling. See you on the court.