The bar closes when the last court empties (so, never)◆ Maplewood, New Jersey◆ Styff Country Club, 1965  →  Stiffdinks, 1973◆ Stiff drinks & soft dinks◆ The bar closes when the last court empties (so, never)◆ Maplewood, New Jersey◆ Styff Country Club, 1965  →  Stiffdinks, 1973◆ Stiff drinks & soft dinks◆
Maplewood, New Jersey · Est. 1973
Stiff drinks and soft dinks.
Enter the Pro Shop The Origin Story
The Origin

Before the dinks, there was Styff.

The Styff Country Club archive
The Styff Country Club archive, 1965.
1965 → 1973.

It started as the Styff Country Club — Betty Styff's family club. Tennis, gin, and a membership roster nobody could get on.

Then Robert Dinks arrived from Seattle, where they'd called him Sir Dinks for reasons no one west of the Cascades ever explained. He met Betty at the Club, back when it was still all tennis and cigarettes — and he carried in a strange paddle game almost nobody had heard of. He chalked out a court behind the tennis lawns.

Betty fell for the game and for Bob in the same summer. The club's official position is that no one — Betty included — can say which came first. It remains the central unanswered question of the institution.

Bob became the club's first pickleball pro. Betty ran everything else. They married in 1973, and the membership — who'd been saying "Styff and Dinks" like a punchline for years — made it official: uninvited, and unanimous.

Styff + Dinks → Stiffdinks. The lawns stayed. The martinis stayed. Most of the pretension left.

1965
The Styff Country Club opens. Betty Styff's family. Tennis whites mandatory.
1971
Robert "Sir Dinks" Dinks arrives from Seattle — with a game nobody recognizes.
1973
Bob and Betty marry. Styff + Dinks. The club becomes Stiffdinks.
1981
The cardigan sells out. Never restocked.
1982
The PAA is founded in the clubhouse basement.
Meet the Founders
Bob Dinks, college yearbook
Bob Dinks, tennisBob Dinks, on the court
Robert “Bob” Dinks
Seattle, Washington · Physical Education
“Somebody’s going to take this little ball seriously. Might as well be me.”
Varsity Tennis · Intramural Everything · Built sixty paddle prototypes before graduation. One exploded.
Betty Styff, college yearbook
Betty Styff, tennisBetty Styff, yearbook desk
Betty Styff
Maplewood, New Jersey · Business Administration
“The trick was never getting them to come. It was getting them to leave.”
Tennis Team · Yearbook Staff · Social Committee Chair — raised attendance 400%, kept no records as to how.
Styff and Dinks. They married in the spring of 1973 and the two names became one. They didn’t invent the sport — just the after-party.
The Club

Maplewood's worst-kept secret.

Six courts, one pool, a bar that has never lost an argument, and a clubhouse that smells faintly of gin and fresh paint.

Courts at Maplewood
Six courts. Two of them lit until the bar closes.
The lounge
The lounge. Cut crystal, walnut paddles, the olive in the glass.
The Grounds

An Olympic pool, with the crest on the bottom.

The Stiffdinks pool
Fifty meters, heated since 1974, the crest set into the floor of the deep end so members always know whose water they are treading. The rules are posted by the gate. One through four are strictly enforced.
The Corners

Four bars. One per corner. Named for the four shots.

A member is never more than a corner from a drink. Same bartenders, same gin, but each corner keeps its own creed.

The four corner bars
The Dink, The Drop, The Drive, The Overhead. Pick a shot. Pick a corner.
The Dink
Keep it low.
Keep it soft.
Dink it in.
The Drop
Cold drinks.
Lower scores.
Drop it in.
The Drive
Grip it.
Rip it.
Drive it.
The Overhead
High balls.
Good calls.
Smash it overhead.
The four corners are tended by quadruplets — one brother per corner. No one has confirmed seeing all four at once. No one has ruled out that it’s one very fast man.
The Kitchen

Named for the one line nobody respects.

In pickleball, the kitchen is the line you may not step into. Chef Cindy feels the same way about hers.

The kitchen doors
“Stay out of the kitchen. With love, Chef Cindy.” She has run the line since 1974. That is the warning and the welcome, in the same breath.
Club Life

Fifty years of evidence.

Club life, recovered
Stiffdinks club catalog
House Rules

Posted by the door. Ignored at the bar.

01
If you can hold a paddle, you're a member.
No application. No dues. No exceptions we can remember.
02
Drop the paddle and we take your keys.
Drop the glass and you're cut off. The club punishes clumsiness in whatever currency hurts most.
03
New Jersey is never abbreviated.
A club like this does not shorten its hometown.
04
Look the part. Winning optional.
The lounge does not keep score.
05
The bar closes when the last court empties.
(So, never.)
The Pro Shop

Outfit the Membership.

The Founders' Cap — White
● In stock
The Founders' Cap — White
$50
Cut to the 1973 pattern, club script in forest green. Betty's choice.
Order
The Founders' Cap — Black
● In stock
The Founders' Cap — Black
$50
Black crown, white rope, club script in cream. Bold on the court, sharp at the bar.
Order
The Founders' Cap — Navy
● In stock
The Founders' Cap — Navy
$50
Navy crown, white rope, club script in cream. Classic on the court, easy with everything.
Order
The Founders' Cap — Forest Green
● In stock
The Founders' Cap — Forest Green
$50
Forest crown, cream rope, club script in cream. The one Bob wore.
Order
The Club Cardigan
Sold out
The Club Cardigan
$148
Cable-knit, club colors at the collar and cuff. Worn courtside, October through March.
Sold out
The Club Paddle
Sold out
The Club Paddle
$64
Hardwood face, leather-wrapped handle, the crest burned into the grain.
Sold out
The House Coupe
Sold out
The House Coupe
$28
The coupe the lounge poured every cocktail into. Etched crest, olive not included.
Sold out
Club Champion, 1973
Sold out
Club Champion, 1973
One of one
The first Club Champion trophy, recovered from the container. This one we are keeping.
Sold out
The Original Balls
Sold out
The Original Balls
One of one
The 1965–1973 set in the original tube. Cream and green, slightly out of round.
Sold out
Visit the Full Pro Shop →
The PAA

Pickleball Addiction Association.

PAA — Stash the squirrel

Founded in the clubhouse basement, 1982. One game at a time. Admitting it is the first step. The second is Thursdays at seven. Everyone welcome.

(The squirrel is the mascot. He has a problem too. Don't ask.)

PAA meeting, 1976
You can stop whenever you want
PAA meeting signs
The circle
PAA Helpline — open whenever the bar is
1-800-1-MORE-NO
Thursdays at seven. Everyone welcome.
PAA meeting trail signs
Posted along the wooded path to the Thursday meeting. Several arrows point to rooms that no longer exist.
The Campaign

The advertising department, 1973–1983.

The club produced more advertisements than it had members. None were ever placed in a publication. All were framed and hung in the lounge, where the membership admired them between matches.

Stiff drinks and soft dinks
If you can hold a paddle, you're a member
Members live in it
Dress code: whatever you slept in
The bar closes when the last court empties
Worn-in from day one
Served stiff and always over the net
Betty's was white
Which came first
Sold out since 1981
Heavy glass. Stiff pour.
One size fits most problems
The crest

The Mark.

A paddle and a martini, crossed, with a pickleball where the olive should be — and a blackletter S on the face, for Styff. The name makes the joke. The crest proves it. The spill is on purpose.

2026 Update · The Container

What was in the container.

Bob and Betty, 2026, at the container

Fifty years on, the courts are cracked and the clubhouse is dark — but the storage container behind the lot was still padlocked. This spring, Bob and Betty finally cut the lock.

Everything was in there. The cardigans. The house coupes. Bob's first paddle. A tube of the original balls, gone soft and yellow. A few trophies nobody remembers winning.

They put a couple of pieces up for sale, just to see. Sold out before lunch.

Bob wants to sell the rest. Betty does not. "It's not inventory," she says. "It's our life." Bob notes that their life could use a new roof. They have not resolved this.

So everything below is recovered, not restocked — sold out only because the two of them can't agree to let it go. Check back. One of them usually wins.

Stiffdinks pickleballs, 1965-1973 The paddle wall, recovered The Bar and Lounge glassware Club trophies, 1973-1983 What was found inside the container