Madison Squash Workshop
Damon Bourne took a big risk on squash.
When Damon Bourne moved to Madison a decade ago for a new job, he couldn’t find anywhere in the city with squash courts that met the dimensions required for international play. So he took a big risk and opened Madison Squash Workshop, one of only a handful of stand-alone squash-only facilities in the country.
The four-court, 6,000-square-foot club on Kingsley Way will host the 10th Madison Open from April 18-22, featuring 24 male professional players from 13 countries. The tournament is a stop on the Professional Squash Association World Tour.
Denmark native and Madison resident Jonas Laursen will compete along with top-ranked U19 player Charles Culhane (The “U” stands for “under” the age of the bracket) and top-seeded Faraz Khan from New Jersey, ranked No. 86 in the world. Other countries represented include Columbia, Egypt, England, India, Iraq, Pakistan, South Africa and Spain.
“We usually get very young players who have to play these small events to get points to qualify for bigger events,” says Bourne, 52, who is ranked No. 5 in the United States in his age group and also will compete in the Madison Open.
Squash began in London around 1830, and the high-speed racquet sport made its way to North America by the late 19th century. The court, ball and racquets are smaller than those in racquetball, and the sport burns significantly more calories than other racquet sports, according to Bourne. “You run farther in less time, with less breaks between points,” he says. “It’s a very dynamic, explosive game.”
Yet squash remains an outlier in Madison and much of the Midwest.
“It’s frustrating, because squash in the United States has always been a fairly elitist game,” Bourne says. “In other countries, it’s a sport for the working man — like bowling is here.”
To combat that elitist perception, Bourne designed a large gathering space with couches as the focal point of Madison Squash Workshop, like a giant living room, complete with local artwork on the walls. The pieces are for sale and rotate about every two months.
The club offers clinics and private lessons, and it boasts an active membership, with several members housing Madison Open participants during their stay. Laursen also provides free weekly coaching to kids from the nearby East Madison Community Center.
Admission to the Madison Open is free, and seating is available. “We have a good vibe at the Workshop,” Bourne says. “Most people come in here and say, ‘This is not what I was expecting at all.’”
