At No. 3 in world, you can't squash his enthusiasm for the sport

David Palmer says playing squash is a good lifestyle. (evan richman/globe staff)

David Palmer, the world's No. 3 ranked squash player, recently moved with his wife and daughter to Boston from Belgium. Palmer, a 31-year-old Australian, is the only top 20 squash player who makes his home in the United States.

ALEX BEAM

Why did you come to Boston?
I always had plans toward the end of my career to come to America. There are a lot more tournaments here now and a lot more squash opportunities. I played in the US Open here for 10 years, and I have good friends at the University Club. I can't play forever, so it seemed like basing myself here before I make the transition from touring pro to club or university coach was a good idea. Everyone's coming to America to coach. Financially, this is the best place in the world for coaching.

What is your road schedule like?
From September to May, I am away for about two weeks each month. There are about 15 major tournaments, and they're not convenient geographically, so sometimes we are flying all the way to Hong Kong, and then back the following week for a tournament in Bermuda.

What do you earn?
Players at my level get prize money, and also clothing and racket contracts. We make around $250,000 a year. It sounds good, but it's nothing compared to what some of the baseball players are getting paid. But it's a good lifestyle, and I've enjoyed living in different countries around the world.

Americans find squash strange. Why?
Well, unfortunately most of the squash clubs are private. It's not like in Great Britain or Australia, where you can walk in off the street, pay $20 and play, no problems. Here, it's sometimes seen as an elitist game. The public doesn't know what squash is, and when you're not seeing it on the top sports channels or in the media, they find it strange.

Olympics officials who recently evaluated the sport said squash was hard to understand.
There are definitely some problems. The men play a game of 11 points, the women play to 9, so you have two different scoring systems. There are three different professional associations that don't work together well. We meet the Olympic criteria in terms of number of players, number of countries, and number of courts. Everybody who plays squash knows how physically demanding it is. It's very disappointing not to be an Olympic sport; I could have played in three Olympics by now. It's frustrating. Maybe we just haven't sold our sport in the best way possible.