Things aren't exactly bad at the moment with local youngsters more than holding their own in the national rankings, but although there's already a strong core of players and coaches in the region, these tend to be in isolated pockets such as Duns, Jedburgh and Hawick, while in other towns and communities there simply hasn't been the interest or the resources in recent years.
But that's all set to change with the sport seemingly on the verge of a revival and next month a badminton carnival will be held in Galashiels for the first time, aimed at promoting the game among young people in the area.
The event at the Queen's Centre is aimed at P4-S1 pupils and is being hosted by Badminton Scotland, which already runs the scheme annually in five other Scottish towns.
David Forbes, coaching development officer with the national agency, said: "The project has been running for a number of years, but this will be the first time in the Borders and we're really excited about that.
"There's a lot of good players coming out of the Borders at the moment, so it seems like a good time to help boost the sport there.
"The carnival is a participation event so you don't have to have played before – it's just for anyone to come along and give it a shot.
"It's a chance to develop skills, but also to have a lot of fun and ultimately the kids go out the door with a big smile on their face. The whole thing is aimed at trying to get kids excited about the sport."
It is hoped events such as this will open up opportunities to develop the sport further in areas where the absence of badminton clubs comes down to the lack of qualified coaches – but that, too, looks like it will soon be a problem of the past.
In recent weeks, nine players have completed UKCC level one coaching qualifications run by Badminton Scotland in conjunction with Scottish Borders Council's sports development unit and Borders Badminton, a branch of the national organisation.
Convenor of the regional group, John Peters, said: "Badminton has been pretty active in the Borders for a while, but it tends to be in isolated areas and there's currently only two fully-qualified coaches in the region – myself and Pete Hardie at Duns.
"But recent changes in coaching qualifications – aimed at bringing them in line with other sports – have attracted more people and over the summer we had nine from different towns in the Borders, which will really help keep things going at the grass roots level."
"There's lots of little clubs popping up around the region," he added. "We're at a slight disadvantage here because of the geography and the facilities aren't great, but there's still a lot of good young players and it's good to see them doing well in the rankings."
One such player is 13-year-old Lucy Nevin, from Duns, who is currently enjoying the view from the top spot in the Scottish girls' under-14 table, an accumulative ranking based on performances in singles, doubles and mixed doubles competitions. This year, she also won a place in the Scottish national squad for her age-group.
Lucy is one of the many success stories to emerge from Duns under coach Pete Hardie's guidance.
She explained: "I play in a lot of competitions with girls from other parts of Scotland and they're all really good and it's always a challenge. But there's four of us who always end up competing against each other to win and we play in the doubles together a lot as well.
"In the Borders, most of the players are from Duns – I would say around 80 per cent play there. The badminton carnival sounds like a really good idea because it will encourage more people from different places to play."
That's a sentiment echoed by Neil Renton from the sports development unit, who said: "For a long time badminton in the Borders has not been great and people like John (Peters] and Harry Turnbull in Hawick have been instrumental in turning things around and getting it up and running again.
"I'm hoping the carnival will generate some interest and we can start some sessions again in other parts of the region. It'll take a bit of time, but it's moving in the right direction."
For more information about the badminton carnival or clubs in the Borders, visit www.badmintonscotland.org.uk.