POLO IN GREENWICH

Polo in Greenwich is a Sunday afternoon in June at Greenwich Polo Club, in the backcountry of Connecticut, for twenty members: a cabana on the sideline with its own grass running to the boards, luncheon before the match, and a high-goal game watched from the ground, close enough to hear it.

It exists so that a member has somewhere to be on a Sunday in summer without arranging anything. The Court’s place is on the sideline, and the party is whoever has come.

The Handicap

Every polo player carries a handicap, from minus two to ten. It was devised in 1890 by Henry Lloyd Herbert, the first president of the United States Polo Association, so that teams of unequal players could be matched.

It is not a count of the goals a player scores but of what he is worth to his side: horsemanship, team play, knowledge of the game, and his horses. For a time sportsmanship counted too, and polo was the only game that rated a player on it.

Fewer than two dozen players in the world are rated at ten, and most of them are Argentine. Two thirds of all players are rated at two or less.

A team’s four handicaps are added, and a side with the lower total starts the match with the difference on the scoreboard. High-goal polo is played at twenty goals and above, and Greenwich is one of three grounds in the country where it is.

Peter Brant, who founded the club in 1981 on the old Conyers Farm, rose to seven, then the highest handicap in the amateur game.

The Afternoon

Twenty places, in one cabana on the East Lawn, with a strip of grass in front of it that runs to the edge of the field.

The gates open at one. Luncheon is laid in the cabana from a hamper, since the east side of the field allows it.

The match starts at three and is over by five: chukkas of seven minutes, with a fresh horse for every player between them, two mounted umpires and a referee at the halfway line.

At half-time the whole crowd walks onto the field and treads the divots back. The Court goes with it.

Members come and go across the afternoon. Nobody is expected for every chukka.

What Is Asked

A lounge suit, in linen or cotton, with a tie, and a hat against the sun. Shoes that can tread a divot.

The field is crossed at half-time and at no other time.

Telephones stay in pockets while a chukka is played.

Nobody is pitched in the cabana.

The Places

Twenty. It is what one cabana holds with everyone out on the grass in front of it.

Members are written to in March.

The sum is stated in the invitation and covers the cabana and luncheon.

The Court goes east for Polo in the Hamptons in August, and the club’s season ends with the East Coast Open in September.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.