You don’t have to be Ralph Lauren to enjoy polo on the North Shore

When Ralph was searching for a name for a new line of clothing he chose “Polo” to capture the lifestyle he was imagining. He’d never seen the sport played at the time! It did the trick for Ralph, and admit it, you own a shirt or two with the distinctive polo logo. So why not embrace the polo lifestyle fully?

For the price of admission (20 bucks per person), you can pull into Myopia Hunt Club’s polo field in Hamilton on any given Sunday, May through October, and witness what has been called the sport of kings. Bring your tailgating game and that bottle of Pimm’s that’s been lurking in the back of your liquor cabinet and settle in for 6 chukkas of non-stop action. Back your vehicle up to the field when you arrive, preferably an hour or so before the game, set up and kick back with a Pimm’s Cup in hand.

If you really want to up your game, show up for the Tailgating Contests on August 27th and October 1st – you might want to pop a collar for that!

A polo game is easy to follow for the uninitiated: play is 4-on-4 and each player has a specific role from attack to defense. If you can find a spot near a PA speaker, you’ll find that there is much the announcer shares about the game as the action progresses.

You will be impressed by the athleticism of both the players and their ponies, with high-speed pursuits, turn-on-a-dime pivots, big swings of the mallet and foiled scoring opportunities. Each player rides with a ‘string’ of at least 6 ponies, exhausting them one chukker at a time. The teams can be local Myopia teams – they have a number of them – regional or national.

Spectators take to the field, too, as all are invited to walk out and “stomp the divots” during halftime, a tradition as old as the game itself.

FUN FACT: George Patton is a big name in Hamilton, and a jeep driven to the game by a Patton family descendent displayed what I was told were the original four stars that had been affixed to Patton’s command car in Germany just after WWII.