LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla. — As development closes in around it, the Sarasota Polo Club remains.
"They call it the sport of Kings. It's also called hockey on horseback. It is a unique sport," said Mason Wroe, Director of Polo at the Sarasota Polo Club.
This is one of Florida's pristine Polo clubs and the only club on Florida's west coast.
The Sarasota Polo Club opened in 1991, welcoming players and visitors from around the world.
We visited the Club on a practice day, but tournaments are usually played on Sundays from January through April.
Polo fun facts:
- A match is six chukkers. Each chukker is seven-and-a-half minutes long
- Each match takes roughly an hour and a half
- The horse is just as important as the rider, and the gear
- Each rider may use multiple horses during a match, but only one horse per chukker
- The field is the size of nine football fields
"It's a lot of fun. I don't know if it's more fun to play or just to kind of hang out and watch obviously, you know, I play but um, you know we get a lot of loyal people that say, you know, this is my first time, and then they keep coming back on a regular basis," explained Wroe.
The matches or games definitely draw a crowd on the weekends.
"Right now, we're running four different levels of tournament play. Going from our Pro-Am tournament, which is as it sounds, you have a professional player with an amateur player up to our 12-goal level, and when I say 12 goal, every player has a handicap similar to golf. And the sum of all the handicaps adds up to the overall level of tournament play," Wroe said.
"Our big Sunday Feature Match happens at one o'clock here on our championship field, open to the public, tailgating, plush seating VIP Experience Party Rentals. So it's a great time, and it's a great alternative to going to the beach," said Wroe. "We really try to encourage a family-friendly atmosphere. Get people out here. We have a loyal fan base. "
If you'd like to go, click here for tickets. You can also learn to play here, too.
