By Alex Webbe
Three teams will participate in the Empire Polo Club’s season opening action as Seattle (Cameron Smith, Suki Piper, Victor Soto and Goyo Mariscal), Hanalei Bay (Krista Bonaguidi, Ron Bonaguidi, Ashton Wolf and Alvaro Tadeo) and Pheasant Hollow (Deb Vermoch, Eileen Duffy, Carlos Galindo and Tim Rudy) take to the fields at 1pm on Saturday, December 2nd in the 4-goal Desert Challenge.
Both Hanalei Bay and Pheasant Hollow enter the competition with 4-goal team handicaps while Seattle carries a 3.5 team rating and will receive one-half goal from both Hanalei Bay and Pheasant Hollow in the two-day tournament.
The competition will take place in a round-robin format with each team playing the other teams for two consecutive chukkers. The totals from Saturday will be combined with Sunday’s play to determine the tournament winner, with Hanalei Bay attempting to defend their 2015 title (the tournament wasn’t played in 2016).
The Desert Challenge is the first of four consecutive 4-goal tournaments, followed by the Coyote Cup, the Jackalope Cup and the Holiday Cup.
The 2017-2018 Empire Polo season attracts players from across the country and around the world and offers fourteen weekends of fast-paced polo in the beautiful and relaxed setting of California’s winter playground.
The Empire Polo Club is located at 81-800 Avenue 51 in Indio, CA. For further information go to the club website at http://www.empirepolo.com or call 760-342-7755.