The U.S. Open Women’s Polo Championship has a profound history dating back to the 1930s in California. The first women’s U.S. Open tournament was presented by the United States Women’s Polo Association (U.S.W.P.A) in 1937 at the Golden Gate Field in San Francisco, California.
Riviera captured the inaugural title after defeating Santa Barbara by 9 – 4. The U.S.W.P.A is the first and only women’s polo association in the history of American Polo. The U.S.W.P.A played eight to ten tournaments a year. It accumulated 300 members and 25 clubs in its ten-year tenure. U.S. Open Women’s Polo Championship competition did not resurface until the early 1990s.
A U.S. Women’s Open was finally sanctioned and held at Empire Polo Club, California in 1990. The competition was officially recognised as a national tournament in 2011. The tournament has been hosted at Houston Polo Club for the past seven years. The U.S. Open Women’s Polo Championship has become the largest annual women’s polo event in the United States.
The final of the 2018 U.S. Open Women’s Polo Championship was played between Rocking P and Midland Polo team. The final was played on November 11 at the Houston Polo Club. An uncharacteristic women’s week, significant rainfall led to the U.S.
Open Women’s Handicap (played simultaneously) to be moved to the arena, while Open Championship games played on back-to-back days with remarkable upsets in preliminary play. played with Courtney Price (+3)/ Bridget Price (+2), Lottie Lamacraft (+5), Hazel Jackson (+9) and Tiva Gross (+6). Midland Polo Team played with Molly Smith (+3), Tiamo Hudspeth (+5), Dayelle Fargey (+6) and Isabelle Parsons (+6).
Players of both the teams were overzealous in the opening chukkers of the match. Rocking P’s star player Hazel Jackson converted a penalty in the first chukker to give an early lead to Rocking P Polo Team. Rocking P were dominating the game from the first minute of the game. same team before and so wanted to come in underestimating them,” shared Jackson.
“We saw them play against Nina [Clarkin] the other day and they were phenomenal. We watched back their games, and came in super prepared.” Rocking P were leading the charge at halftime by 4-1. Players and strategies were discussed during the divot stamp and Midland Polo team tried a lot to come back in the game but Rocking P were able to stop Midland easily. Rocking P dominated the game completely and won the match by 10 – 2.
Rocking P lifted their second U.S. Open Women’s Polo Championship title after defeating Midland Polo team.
Hazel Jackson was awarded Most Valuable Player contributing seven of her team’s ten goals on the day. “I love the team I chose,” exclaimed Jackson. “Karl [Price] gave me the mission of finding our team and I am so pleased I chose these girls, they are massive team players, they always take one for each other and we’ve had a super fun week as well.”
