The Bridgehampton Polo Club is celebrating its 16th season this summer, and with it, a new partner in Nacho Figueras. The internationally recognized polo star has a goal for BHP this season and beyond: a greater emphasis on the game itself and its core fans, and less attention on the frenetic pace of BHP as a social scene. “Polo-wise, it has been always great, but the social part of the club got a little bit out of hand in the past few years,” he says. “The idea is to make it really about the polo and spending a fun afternoon with friends and family.”
The ancient game brought excitement to Long Island’s eastern reaches as early as 1897, when Peter and Robert Collier, Dr. Edward Field, Thomas Field, Frederick Hoey, George Pullman Jr., and W.S. Throckmorton started the Southampton Polo Club. All had been players at Monmouth County Polo Club in Hollywood, New Jersey, before taking their ponies and mallets out East. Regrettably, the Southampton Polo Association folded in 1912, leaving the East End without competitive polo for decades.
The Bridgehampton Polo Club, affiliated with the United States Polo Association since 1995, can be considered the modern successor of those early pioneers. The founders, Peter Brant and Neil Hirsch, are two prominent patrons of polo. “I lived in the Hamptons and Peter spent summers out here,” says Hirsch. “We thought it would be an ideal area to bring high-goal polo and introduce it to people who had never seen the sport. But the main reason was we wanted a place to play the sport we loved while we were here during the summer months.”
Brant began playing polo at Fairfield County Hunt Club in Westport, Connecticut, and at Ox Ridge Hunt Club, in nearby Darien. Under the early tutelage of Thomas Burke Glynn, known in horse circles as “Mr. Polo,” Brant began his climb on the handicap list, gradually moving up as he developed his skills under the advice of Glynn, 8-goaler Benny Gutierrez, Hector Barrantes, and Gonzalo Pieres. Eventually, Brant’s White Birch was considered the best team in America, and Brant himself became the top-ranked amateur with a 7-goal handicap.
Brant founded the Saratoga Polo Association in 1979 and Greenwich Polo Club in 1980. Leighton Jordan, who as an undergrad at Skidmore College had started a polo club, proved instrumental in doing the leg-work at Saratoga, where the game had been played as early as 1876. When Brant decided to resume polo in the Hamptons, he called on Jordan. “Starting any club is a huge job,” says Brant. “The biggest challenge was building the two fields, getting stabling and housing.”
They found Two Trees Farm, previously known as Carwyham, a 115-acre parcel property on Hayground Road in Bridgehampton belonging to real estate moguls Jane and David Walentas. Carwyham was one of many farms in the area started by Henry Corwith, and continued by members of his family. In the early 1950s, Sayre Baldwin, president of the Bridgehampton Bank, purchased the farm. Carwyham stayed in business until 1987 when, after Baldwin’s death, his son Dan had a unique opportunity. “Dan wanted to farm, but it is a difficult and expensive proposition in the Hamptons,” says David. “He found a thousand-acre farm in Delaware, which we purchased and then did a swap for what would become Two Trees.”
The Walentas renovated the farmhouses and built two new barns and an indoor riding arena, all in the space of three years. “Peter asked me to check out Two Trees Farm, and when I came back I thought, It is a great location with great fields and has all the parking and other things we need,” remembers Jordan, who is now the general manager of the club. “When I got back, Peter said, ‘Let’s get going.’”
At that point, Brant’s friend Hirsch helped move the project forward. “There were many challenges to launching Bridgehampton Polo,” says Hirsch. “The fields needed to be built and permits acquired; the footing had to be perfect to attract teams that would bring their best horses to play, as well as getting the sponsorship to make it a first class event.”
An important milestone for Bridgehampton Polo was the initial five-year sponsorship obtained from Mercedes-Benz, thus creating the premier polo event on Long Island: the Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge, a 26-goal tournament. “At the club’s first game, we had 3,000 people show up, and it was a great success,” says Brant of the first opening day, in 1995. “BHP instantly became a world-recognized high-goal club.”
The 2012 season, Bridgehampton Polo’s 16th, continues the tradition of strong partnerships, today including Ferrari North America and Zen Air. Two Trees Farm also now includes two polo fields, 100 stalls, a riding school, and a children’s camp. The six-week polo season is limited to six high-goal teams. With only two polo grounds available, the risk of damage from over-use would be deleterious to the game.
The best American teams in the past 15 years have competed for the coveted Hampton Cup. Powerhouses such as Airstream, Black Watch, Cellular One, Circa, Equuleus, Heathcote, Outback Polo, Pegasus, Pony Express, Revlon, Sotheby’s, Two Trees, and Tupungato have played there from the club’s start. Brant’s team, White Birch, has also taken the US Open Polo Championship, a record-breaking 12 Gold Cups, and, thrice, the C.V. Whitney Cup. Those three competitions constitute the Triple Crown of polo in America. The list of 10-goal players, the game’s superstars, who have come to Two Trees is extensive: Mariano Aguerre, Adolfo Cambiaso, Carlos and Guillermo “Memo” Gracida, Cristian Laprida, and Lucas Monteverde, to name a few. Just consider that in the history of the game, fewer than 100 players have reached the maximum handicap.
That Bridgehampton Polo has become a staple of the summer season means that the high-goal players who participate have the opportunity to play at surrounding clubs after its six-week run ends, fostering the camaraderie for which polo is well known. “At Bridgehampton we bring in some of the best players in the world,” says Jordan. “A lot now play on their off days at Southampton Polo Club, around the corner, and at Meadow Brook Hunt Club and Mashomack Polo Club up in Millbrook. Our club becomes a feed for many of the players to be introduced to some of the local clubs.”
Nearly two decades later, polo at Bridgehampton continues to thrive. The traditions of fast-paced, high-goal games, magnificent surroundings, and, of course, the best players and top ponies all make a Saturday afternoon at Bridgehampton’s polo grounds an unforgettable experience. David Walentas shares his unique sense of pride and accomplishment. “Two Trees Farm has grown and thrived during its 16-year partnership with Bridgehampton Polo, and we are delighted to continue to host this world-class, high-goal game that is relished by both the players and the fans.”