In the western suburbs, amidst golf courses and tennis courts, there is a quiet tradition that thunders across 300 yards of open field, and has so for more than 80 years. And while thousands drive past the polo grounds at Oak Brook every day, few have ever stopped to see the game in action.
Heralded as a “game of kings,” polo is today a game of wealthy entrepreneurs, mostly free-spirits and hardened competitors, says longtime player and polo team owner Jim Drury of Barrington.
“It’s not like golf at all,” he said. “I mean you can’t take clients out to play or anything. It’s more like having boat racing than anything else,” he said. “It’s purely for personal enjoyment.”
Drury himself, a 65-year-old recruitment professional, started playing polo about 25 years ago.
“I lived in Naperville at the time, and there was a team there, the Kuhn family, that competed with the Butlers. I had been very athletic all my life, even playing college baseball, and now I was looking for something else.”
Golf was what most of his friends and colleagues were playing, but it wasn’t a good fit for Drury.
“Golf was not at all satisfying for me,” he said. “Hitting a little white ball around a course? No thanks.”
So Drury went to the Kuhns’ team, known today as the Naperville Polo Club, for some riding lessons. When those were completed, he wanted more. So the Kuhns taught him jumping. Then they taught him polo. Then all the lessons were finished, but Drury wasn’t.
“They kicked me out!” he laughed. “They told me ‘we don’t teach anything else, that’s it.’”
If Drury wanted to continue, he’d have to do it himself. So he bought a polo pony, and he and a partner started a team. The rest is history, just like the Oak Brook field itself.
Since its inception in 1922, during the “golden age” of polo, world-class teams have come every summer to play on the fields of the Oak Brook Polo Grounds. Founded by Paul Butler, patriarch of the village of Oak Brook, the original Oak Brook Polo Club had become the largest polo facility in the country by 1953. The U.S. Open (Polo), the premier polo tournament in the country, was played at Oak Brook for 25 years, from 1954-78, the longest it was ever played in one location. Oak Brook is considered to be one of the top summer polo clubs in America and is well-known throughout the world.
Today, “Sunday Polo at Oak Brook” is hosted by the Oak Brook Sports Core, with matches played at 1 and 3 p.m. every Sunday from early July through mid-September.
“There’s no more beautiful polo field in the country (than Oak Brook). The trees, the flags, the privacy…it’s almost magical,” Drury said. And on the field, he adds “it’s one of the most exciting sports there is. It’s like perpetual youth.” The guys that own the teams play alongside the professionals they hire, he said. “It’s like being George Steinbrenner and saying ‘I own the team so I’m going to play first base.’”
That’s okay in polo, because the game’s handicapping system allows players of diverse skills to combine their talents and be competitive. But that’s not to say Drury is any slouch. Approaching his golden years, he plays polo three times a week or more, lifts weights and runs to stay in shape. He has to, he says, to compete with the 15-year-olds and the 19-year-olds out on the field.
As for costs of the pastime, lessons can be had for $50-100 an hour, but after that the costs jump if you want to play competitively. Some players are far wealthier than others. There are about 3,000 players in the country, Drury said, and of those, U.S. Polo Association statistics report the average income of polo players to be $174,000, with average net worth of competitors closer to $1 million. Twenty-seven percent are women and the average age of players is 40.
“Many of the polo players are local businessmen (patrons) who hire professionals to play with them,” said Karen Martino, director of polo for Oak Brook. “Some of the pros are American, but most are from Argentina. In addition to Argentina, our current teams also have pros from Mexico, Chile and the Philippines.”
Most of the patrons have built private polo fields, where they play practices and tournament matches during the week, she said, and then the teams play at Oak Brook on Sundays.
“When the Oak Brook summer season is over, most of the patrons and pros go to South Carolina and Florida to play. Some own fields in the south, as well as the Chicago area,” she said. Usually, the patron “sponsors” the team, often using the name of his or her company as the team name. Sometimes a corporation will sponsor a team, but it’s usually owned by someone involved in polo, like Drury.
“In Chicago, there are five like me who own a team and play,” Drury said. “We’re all entrepreneurial guys. We have the money and the time is your own,” he said. “There are no shareholders watching the clock, wondering if you are wasting shareholder dollars leaving early two or three times a week to play polo.”
But while there may be no shareholders watching, there also aren’t as many spectators watching as Drury and other polo patrons would like.
“Polo in Chicago is being played at as high a level here as anywhere in the country,” he said. “But it’s like we are playing it selfishly for ourselves. Unless we take hold of this sport, it’ll be lost. We have to build spectatorship. “
And with an admission price of just $10 (children are free), and a host of options for membership and corporate box seats, Drury says it is a gem that people simply don’t know enough about. So in addition to being a competitor, Drury has taken on marketing roles, promoting the polo matches and helping to organize benefits and other events at the Oak Brook Polo Club.
A day at Oak Brook polo boasts 65 thoroughbred horses at the field. Event-goers can be seated right at the field’s edge, and an event can run there from beginning to end, including catering.
During the season, Oak Brook Polo Club hosts corporate events almost every Sunday, said Karen Martino, polo director. Sometimes there are two or more events going on at the same time. Parties are catered by the Oak Brook Bath & Tennis Club in a large field-side tent. There is a full bar in the tent, as well as a grill.
“Polo continues to be very popular in the Chicago area,” Martino said.” The number of groups and spectators this year is bigger than we’ve had since 1994. It seems that everyone wants to host a party at polo this summer, which is great! Some days are bigger than others, of course, when big events that attract new spectators are planned.”
Drury himself helped to organize a charitable event in August called “Ponies Playing for Bears,” to help save endangered grizzly bears in the wilderness, via the Ursus International Conservation Institute. Event-goers enjoyed a classic Argentine polo match, followed by a silent auction and dinner under the stars.
“You never have to go inside. You own the place for the day.” Drury said. “There isn’t another sport so exclusive and so easy to combine with entertainment.”
Smith Barney of Naperville took a chance on that combination in August, when the company hosted its first ever event at the Oak Brook Polo Club, for client appreciation.
“We try to host these types of events each quarter for our high net-worth clients,” said Jean Reese of Smith Barney’s Jene’ Group. ”We like to choose a unique, upscale event and the OB Polo Club seemed the perfect venue for a summer outing. It also has a long, well-known history and many of our guests had been there before to see matches. For others it was a new, exciting experience.”
A lot of networking goes on at polo, Martino added. “At polo, guests can move around and socialize; they aren’t confined to a seat like in many sports.”
Drury agreed.
“I always felt polo was so unique, it’s not like a ball game or a picnic,” he said. “It’s a rare opportunity. There’s a certain cache to the sport and you can use that to raise dollars or impress clients.”