Sports Turf Advisory for Polo Fields

Grass Polo Field Maintenance

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. is an expert on grass and polo fields. He was Facility Manager for  3 years at Guards Polo Club in Windsor, England (7 full sized polo fields and 150 playing members). He has 14 years experience in Sports Turf Management. He has his degree from Michigan State in Sports Turf Science, and he is now working on his MSc in Golf Course Ecology. His specialty is Polo fields. He has worked in England, France, Canada, USA, Dubai, and Thailand advising polo clubs how to manage their turfs in temperate, desert and tropical climates.

UK Phone: 44+1784 435959

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Paul's philosophy is to help polo clubs save money by teaching them to solve their own problems. He encourages people to call him, and he will try to help them by phone. Many clubs then invite him to advise them how to improve and manage their fields. Paul is currently in discussion with H.P.A. (Hurlingham Polo Association) to publish his thesis on polo grounds development and maintenance. He will also be an advisor to the 40 affiliated mainland UK clubs and conduct 4 visits per year to the clubs.

Paul is very serious that a polo club should have the right equipment. He believes that the following are essential (in order of priority): 
- Rotary mower (4.8 meters with roller), 
- Fertilizer spreader (using 50% overlap), 
- Golf buggy (to carry fresh "loamy sand" to fill the holes after a game), 
- Top dresser (for dispersing loamy sand on the field), 
- Hollow coring device (to remove 4"x3/4" holes from the field for aeration & must top dress after), 
- Vertidraining (for deep tine aeration 6-18" deep). 
- Paul is insistent that you should never roll a polo field. It stops the water movement and aeration!  

 

Some of the topics that Paul covers in his analysis of a polo field are: 
- Soil composition, 
- Irrigation, 
- Fertilizer management, 
- Grass types, 
- Field construction, 
- Drainage, 
- Renovation of existing fields, 
- Diseases and remedies, 
- Weed control, 
- Worm control,
- As well as the benefits of using seed or turf, blending cultivars of the same genus, mixing different genus (types of grass), turning subsoil into topsoil by mechanical and organic means, the importance of using a rain gage to measure irrigation.

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