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The Hawaii Polo Club marked its own rebirth on Easter Sunday with the clubhouse fully open for its season
debut and the promise that international teams will
return this year.
The Champagne was flowing at the clubhouse’s social tables, which were open for the first time since the start of COVID-19 about two years ago. But perhaps the biggest sign of normalcy was that 103-year-old Murph Dailey, who founded the club with her late husband Fred Dailey, was in attendance to see her son Mike, 69, take the polo field for the first time since his hip replacement surgery five months ago.
“I missed it. I love to see all of the people and the horses,” said Murph Dailey, whose roots in tourism and in polo go back decades. She and her husband established the Hawaii Polo Club in 1963 on a swath of oceanfront land in Mokuleia on Oahu’s North Shore.
The club has long attracted local, national and international spectators in a wide demographic range to watch elite professional polo players competing in the prestigious tournaments that are exclusive to the Hawaii Polo Club. However, the club’s long run was disrupted by COVID-19 fears and restrictions. In 2021 the club launched a late season, but it was still under pandemic rules.
“This is the first time since the pandemic that we’ve been able to reopen the clubhouse and have music and the festivities that make Hawaii polo. The camaraderie is back,” Mike Dailey said before taking the field. “We’re also back to international teams, which add excitement to polo and open doors from all over the world.”
Dailey said he expects to host teams from India, Chile and New Zealand in the summer, which will be the first time since 2019 that international matches have been held at the
Hawaii Polo Club.
Dailey, who also owns The Equus hotel in Waikiki, said the return of international teams bodes well for Oahu tourism, which has struggled to rebound from the pandemic, since about 40% of pre-pandemic tourism to the island came from international travelers.
“Part of Hawaii’s vision for tourism is to be the crossroads of the Pacific and of the world,” Dailey said. “Our culture is based on hospitality.”
The Dailey family was instrumental in building
Hawaii tourism before jet travel and in reestablishing polo, which the Hawaiian royal family had made popular in Waikiki in the late 1800s but had slowed by World War II.
Fred and Murph Dailey formed the Waikiki Polo Club, which brought polo back to Kapiolani Park in the 1950s and 1960s. Their hotel, The Waikikian, which opened in 1956, was a
major polo sponsor and hosted visiting players and teams, including Great
Britain’s Prince Charles.
The Daileys sold The Waikikian in the late 1970s but never left their tourism or polo roots behind. The family returned to Waikiki when Mike Dailey and his wife, Becca, purchased the old Driftwood Hotel in 1990 and converted it into the
Hawaii Polo Inn, which was renamed The Equus after
a major renovation that
reflected the family’s
passion for horses.
Hotel guests who come during the polo season are treated to two complimentary tickets to the matches, which run every Sunday from April to Labor Day.
Paulo Skellon, polo ambassador for the Hawaii Polo Club and the event chair of Hawaii Polo Life, the biggest polo organization in Hawaii, said the international community has always been an integral part of the local polo scene, which this year is expected to host Adolfo Cambiaso, the No. 1 player in the world.
“Chris Dawson, the creator of Hawaii Polo Life, is bringing Adolfo Cambiaso to Hawaii to play in August, and his son, Poroto Cambiaso, who is an 8-goal player at 15 and has the potential to follow in his father’s footsteps,” Skellon said.
He said the elder Cambiaso will play for Hawaii Polo Life at the Honolulu Polo Club’s Waimanalo field on Aug. 13 but that he’ll likely also want to do something at the Hawaii Polo Club, which has the distinction of being the only oceanfront polo field in the world.
He said Cambiaso was drawn to Hawaii, which, under King David Kalakaua, was the first sovereign nation to recognize Argentina as an independent nation.
“We’ve never had a polo player of this caliber play in Hawaii,” Skellon said. “People will travel to see this match.”
Gerald Glennon, a member of Hawaii’s hotel community, said international-
level polo competition is part of the history of the sport in Hawaii, and its return brings an exciting dimension to Hawaii tourism.
“Polo was played here in the time of the monarchy, and it belongs here,” Glennon said.
“It’s not all about surf and sun and sand. Hawaii, generally, but certainly Oahu has such diversity of things that interest people to come here. It’s certainly the host culture of Hawaii, but I think anything that brings a different dimension and surprises people is really good for tourism. It’s good for the people who live here.”
Debbie Misajon, founder of The Coconut Traveler, which specializes in customized journeys where travelers pay “responsible tourism” fees, said polo is a draw for high-end travelers who are looking for unique and globally recognized experiences.
However, she said the return of the sport is just as important for locals, who have supported it for decades.
“I was raised down the road, and I’ve been coming here since 1969,” Misajon said. “This represents everything to me that we can be back at polo and polo season is on again — it’s back to normal.”
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