Gay Polo League: Santa Barbara Polo Club, Sunny Hale Hosts Two-Day Clinic For Gay Polo League Members, Friends

Source: News Release/Sharon Robb for PMG Inc.

Santa Barbara Polo Club, Sunny Hale Hosts Two-Day Clinic For
Gay Polo League Members, Friends

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.----The historic 102-year-old Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club will host a two-day polo clinic for Gay Polo League players and friends, June 1-2 at its world-class Polo Training Center.

Sunny Hale, one of the world's all-time great women's polo players and founder of the Women's Championship Tournament, will conduct the first-of-its-kind GPL clinic for all levels from novice to experienced.

In 2000, Hale was the first woman to have won the 26-goal U.S. Open, the sport's most prestigious event and to achieve a 5-goal handicap rating.

Among highlights of the two-day clinic will be an after-polo Asado/BBQ at the residence of Ambassador Glen Holden, hosted by his daughter Geannie Holden Sheller, founder of

Sunny Hale

the Polo Training Center, after Saturday's opening day and 12-goal polo finale on Sunday after the clinic concludes.

The clinic schedule is:

June 1, Saturday: 8:30 a.m., breakfast and rider evaluation with Hale; 10 a.m., morning lesson (swing, timing and riding position; 12:30 p.m. lunch break; 2-5 p.m., lesson on game strategy; 5:30 p.m. after-polo asado.

June 2, Sunday: 8 a.m., breakfast, video and tips by Hale; 9 a.m.-noon, morning lesson/scrimmage; 1-5 p.m., 12-goal tournament final with complimentary seating in skybox.

The cost of the clinic is $500. Space is limited to twelve spots.

Polo player Chip McKenney, founder of the Gay Polo League, has played at the club several times. The GPL has held events there and GPL members have participated at the Polo School.

"We are thrilled about this," McKenney said. "We are so flattered that the Polo Training Center would create this with us in mind and extend this extraordinary opportunity to us. The cherry on the sundae is that one of the top women's players in the world is conducting the clinic."

Hale is coming off a successful eighth annual WCT event at Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington, where for the first year she included a junior invitational for the top junior girls players.

"Sunny is so involved with the growth of polo, bringing in another minority with women onto the field and now she's done the same thing with the gay community," McKenney said. "She has been a great supporter of the GPL."

McKenney met Hale four years ago through polo. Two years ago she was an awards presenter at the GPL tournament where she challenged the GPL to an exhibition with the WCT which McKenney said he "absolutely wants to make happen."

For more clinic information check out GPL's facebook page or contact Chip McKenney at chip@gaypolo.com or polotraining@sbpolo.com

The Gay Polo League recently held its fourth international tournament in front of a record crowd at Grand Champions.

The Gay Polo League, created in 2006, is an international organization and only known gay polo league in the world. Currently, the GPL's established four U.S. chapters are in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Wellington.

GPL members include players from several foreign countries such as France, England, Argentina, South Africa, Canada and Australia.