Women's polo tournaments.

Women's handicaps change the numbers

Most top women's events are played on a separate women's handicap, which runs higher than a player's open (mixed) handicap. That is why women's team totals can look as large as men's: the 2025 Women's Argentine Open teams were rated 32 to 36 goals on the women's scale. Each body runs its own scale:

• HPA. A separate women's handicap was introduced in 2015 and applies only in women-only matches; a woman keeps her open handicap for all other polo. The HPA's 2026 rules place women on a scale of -2 to 10, with a conversion guide for a first women's rating (for example, open 0 maps to women's 2 or 3, and open 5 to women's 10).
• AAP. The AAP's 2026 women's regulations set women's handicaps on a 0 to 10 scale, through its Women's Polo Subcommission.
• USPA. We did not read a USPA document describing its women's scale, so we do not describe it here.

Never compare a women's rating with an open rating as if they were the same number. Women's polo covers the scales in more detail, and top players lists the highest-rated women.

Women's Argentine Open (Abierto Argentino de Polo Femenino)

Global Polo says an Argentine Women's Open began in 2017. It is played in late November and early December, alongside the men's Argentine Open. In 2025 it ran from 24 November to 6 December under AAP rules, with league matches at the AAP's grounds in Pilar and the final on Field 2 at the Campo Argentino de Polo, Palermo. Under the AAP's 2026 women's rules, all women's matches are played on handicap except the Women's Open.

Which edition was 2025? Sources disagree. A polo school blog and ESPN call it the ninth (IX) edition, with three teams. A Pilar newspaper preview called it the eighth (VIII), with four teams.

U.S. Open Women's Polo Championship

The USPA's U.S. Open Women's is played at 18 to 22 goals at the National Polo Center in Wellington, Florida. In 2026 it ran from 25 January to 15 February.

Global Polo reports that 2026 was Milly Hine's third straight U.S. Open Women's title and Hazel Jackson's third career title. The 2026 Florida calendar also included two Florida Circuit Women's Challenge events at 10 to 14 goals.

Ladies British Open, Cowdray Park

In 2026, Cowdray played the Ladies British Open final on the same day as the Gold Cup final, 19 July, for the first time, and reported record crowds. Yaguara (Martina Lowe, Milly Hine, and Mia and Myla Cambiaso) beat Salty Polo, whose team included Nina Clarkin, 7 to 6.5. Milly Hine was MVP. The half goal comes from the handicap: under the HPA's 2026 rules (Rule 7b) a fractional handicap difference counts as half a goal (see watching polo).

In 2022 Cowdray held the first British Ladies High Goal Championship (the Cowdray Rosebowl) at 22 goals, won by AM Polo CT 8-7 over Semper Anticus. Semper Anticus won that year's British Ladies Open 3-2 over Coombe Place.

Other women's events

• Women's Open de France, Chantilly. In 2026, Why Not, with Hazel Jackson, beat Augustinus Bader 8-1.
• England women. England played the USA in the women's Diamond Jubilee international at Cirencester Park on 20 June 2026.
• FIP Women's World Polo Championship. The first was held in 2022 in Buenos Aires and won by Argentina. No second edition was found.

Women in open polo

Women also play, and win, in mixed high goal on their open handicaps:

• Kayley Maria Smith became the second woman to lift the Gold Cup at Cowdray, with UAE in 2023, standing in for the injured Sheikha Maitha.
• Mia Cambiaso won the 2025 Gold Cup with La Dolfina Scone alongside her father, becoming the third woman and first Argentine woman to win it. She was MVP of the final.
• At the 2026 U.S. Open in Florida, the USPA says BTA's woman player was the first woman in a U.S. Open final since Gillian Johnston's win in 2002.