Handicaps: how polo levels the teams.

The scale

Handicaps are measured in goals. The HPA describes its scale as running from -2, for a beginner, to 10, for a world-class professional. Meadow Brook Polo Club gives the same -2 to 10 range. The scale is not the same everywhere, though:

The Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame describes ratings from -1 to 10, which disagrees with the HPA's 2026 rules and Meadow Brook, both of which put the bottom of the scale at -2.

What a handicap measures

A handicap is not a count of the goals a player scores. The HPA says it reflects skill, experience and value to the team. Meadow Brook says it reflects hitting, horsemanship and teamwork. The HPA's 2026 rules (Annex B) tell its Handicap Committee to rate players on the level they mostly play and on their individual performance, and not to make team results a major factor.

Who sets handicaps

Under the HPA's 2026 rules, handicaps are awarded by the HPA Handicap Committee: a Chair (normally a Steward) and up to ten members, elected each year by the HPA Council. Key points from Part 2 and Annex B:

• To play any match or tournament, a player must hold an HPA handicap between -2 and 10.
• -2 is an introductory handicap that a club may give a member who has passed the rules test and is judged safe.
• A handicap may change at any time but is normally reviewed mid-season and at the end of the season, with end-of-season changes taking effect on 1 January.
• A handicap shown in brackets is under review and more likely to change.
• Once a player reaches 0, they should not go down again except in exceptional circumstances.
• Appeals go through the player's club, not the player, to the Committee Chair, no later than two weeks after the list is published.
• A player who has held a handicap abroad but never an HPA one submits a CV form, and the committee may award the same, a higher or a lower handicap than the home-country one.
• Polocrosse or pato players taking up polo must pass the rules test and play chukkas, after which their club recommends a starting handicap, shown in brackets.

The HPA's 2026 rules say HPA handicaps are generally recognised worldwide, unless the player already holds a handicap in the country concerned. Under the USPA's 2024 Outdoor Rules (Rule 2b), a player without a current assigned handicap may not play in any USPA event. The USPA committee process for setting handicaps was not found in a source that could be read for this site.

Team handicaps and tournament levels

A team's handicap is the sum of its players' handicaps, under the USPA's 2024 rules (Rule 19) and as the Museum of Polo describes it. Tournaments are then pitched at a range of team totals. The HPA's two sources group them slightly differently:

At the top of the game, the HPA notes that open tournaments such as the Argentine Open can field a 40-goal team: four 10-goal players. La Nacion's Palermo guide (2001, updated 2020) says Argentine team handicaps run from 0 to 40 and Argentine Open teams must total between 28 and 40 goals. According to Wikipedia, the first team to play the Argentine Open at 40 goals was Coronel Suárez in 1975.

Limits on individual players

Tournaments also set limits on individual ratings. Examples from each rulebook:

• HPA 2026 (Annex C): in 22-goal polo every player must be 0 or above; in 18 and 15-goal polo the minimum is 0; in 12 and 8-goal polo the minimum is -1, and a -1 player does not count toward the team total for entry; in 6-goal polo the individual maximum is 5; 4-goal polo allows -2 to 4, and 2-goal polo -2 to 3.
• USPA 2024 (Rule 2d): a -1 player may not play in events above 12 goals, and events above 6 goals allow no more than one -1 or -0.5 player per team. Under the "3/4 Rule", in events with an upper limit of 4 goals or more, no player's handicap may exceed three-quarters of the limit, for example 6 goals in 8-goal polo. At 3 goals or below, the top player may exceed the limit by at most one goal.

Under the USPA's 2024 rules (Rule 1c), if a rostered player's handicap changes during an event, the team stays eligible but plays on the new handicap.

Goals on handicap

In a handicap match, the team with the lower total starts with a lead. The HPA and USPA use the same arithmetic, based on a six-chukka game.

• HPA 2026 Rule 7b: take the difference between the team handicaps, multiply it by the number of chukkas and divide by 6. The result is the lower team's starting goals. Any fraction counts as half a goal.
• USPA 2024 Rule 19: goals by handicap equal one-sixth of the handicap difference multiplied by the number of regulation periods. Fractions count as half a goal and serve as tie-breakers. In events above 6 goals, individual handicaps of -0.5, 0.5 and 1.5 are rounded down when the team total is added up.

Worked examples using that formula:

The handicap goals count toward the result like any other goal. HPA 2026 Rule 7 says the winner is the team with the most goals on the score sheet, including goals on handicap, and USPA 2024 Rule 18 lists handicap as one of the ways goals are scored. The handicap calculator does the sum for any match. Not every match is played on handicap: the AAP's 2026 women's regulations, for example, say all its women's matches are on handicap except the Argentine Women's Open.

Arena and women's handicaps

The HPA's Arena Polo Hub says arena handicaps are derived from the outdoor handicap, normally one goal higher to widen the spread, and that the Arena Handicap Committee can vary this. The HPA also runs a separate women's handicap, introduced in 2015 and used only in women-only matches; the AAP sets women's handicaps on a 0 to 10 scale. Both are covered on the women's polo page.

Where handicaps came from

The HPA's 2024 Year Book says handicaps were introduced in the United States in 1888 and in England and India in 1910. The Museum of Polo credits H. L. Herbert with devising the American system in 1888, making him the country's first handicapper. Wikipedia's article on polo handicaps instead ties the system to the founding of the USPA in 1890, so the US start year differs by source.