Polo in Sotogrande: Autumn Season Runs to November 9 Sotogrande's polo season no longer ends with summer: the Autumn Iberian Polo Tour at Ayala Polo Club runs to finals on 9 November, extending the coast's premium calendar deep into late autumn. A season that no longer ends in September The terraces of Sotogrande are still busy, even though the summer headlines now belong to history. The 55th International Polo Tournament ran from 27 July to 29 August at Ayala Polo Club, closing another high-goal summer on the San Roque coast. But the fields did not go quiet afterwards. The Autumn Iberian Polo Tour is under way at the club, a series of tournaments that builds towards its finals on Sunday 9 November, keeping polo on the Costa del Sol social calendar deep into autumn. From a colonel's dream to a polo capital Sotogrande itself began in 1962, the creation of the Filipino-American businessman Joseph McMicking, and the resort grew around sport from the very start. Polo arrived in 1965, when Sotogrande's first ground was laid out, and the game has framed every summer since. Six decades on, the resort's fields rank among the most important venues in Europe, drawing Argentine professionals, European patrons and spectators from across the world to Cadiz's Mediterranean corner. Autumn polo, a quieter kind of glamour The official 2026 programme at Ayala Polo Club listed eleven tournaments between 19 May and 13 September, from the spring openers to the August showpiece, with the Copa Joseph McMicking honouring the founder among the season's early titles. The autumn tour is a different register: no August crush, closer standing to the players, and weekends where the rhythm of the low season returns to the coast. For residents and late-season visitors, it is polo as the locals know it, watched in a jumper rather than linen. Why the longer season matters For years the coast's premium calendar collapsed in September, when the beach clubs wound down and the golf courses took over. A polo season that runs to 9 November changes that arithmetic. Together with the autumn gastronomy and wellness calendar, it gives the coast a credible premium season beyond the summer months, one built on sport rather than sunshine alone. The finals on 9 November close the tour, and with them the last big fixture of Sotogrande's polo year. The dates are published by the club; the terraces, at time of writing, are still open.