The U.S. Open Polo Championship final is set. BTA held off La Dolfina Tamera 16-10 in the afternoon semifinal at the National Polo Center Wellington on Wednesday, and Pilot overwhelmed Coca Cola 14-4 in the earlier match — setting up a 5:00 PM Sunday final on April 26 that pits a Gold Cup champion against a first-time U.S. Open finalist and closes Wellington’s high-goal season in one of the most consequential weekends on the Palm Beach calendar.
Pilot 14, Coca Cola 4 — A Gold Cup Champion Comes in Ruthless
Pilot set the tone early and never let Coca Cola recover. The team jumped out 2-0 in the first chukker, tightened the screws through the middle of the match, and built a commanding 11-2 lead by the end of the fourth period. Three more goals in the fifth made the margin insurmountable before Coca Cola scored its late consolation runs.
The final 14-4 line is a brutal scoreline at the U.S. Open semifinal stage. Pilot — the 2019 inaugural Gauntlet of Polo winner and the 2026 USPA Gold Cup champion — is now one win away from the second leg of this year’s Gauntlet, a sweep that would be the first in several seasons. The team’s pattern has held all tournament: dominant early chukkers, defensive strangulation through the middle, and finishing with reserves still in the barn. Coca Cola had closed the regular round 3-2, but never found an answer Wednesday for Pilot’s transition pace.
BTA 16, La Dolfina Tamera 10 — An Early Lead, a Third-Quarter Scare, a Closing Burst
The later semifinal was the dramatic match. BTA under Kelly Beal’s lineup started with an "impressive 4-0" in the first chukker that set the match on its ear and seemed to telegraph a quick result. La Dolfina Tamera — the team carrying Adolfo Cambiaso and Poma Polo Team Tamera stripes, and last year’s U.S. Open champions — refused to go away. Tamera scored steadily through the second, third, and fourth chukkers to close the margin to a single goal, a stretch that had the NPC stands on their feet and the bookmakers recalculating live.
BTA answered in the fifth. The squad put up 4-0 in the period to reassert a 14-9 advantage, then added two more in the sixth to close the 16-10 final. It is BTA’s first U.S. Open final appearance — a breakthrough for a team that has been building under the Beal ownership for several seasons — and it ends La Dolfina Tamera’s bid for back-to-back U.S. Open titles after last year’s famous Cambiaso–Poma comeback.
The April 26 Final: Pilot vs. BTA, 5:00 PM ET at NPC Wellington
Sunday’s final at 5:00 PM ET at 3667 120th Avenue South, Wellington, closes the American high-goal season. The match will be called by ESPN’s Chris Fowler under the USPA Global–ESPN partnership that expanded U.S. Open broadcast access this year, with the broadcast running on ESPN+ and selected cable windows. Gate admission at NPC runs through the grand entrance with reserved boxes sold out weeks in advance; the tailgate field and general admission remain available through U.S. Polo Assn. and the NPC box office.
The matchup favors Pilot on paper. The team carries the Gold Cup coming into the final, has won every match by five goals or more since the semifinal stage began, and has the Gauntlet sweep on the line as additional motivation. BTA is the underdog but has the advantage of being unpredictable — the Beal lineup has not faced Pilot in a decisive match this season, and the team’s ability to drop a 4-0 chukker out of nowhere, as it did in both the first and fifth periods Wednesday, makes linear pre-match analysis harder than usual. For bettors and tournament watchers, the line will likely land around Pilot -5.5 to -7.
Why This Weekend Matters Beyond the Scoreboard
The U.S. Open final is the closing event of Wellington’s 2026 season, and the crowd profile carries the full Palm Beach social register through the gates one last time before the summer diaspora to the Hamptons, Aspen, and Martha’s Vineyard. Major Palm Beach real estate activity typically pegs off the final weekend — last year’s Mar-a-Lago corridor listings all hit the MLS in the first week of May, and the April 26 final traditionally functions as the final in-market closing opportunity for broker-principal introductions.
For the polo asset market, Wednesday’s semifinals also reset a few data points. Cambiaso’s La Dolfina Tamera loss ends the 2026 Cambiaso all-Gauntlet narrative before it could build. Pilot’s Gold Cup + U.S. Open run (if it holds Sunday) would be the team’s second Gauntlet sweep and cement its ownership as one of the most consistent high-goal operations in the modern era. And BTA’s arrival at the final is the tournament’s most important parity data point in years — a signal to ownership groups that the high-goal ecosystem still has room for new top-tier entrants beyond the Cambiaso, Pieres, and Castagnola dynasties.
Social Calendar for Final Sunday
The standard Wellington Sunday closing-weekend cadence holds: brunches begin at 11:30 AM at the Wanderers Club and International Polo Club tailgate, the pre-match divot stomp at 4:30 PM, first throw-in at 5:00 PM, and the trophy ceremony at the clubhouse veranda at approximately 7:00 PM. Concurrent Sunday events in Palm Beach include final-day brunch at The Breakers Beach Club, Sunday-close gallery hours on Worth Avenue, and the traditional closing-weekend sunset reception at the Colony. For attendees arriving from out of town, the Hamlet Golf Club and the Chesterfield both still have final-weekend availability as of mid-week.
BTA is in its first U.S. Open final. Pilot is chasing a Gauntlet sweep. The season ends Sunday, and Wellington’s biggest afternoon of the year is about to become one of the tightest finals in recent memory — or, if Pilot plays the way it did Wednesday, the most lopsided closing frame the tournament has seen in a decade. Either way, April 26 at NPC is the ticket to have.