Croquet every day keeps the doctor away— unless that doctor is John Goldener, retired pediatrician and president of the Sarasota Croquet Club. The Club, which is nonprofit and volunteer-driven, was founded approximately 25 years ago by a woman named Jackie Jones. Over the years, it has undergone significant growth and development making it the largest public croquet club in the country. Goldener himself started playing croquet at age 65. He retired at 69, moved from Philly to the Sunshine State and began playing at least three days every week, which he says is just about the age when most people start playing. Currently the average club member is 75 with many members well into their 90s. As president, Goldener says he is clearly interested in helping the club grow, but most importantly, he is promoting physical, intellectual and emotional wellbeing through the vehicle of croquet. 

“As a retired doctor, I'm concerned about people's health and welfare,” he says. “Playing croquet, you walk about one mile an hour so if you play for three hours, you've walked three miles, or 6,000 steps. You also need to bend and stretch. Most 90-year-olds don’t do that as part of their daily routine.” But physical activity is not the only benefit Goldener sees. “The goal of this game is to try to score multiple wickets in one turn by hitting the balls and getting extra shots, but you have to keep track of that, so there's a mental or intellectual part of playing and that's good for seniors.” Last but definitely not least, Goldener sees croquet as a benefit to the participants’ emotional wellbeing. “We have an epidemic of loneliness in the United States among the elderly. A majority of the people over 75 are single and they're alone and physically and emotionally vulnerable. We provide a social connection–the glue that holds a community together. So people that are alone can come out here and meet others just like them–and it doesn’t matter if they’re male or female–the founder of this club is a woman and I still think she has the lowest woman's handicap in the United States.”

The Sarasota Croquet Club is not just for seniors, however. This past November, the Club and the United States Croquet Association, in partnership with Visit Sarasota County, hosted the prestigious Solomon Trophy, a triennial event pitting the best croquet players from the United States against their counterparts from Great Britain at Wellfield Park in Venice. This historic competition took place on the newly improved lawns and state-of-the-art facilities of the Sarasota County Croquet Club, marking the first time the Solomon Trophy event has graced Sarasota County. The competition featured the six best association players from the United States playing against the six top players from Great Britain. The selection of Sarasota as the event's host location underscored the club's commitment to maintaining a world-class playing surface, and it is an acknowledgment of the quality of the club's lawns.

Damon Bidencope is the president of the US Croquet Association. He works to provide resources in a scalable way so that clubs can function better and has helped Goldener bring the event and its players to Sarasota. “This tournament was started back in the 80s when some representatives from England, where the game was played a lot, came and visited the United States and John Solomon gave this cup to have an exchange back and forth between England and the US,” he shares. “It really helped the US get on its feet 40 years ago in terms of developing player exposure to top play and establishing international connections and there's a lot of camaraderie and pride in which country takes home the trophy.” 

Stephen Mulliner, a championship-winning English international croquet player has been enjoying competitive play for decades. “Croquet of all its forms is a mixture of the physical, the consciously mental, tactical, strategic and the psychological,” he shares. “I've been fascinated with it for a long time and it's kept me out of trouble. My wife is now getting a bit of a dividend because she can travel to nice places like Sarasota.” When the exciting and prestigious five-day event came to a close, Team USA claimed victory, taking the 2023 Solomon Trophy for the third time and the first since 2011. Overall, Great Britain leads Solomon play 23-3.  Goldener was thrilled to host the event locally and is hopeful that more residents will follow the doctor’s orders and come to check out the Sarasota County Croquet Club and one of the fastest growing sports in the U.S.