Pro Croquet Sets

McDonnell named Head Croquet Professional at Meadowood

Meadowood announced on Tuesday that Mike McDonnell was named Head Croquet Professional, presiding over the Jerry Stark Memorial Croquet Lawns at Meadowood Napa Valley. McDonnell has been serving as Assistant Pro since 1996 and has family ties to the property that make his appointment particularly fitting.

McDonnell grew up playing tournament croquet in the company of the Hollywood elite. His father taught him to play on the family’s home court in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles when he was five years old and he’s been playing ever since.

“Croquet was a big family sport. It was what we did — we played croquet together,” said McDonnell. “It was always a scene at our house while we lived in Southern California. A steady stream of professional croquet players and actors, including David Niven, Louie Jordan, Gig Young, George Saunders and Diana Hyland would always be at the house to play whether we were celebrating a holiday or just a regular weekend.”

McDonnell’s father, Tom, was introduced to the game while working in the television industry in the late 1950s by famed movie producer Sam Goldwyn.

He ultimately was inducted into the U.S. Croquet Hall of Fame and was responsible for the development of tournament croquet on the West Coast, starting croquet clubs in Beverly Hills, San Francisco and at Sonoma Cutrer winery in Santa Rosa.

It was at the family’s home court in the hills west of St. Helena that he introduced the game of croquet to Meadowood Founding Partner H. William (Bill) Harlan, unknowingly planting the seed for the family’s croquet legacy at Meadowood.

At that time, in 1986, Harlan and his partners had owned Meadowood for approximately seven years. They were deeply engaged in creating the multifaceted experience that would come to define Meadowood and draw discerning travelers from around the world to the beautiful private estate.

To ensure the courts would satisfy world-ranking croquet players, Harlan engaged McDonnell’s father to collaborate on the development of the competition lawns. They debuted in 1986 and that same year, Meadowood hosted the U.S. Croquet Championships, the first time they had been held outside of the state of New York.

McDonnell had been playing competitively in various tournaments started by his father through the late 1970s and well into the 1980s, ultimately reaching a ranking of 11th in the nation. However, his music career as a bass player took him off the croquet circuit in 1988. He toured the world with jazz trumpet great Maynard Ferguson for two years and later became bass player and music director for Sir Tom Jones for five years.

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