It’s 9 a.m. on a Wednesday, and the manicured lawn next to Baton Rouge Gallery in City Park is drenched with morning dew. The moisture coats each undisturbed blade of grass so lightly that a heavy croquet ball rolling by leaves a wet trail behind it.
Maybe those lines in the grass help players remember their most recent moves? It’s hard to tell as members of the Red Stick Croquet Club quickly and strategically shift from shot to shot, moving almost like pieces on a green chessboard.
Gray Whitlatch showed up this morning to try croquet for the first time. He was told to wear white, but he didn’t think the dress code was firm. “I didn’t think they meant it,” he says, laughing and looking down at his maroon polo and dark cargo shorts. Around him, the club members are decked out all in white, holding their wooden mallets at the ready in a clearing amidst the green trees of early spring.
