Elmer Boeseke played most of his polo in Santa Barbara, which was not surprising as it was the Boeseke family that started polo in the area in the 1890s. The son of a two-time mayor of Santa Barbara, Elmer was a member of the US winning team against Argentina in the 1932 Cup of the Americas and the 1932 Argentine Open.
Boeseke represented the West Coast against the East Coast in 1933 and 1934, playing in the winning team in the first of those years. He was a member of the Greentree team that won the Monty Waterbury Memorial Cup in 1929, and in 1933 was on the Aurora team which won both the National Open Championship and the Monty Waterbury Memorial Cup. In 1934 Boeseke became only the 11th player in U.S. polo history to be given a 10-goal handicap rating. Boeseke was elected to the Polo Hall of Fame in 1999.