Liz Haines (center) and the winning Merion team in 2024 Philadelphia Cup. Courtesy Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia
The Team Matches, first staged by the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia in May 1897 and conducted in the spring of each year, are the oldest and largest of all women’s golf competitions in the United States. More than 1,100 players from clubs within the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s authority compete for 22 cups in five inter-club matches in March and April. To provide perspective, the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia is the country’s oldest women’s organization in the sport.
The highest level of competition is the Philadelphia Cup, which has been dominated by the teams from Merion Golf Club. The Ardmore, Pennsylvania, club – which has hosted a nation-leading 19 USGA championships – has claimed 74 Philadelphia Cups in 126 competitions, including a 4-1 record in 2024.
Merion’s 10-women 2024 “A” team – which sends out seven players in each match – was composed of Catherine Elliott, Kimberly Garno, Liz Haines, Loraine Jones, Kaitlyn Lees, Jackie Rogowicz, Katie Sibel, Kimberly Simmons, Olivia Traynor, and Libbie Warner.
Clubs such as Merion, Philadelphia Cricket, Huntingdon Valley, and Aronimink have as many as six teams in the yearly competition.
Nancy Porter and Liz Haines are two of Merion’s most veteran competitors, and they embody the spirit of excellence of play that has brought Merion its astounding 74 wins.
As a toddler, Nancy Porter admires the oldest USGA trophy her mother, Dorothy Germain Porter, won in the 1949 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Merion.
Courtesy USGA Museum
Porter is a psychology instructor at Villanova University, just up the road from Merion. Porter earned a doctorate in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania after her coaching career and also taught for 20 years at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.
