The countdown is on. Europe and the USA meet at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands from September 11–13 for the 20th Solheim Cup. Here’s your guide to the teams, the matches and the stories that could shape three compelling days of match play.
There is something about the Solheim Cup that makes women’s golf feel different.
For three days individual rankings, prize money and stroke-play scores take a back seat. Twenty-four of the world’s best players pull on the colours of Europe and the United States and suddenly partnerships, momentum, pressure and emotion matter just as much as form.
This year there is another intriguing ingredient. The Solheim Cup is heading to the Netherlands for the first time, with Bernardus Golf providing a new stage for one of the great contests in women’s sport.
The USA arrive with the trophy after beating Europe 15½–12½ in Virginia in 2024. That victory ended an impressive European run which had seen them win in 2019 and 2021 before retaining the Cup with a 14–14 tie at Finca Cortesin in 2023.
Now the roles are reversed. Europe are the challengers and need 14½ points to win the trophy back.
And there is plenty we don’t yet know.
How will Europe’s four rookies react to their first Solheim Cup? Can the USA reproduce the performance that took them to victory two years ago? Which partnerships will emerge? And how will two first-time captains respond when the pressure starts to build?
Two strong teams – but very different challenges
European captain Anna Nordqvist has assembled a fascinating combination of established Solheim Cup performers and a new generation of players.
Charley Hull, Esther Henseleit, Lottie Woad, Maja Stark, Céline Boutier, Carlota Ciganda, Linn Grant and Nanna Koerstz Madsen qualified automatically, with Nordqvist adding Leona Maguire, Julia López RamÃrez, Nastasia Nadaud and Mimi Rhodes as her captain’s picks.
There is plenty of Solheim Cup experience at the heart of that side.
Hull and Ciganda will each make an eighth appearance, while Maguire has become one of Europe’s most formidable match-play competitors. Hull also arrives with memories of one of the standout moments of the 2024 contest, when she defeated Nelly Korda 6&4 in the Sunday singles.
But Bernardus also represents the start of something new.
Woad, López RamÃrez, Nadaud and Rhodes will all make their Solheim Cup debuts. How Nordqvist blends that youthful talent with her experienced players – particularly during the foursomes and fourballs – will be one of the fascinating questions of the opening two days.
The Americans present a different proposition.
World number one Nelly Korda leads a USA team containing Angel Yin, Jennifer Kupcho, Yealimi Noh, Auston Kim, Lauren Coughlin, Allisen Corpuz, Andrea Lee and Alison Lee, alongside captain’s picks Rose Zhang, Megan Khang and Lindy Duncan.
Only Kim and Duncan are making their Solheim Cup debuts.
There is serious match-play pedigree elsewhere. Korda has won 10 of her 16 previous Solheim Cup matches, Corpuz has a 5-2-1 record and Lauren Coughlin went unbeaten on her debut in Virginia.
Then there is Rose Zhang. She was sensational in 2024, winning all four of her matches as the USA reclaimed the trophy.
The statistics suggest that Europe will face a formidable opponent. But history offers encouragement of a different kind: the Americans have not won a Solheim Cup on European soil since 2015.
New captains and a new stage
Leadership will also be different this time.
Nordqvist takes charge of Europe following an extraordinary Solheim Cup playing career spanning nine appearances and five winning teams. Having also served as a playing vice-captain, few people understand the peculiar demands of this competition better.
Her move into the captaincy comes just as she brings her professional playing career to a close, making Bernardus the beginning of a very different chapter.
Opposite her is another Solheim Cup veteran in Angela Stanford.
The American played in the competition six times and has subsequently served as an assistant captain on three occasions. Significantly, she was also a member of the last US team to win the Cup in Europe in Germany in 2015.
Both captains know the contest intimately. What neither has experienced is having the final say.
Which players do you put together? Who plays foursomes? Who is better suited to fourballs? When do you rest one of your strongest players? And what do you do when a partnership that looked perfect on paper simply doesn’t work?
Those decisions can shape a Solheim Cup.
So can the golf course.
Bernardus was designed by Kyle Phillips and opened in 2018. It has already hosted elite professional golf, but match play will ask very different questions of the course and the players.
Strategic bunkering, water and large greens create opportunities for aggressive golf, while the routing has been adapted specifically for the Solheim Cup.
By Sunday evening, a handful of holes at Bernardus may have acquired their own place in the competition’s history.
28 matches to decide the Solheim Cup
The format is wonderfully simple – even if the golf rarely is.
There are 28 points available over three days.
Friday and Saturday each feature four foursomes and four fourball matches. In foursomes, two players form a partnership and alternate shots with one ball. In fourballs, every player plays her own ball and the lowest score from each partnership counts on each hole.
Then comes Sunday.
All 24 players compete in 12 singles matches, creating the possibility of the entire contest being decided in a dramatic final afternoon.
Each match is worth one point, with half a point for each team if a match finishes tied.
Because the USA hold the trophy, a 14–14 overall result would be enough for the Americans to retain it. Europe need 14½ points to take it back.
And that is where all the pre-tournament statistics become rather less reliable.
Match play has a habit of creating its own stars. A player struggling for individual form can suddenly flourish alongside a partner. A rookie can discover that the team environment suits her perfectly. One enormous putt can change not only a match, but the atmosphere surrounding every match still out on the course.
There are already tantalising possibilities.
Could we see another Hull versus Korda singles showdown? Which European will be entrusted with one of the opening matches on Friday? Will Korda and Corpuz resume their successful partnership? And where will Nordqvist deploy the formidable Solheim Cup experience of Maguire?
We will start answering those questions over the coming days.
For now, the equation is simple.
Twenty-four players. Twenty-eight matches. Three days. One trophy.
And the countdown to the 2026 Solheim Cup is well and truly on.
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