2026 Solheim Cup Begins At Bernardus Golf In Netherlands As Anna Nordqvist Leads Europe

The 2026 Solheim Cup, the 20th edition of the biennial match play showdown, gets under way at Bernardus Golf on Friday 11 September and runs through Sunday 13 September in the Netherlands for the first time.

“gets under way at Bernardus Golf on Friday 11 September and runs through Sunday 13 September”

Golf Digest Middle East

Europe will be led by Anna Nordqvist, who takes the reins after nine consecutive appearances as a player since her debut in 2009, while Team USA will be captained by Angela Stanford as she leads the team from the front for the first time.

ABC

The match is staged with foursomes and four-ball across Friday and Saturday, before the outcome is decided by singles on Sunday, with the format described as “foursomes, four-ball and singles across three days.”

Nordqvist said, “There is no better feeling than doing something with your team, winning together or sharing those moments with your teammates,” as she prepares to guide Europe in a fixture where the trophy was retained by Europe on a tie last time the sides were level.

Stanford, who has had three wins as a player and served in assistant captain roles including the most recent edition in 2024, said, “I cannot explain the adrenaline around a Solheim Cup, whether I was playing or as an assistant captain,” ahead of her captaincy debut.

As the Solheim Cup approaches, BBC frames the week as likely to produce another thriller, pointing to past European-hosted matches that were decided by narrow margins including a 14-14 tie in Spain and a one-point-away win for the United States in Germany in 2015.

Lottie Woad, making her debut for Europe, said, “Even if you're a couple down early, you can get it back and even just getting a half point could be vital,” while Charley Hull added that playing at home can bring “a little more pressure over here when it's a home Solheim Cup.”

BBC

The BBC also lists Europe’s quartet of debutants as Lottie Woad, Mimi Rhodes, France’s Nastasia Nadaud, and the big hitting Spaniard Julia Lopez Ramirez, with European captain Anna Nordqvist saying, “It's always easy to try to describe to the rookies what it's like playing in the Solheim, but it's something that you need to experience.”

On the other side, American captain Angela Stanford said of her line-up, “I think they're very mentally tough,” describing players who “let things kind of roll off their back if something doesn't go the way they planned.”

The Solheim Cup’s stakes are sharpened by the series context described by ABC, which says the United States dominates the head-to-head with 11 wins, 7 losses, and 1 draw since the matchup began in 1990, while Europe has three victories in the last four editions and is stepping onto the course ready to reclaim the trophy.

“The clash between the United States and Europe always promises a titanic struggle”

ABC

ABC also highlights that the Netherlands is hosting from Friday the most relevant women’s sports event on the global scene, and it notes that the visitors haven’t won on European soil since 2015 as the teams prepare for the biennial clash at Bernardus Golf.

In the lead-up, Golf Digest Middle East emphasizes that the captaincy debuts of Nordqvist and Stanford add “an extra layer of interest” to a fixture where Europe retained the trophy on a tie last time the sides were level and the United States is chasing a defence of its own.

The BBC adds that the three-day contest starts on Friday with four foursomes and continues with four fourball matches on Saturday before the 12 singles matches on Sunday, making each point in the closing stretch decisive if the match again tightens late.