The Solheim Cup returns for its 20th edition on September 11-13, 2026, when Team USA and Team Europe meet at Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt, in the Netherlands, for women's golf's biggest team event. Team USA arrives as the defending champion after ending a seven-year drought in 2024, while Team Europe will lean on home continental advantage and a roster already locked in a full three weeks before the Americans finalize theirs.
Here is everything to know about the 2026 Solheim Cup: the venue, the two teams, how the format works, the historical head-to-head record, and the moments that have defined the rivalry since 1990.
| Dates | September 11-13, 2026 (practice rounds begin the week of September 7) |
|---|---|
| Venue | Bernardus Golf, Cromvoirt, North Brabant, Netherlands |
| Edition | 20th Solheim Cup |
| Defending champion | Team USA (won 15½-12½ in 2024) |
| Points needed to win | Europe needs 14½ points; USA needs 14 to retain |
| USA captain | Angela Stanford (first Solheim Cup as captain) |
| Europe captain | Anna Nordqvist |
| All-time record | USA leads 11-7-1 |
The 2026 Solheim Cup is the first ever played in the Netherlands, and it puts the event on a golf course few casual fans know yet. Bernardus Golf sits in Cromvoirt, near 's-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) in the North Brabant region, roughly an hour south of Amsterdam. The course is a par-72 heathland-style design by architect Kyle Phillips that opened in 2018 and has quickly built a reputation among European golf insiders as one of the continent's best modern layouts, with firm, rolling fairways and demanding green complexes that reward precision over raw power.
Matches run Friday through Sunday, September 11-13, with team practice and pre-tournament festivities starting the week prior. The event also marks the first Solheim Cup delivered by IMG under a new agreement that runs through 2038, a sign of how much the competition has grown commercially since its modest beginnings in Orlando in 1990.
The Solheim Cup is match play, not stroke play, contested between two 12-player teams over three days for 28 total points:
Because Team USA is the defending champion, it only needs 14 points to retain the Cup outright in the event of a tie; Team Europe needs 14½ to win it back. That asymmetry has decided the competition before: in 2023, a 14-14 tie in Spain meant Europe kept the Cup rather than the match simply being called a draw.
Anna Nordqvist's European team was completed well ahead of the Americans, since Europe's automatic places are decided by a mix of Ladies European Tour Solheim Cup points and the Women's World Golf Rankings, a qualification period that wrapped up earlier in the summer.
| Player | Country |
|---|---|
| Charley Hull | England |
| Esther Henseleit | Germany |
| Lottie Woad | England |
| Maja Stark | Sweden |
| Linn Grant | Sweden |
| Celine Boutier | France |
| Carlota Ciganda | Spain |
| Nanna Koerstz Madsen | Denmark |
Nordqvist's vice-captains are Caroline Hedwall, Mel Reid, and Anne van Dam. It is a team built around firepower at the top (Hull, Woad, and Henseleit have all held top-10 world rankings in the past year), supported by a wave of largely untested rookies, which is typical of European sides that have thrived on emotion and home continental support in recent editions.
Angela Stanford, leading her first Solheim Cup as captain, has nine of her 12 players locked in, with the final three captain's picks not due until Monday, August 24, 2026, immediately after the LPGA's CPKC Women's Open (August 20-23). That means the U.S. side won't be finalized until roughly two and a half weeks before the opening tee shot.
| Player | Qualification path |
|---|---|
| Nelly Korda | Solheim Cup points (World No. 1) |
| Angel Yin | Solheim Cup points |
| Jennifer Kupcho | Solheim Cup points |
| Auston Kim | Solheim Cup points |
| Yealimi Noh | Solheim Cup points |
| Allisen Corpuz | Solheim Cup points |
| Lauren Coughlin | Solheim Cup points |
| Andrea Lee | Women's World Golf Rankings |
| Lindy Duncan | Women's World Golf Rankings |
Captain's picks: 3 spots remain, to be announced August 24, 2026. Names being floated in golf media include Jenny Bae, Alison Lee, Megan Khang, Lucy Li, Rose Zhang, and Lilia Vu, though nothing is confirmed.
Stanford's assistant captains are Kristy McPherson, Paula Creamer, and Brittany Lang. Nelly Korda's presence at the top of the American points list gives the U.S. side its clearest superstar, and Stanford will be chasing back-to-back American wins for the first time since the U.S. won three straight from 2005-2009.
Since the first Solheim Cup at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando in 1990, the United States has held a narrow but consistent edge over Europe.
| Span | USA wins | Europe wins | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990-2024 (19 editions played before 2026) | 11 | 7 | 1 (2023) |
Europe's best recent stretch came from 2019-2023, when it won or retained the Cup in three straight editions, before the U.S. snapped the run in 2024 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia, winning 15½-12½ to end a seven-year title drought. That gives Team USA momentum heading into the Netherlands, though Europe has traditionally performed well when the Cup travels to European soil, having won in Scotland (2019), and elsewhere on the continent in Sweden (2003), Germany (2015, where the U.S. actually won on the road), and Spain (2023).
The Solheim Cup's history is short compared to the Ryder Cup, but it has produced some of women's golf's most memorable theater.
The first Solheim Cup at Lake Nona set the template: a home U.S. win, but also the start of a rivalry that would grow into one of the most emotional events in the sport.
Annika Sorenstam chipped in for eagle, only for the U.S. pairing to successfully argue she had played out of turn, forcing her to replay the shot. Sorenstam missed the second attempt, and the moment remains one of the most debated sportsmanship controversies in Solheim Cup history.
In Germany, the U.S. trailed 10-6 heading into Sunday singles before staging the largest comeback in Cup history to win 14½-13½. The same edition produced the sport's most notorious flashpoint: Alison Lee picked up a short putt believing it had been conceded, Suzann Pettersen disputed it, and Lee's team lost the hole and match. The backlash was so severe that Pettersen apologized publicly, and the incident is still cited as a turning point in how concessions are handled in team golf.
At Gleneagles, Suzann Pettersen came out of a season away from the game as a captain's pick and drained the winning putt that clinched the Cup for Europe 14½-13½, then announced her retirement from professional golf on the spot. It remains one of the most cinematic finishes in the event's history.
At Finca Cortesin in Spain, the match finished level at 14-14, but because Europe was the defending champion, the tie meant Europe retained the Cup rather than the two sides sharing it outright, a quirk of the rules that decides ties in the Solheim Cup, just as it does in the Ryder Cup.
At Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia, Team USA won 15½-12½ for its first title since 2017, snapping a run of three straight European Cup retentions and setting up Angela Stanford's 2026 side to chase back-to-back wins on the road.
Three storylines will shape the week at Bernardus Golf. First, Team USA's final three picks on August 24 will complete a roster already anchored by world No. 1 Nelly Korda, and how those picks pair up in foursomes will matter as much as who is selected. Second, Europe's four rookies (López Ramirez, Nadaud, and Rhodes in particular) will be tested in their first team-golf environment, with veterans Leona Maguire and Carlota Ciganda expected to shepherd them through the foursomes format. Third, the course itself is an unknown quantity at this level: Bernardus Golf's heathland conditions and firm, links-adjacent turf could reward a different skill set than the parkland courses that have hosted most recent editions, and neither team has had extensive competitive reps there.
With Team USA defending a rare recent U.S. win and Team Europe carrying continental confidence into its first Dutch Solheim Cup, the 2026 edition sets up as one of the more evenly matched Cups in the event's 36-year history.
The 2026 Solheim Cup is played September 11-13, 2026, with team practice rounds starting the week of September 7.
It's held at Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt, North Brabant, in the Netherlands, the first Solheim Cup ever played in the country.
Angela Stanford is Team USA's captain, her first time leading the team, with assistant captains Kristy McPherson, Paula Creamer, and Brittany Lang.
Anna Nordqvist captains Team Europe, assisted by vice-captains Caroline Hedwall, Mel Reid, and Anne van Dam.
Team Europe's 12 players are set: Charley Hull, Esther Henseleit, Lottie Woad, Maja Stark, Linn Grant, Celine Boutier, Carlota Ciganda, Nanna Koerstz Madsen, Leona Maguire, Julia López Ramirez, Nastasia Nadaud, and Mimi Rhodes. Team USA has nine players locked in (Nelly Korda, Angel Yin, Jennifer Kupcho, Auston Kim, Yealimi Noh, Allisen Corpuz, Lauren Coughlin, Andrea Lee, and Lindy Duncan) with three captain's picks due August 24, 2026.
There are 28 points available. Team Europe needs 14½ points to win outright; Team USA, as the defending champion, only needs 14 to retain the Cup.
Team USA leads the all-time series 11-7-1 heading into 2026, though Europe won three consecutive editions from 2019 to 2023 before the U.S. won in 2024.
In 2015, Team USA trailed 10-6 after two days in Germany and rallied to win 14½-13½ in Sunday singles, the largest comeback in the event's history.
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