The Netherlands will host the Solheim Cup for the first time in 2026, with Bernardus Golf named as the venue for the biennial contest between Europe and the USA.
Bernardus Golf, in the village of Cromvoirt close to Eindhoven, opened in 2018 and has hosted the men’s Dutch Open on the DP World Tour since 2021.
The Solheim Cup is women’s golf equivalent of the Ryder Cup. One of the most prestigious events in the golfing calendar, it’s a biennial tournament which sees Europe and USA doing battle over three days of competition.
The 2023 Solheim Cup will take place in Finca Cortesin in Spain from September 22-24, with Stacy Lewis serving as captain for Team USA and Suzann Pettersen captain for Team Europe. It goes ahead a week before the men’s Ryder Cup at Marco Simone GC on the outskirts of Rome in Italy.
The Solheim Cup will then switch to even-numbered years from 2024 to avoid clashing with the Ryder Cup, with the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia hosting it from September 13-15 that year.
Bernardus Golf
The Bernardus Golf Solheim Cup bid was supported by the Royal Dutch Golf Federation (NGF), to deliver a world-class event that would leave a long-term legacy for golf in the Netherlands and the local community. With more than 420,000 golfers, golf is the fourth most popular sport in the Netherlands.
The Championship Course at Bernardus Golf was designed by renowned American course architect Kyle Phillips. It’s a heathland golf course with a tight layout, steep-faced bunkers and water hazards which should add plenty of drama to the contest. It also has futuristic clubhouse complex, an enormous practice facility and an eight-room lodge.
Golfers can pay a reasonably-priced day ticket rate to play at this prestigious course.
Solheim Cup format
The Cup is contested between two teams of 12 players over three days. It follows the same format as The Ryder Cup, with 28 matches: eight foursomes and eight fourballs over the first two days and 12 singles on the final day.
The United States teams have won the cup 10 times, compared to seven for Europe. The current holders are Europe, who won in 2021 at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. Europe have won four of the last five Solheim Cups.
In September, Finca Cortesin unveiled a spectacular new 1st hole in preparation for the event. A reachable par 4 where players face the challenge of landing their shot on the green straight from the tee. And the tee box will now be surrounded by a grandstand that will host over a thousand spectators, creating a hugely exciting atmosphere.
Hole 1 of the Solheim Cup is one of the most exciting moments in golf where the atmosphere and decibels created by the European and American fans with their chants, music and colours provide a fantastic spectacle.
Brief history
The Solheim Cup was named after the Norwegian-American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving force behind its creation.
Solheim saw the rise in popularity of the Ryder Cup after Europe ended America’s long domination with victory in 1985. In 1990, he put his name and money behind the women’s version of the Ryder Cup. In five brief months, the Solheim Cup was staged for the first time in Lake Nona, Florida where the US romped home to victory.
