The 2026 Solheim Cup is played September 11–13, 2026 at Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt, Netherlands — the first time the biennial competition has been held in the country. Angela Stanford captains defending champion Team USA. Anna Nordqvist captains Team Europe. It is the 20th edition of the tournament, and the standing all-time series sits at United States 11, Europe 7, with one tie.
That is the surface. Beneath it is nearly a century of women's golf history — a lineage that stretches from the 13 women who founded the LPGA in a Wichita country club in 1950, through the players who made a career out of a game that had barely made room for them, to the 24 women who will tee it up in the Netherlands this weekend. The Solheim Cup does not exist without them. Neither does the game most of us grew up playing.
Where the Cup Came From
The Solheim Cup is named after Karsten and Louise Solheim, the Norwegian-American couple who founded PING (Karsten Manufacturing Corporation) and sponsored LPGA events beginning in 1975. Both were personally invested in growing the women's game long before it was fashionable. Louise, who lived until 2017, is credited with naming the iconic PING Anser putter — a design so influential it eventually landed in the Smithsonian.
When the couple were approached in the late 1980s about backing a Ryder Cup–style women's team event, they said yes. The first Solheim Cup was held in the fall of 1990 at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Florida. Team USA, captained by Kathy Whitworth, won 11.5 to 4.5.
That Kathy Whitworth was the inaugural captain is not incidental. She holds 88 career LPGA victories — more than any player, male or female, has ever won on any major professional tour. She was the game's answer to the question of what a woman could do if the game were built to let her try. The tournament began, appropriately, in her hands.
The Women Who Made It Possible
The Solheim Cup did not appear from nothing. It was made possible by four decades of women who fought for the tour that would eventually field its teams.
The LPGA was founded in 1950 at Rolling Hills Country Club in Wichita, Kansas, by 13 women:
Alice Bauer, Patty Berg, Bettye Danoff, Helen Dettweiler, Marlene Hagge, Helen Hicks, Opal Hill, Betty Jameson, Sally Sessions, Marilynn Smith, Shirley Spork, Louise Suggs, and Babe Zaharias.
Patty Berg was elected the first president. The founders were elected as a group to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2023 — a full 73 years after they signed the paperwork that changed the sport.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias stands out even in this company. A two-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field before she picked up a club, she won 41 professional golf tournaments including 10 majors. She continued to compete while ill with cancer, and died in 1956 at 45.
Patty Berg conducted more than 10,000 golf clinics over the course of her life and continued playing recreationally into her seventies. The LPGA still awards the Patty Berg Award annually to the woman who has contributed the most to the game each year.
Louise Suggs was so consistently long off the tee that other pros — men included — took notice. Her swing became a study for two generations of players who came after her.
These are the women who built the tour. Kathy Whitworth, who came a generation later, and the 24 who will play at Bernardus this weekend — they all inherited what these 13 women started.
The Cup's Own Icons
Since 1990, the Solheim Cup has produced its own legends.
Juli Inkster played in nine editions and holds the record for most points won by an American player. She captained Team USA to back-to-back victories in 2015 and 2017 — and did so with a leadership style that other captains have openly studied since.
Laura Davies of England holds two records that may never fall: 12 Solheim Cup appearances (the most ever for either side) and 25 total points scored. When she played her first Solheim Cup in 1990, women's professional golf in Europe barely existed as an infrastructure. By the time she played her twelfth, she had helped build it.
Beth Daniel, Nancy Lopez, Annika Sörenstam, Catriona Matthew — the Cup's history could be read as a directory of who has mattered in the women's game across the last 35 years.
The 2026 Captains
Angela Stanford takes her first captaincy of Team USA in 2026, after three turns as an assistant captain. She played on six Solheim Cup teams as a professional and knows the culture of the event from the inside. She was named to the 2026 role because the American players wanted her there.
Anna Nordqvist, one of the most decorated European players of her generation, captains Team Europe. She has played on nine Solheim Cup teams herself. Her selection as captain came with the endorsement of a generation of European players who watched her lead in the locker room long before she led on paper.
Two captains. Two lineages. One weekend.
3 Things Solheim Cup Players Carry in Their Bags That You Probably Haven't Thought About
Watch the caddies closely on the broadcast this weekend — the small stuff they reach into the bag for is often what separates a comfortable Sunday from a rough one. Three items most Solheim Cup players will carry that recreational women golfers almost never do:
1. Electrolyte packets, not just water. By the back nine on Sunday, dehydration is less about fluid volume than about sodium, potassium, and magnesium loss. Most players in Cromvoirt will have a small stash of electrolyte packets in their bag for exactly this reason. Recreational golfers reach for water; the pros learned years ago that water alone is not enough for a five-hour walk — especially on a wind-exposed Dutch heathland course where the effort is easy to underestimate.
2. A sunscreen stick and an SPF lip balm. Locker-room lotion is not enough. Reapplying between holes has to happen without getting product onto the glove or the grip — which is why sunscreen sticks (often the same dermatologist-recommended ones) are standard-issue in LPGA bags. SPF lip balm goes right next to it, because lips burn faster than any other part of the face and almost no one thinks to protect them.
3. Anti-chafe balm and a small blister-prevention kit. Eighteen holes is roughly five miles of walking. Fifty-four holes over three days is fifteen. Add moisture, add friction from shoes and shorts, and something is going to rub. Solheim Cup players do not lose a Sunday round to a Saturday blister — they pre-apply anti-chafe balm and carry moleskin the way most people carry a spare glove. Most recreational women golfers only think of this after the first blister, usually somewhere around hole 12.
These are exactly the kinds of small, expert-selected items we look for when we build the Volleybird golf discovery box each month — the ones most players wouldn't think to shop for on their own until a pro shows them. See what's in the golf box →
Why It Matters for the Women Still Playing
Most of the women who will follow the Solheim Cup this weekend will never play at Bernardus. They will watch from their kitchens in the morning and drive to the club in the afternoon and think about the shot they saw on Saturday and try it themselves on Sunday. That is the point.
The Solheim Cup exists because Karsten and Louise Solheim believed the game deserved a women's team event. The LPGA exists because 13 women in 1950 believed there ought to be a place a woman could earn a living playing golf. And clubs across America are still full of women's Wednesday leagues, weekend foursomes, and USTA-adjacent golf groups because generations of women fought to be taken seriously in a game that used to treat them as decoration.
If you are a woman who plays — whether once a month at a public course or three mornings a week at a private club — this tournament is part of your inheritance. The women you will watch this weekend are playing on a stage that Babe Zaharias, Patty Berg, Kathy Whitworth, and Louise Solheim built for them.
Watch it accordingly.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the 2026 Solheim Cup? The 2026 Solheim Cup is played September 11–13, 2026, with the full tournament week running September 7–13.
Where is the 2026 Solheim Cup being played? The 2026 Solheim Cup is being played at Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt, Netherlands. This is the first Solheim Cup ever held in the Netherlands. The course was designed by American architect Kyle Phillips.
Who are the 2026 Solheim Cup captains? Angela Stanford captains Team USA (the defending champions from 2024). Anna Nordqvist captains Team Europe.
How many times has Team USA won the Solheim Cup? Through the 2024 competition, Team USA has won 11 Solheim Cups, Team Europe has won 7, and there has been 1 tie. The United States won the 2024 edition 15.5 to 12.5 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia.
Why is it called the Solheim Cup? The tournament is named for Karsten and Louise Solheim, founders of PING Golf, who sponsored LPGA events beginning in 1975 and backed the creation of a Ryder Cup–style event for women. The first tournament was played in 1990 at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Florida.
Who won the first Solheim Cup? Team USA, captained by Kathy Whitworth, won the inaugural 1990 Solheim Cup 11.5 to 4.5. Whitworth remains the winningest professional golfer of all time on any tour, male or female, with 88 LPGA career victories.
Who founded the LPGA? The LPGA was founded in 1950 at Rolling Hills Country Club in Wichita, Kansas, by 13 women: Alice Bauer, Patty Berg, Bettye Danoff, Helen Dettweiler, Marlene Hagge, Helen Hicks, Opal Hill, Betty Jameson, Sally Sessions, Marilynn Smith, Shirley Spork, Louise Suggs, and Babe Zaharias. Patty Berg was the first president. The founders were elected as a group to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2023.
Where will the 2028 Solheim Cup be held? The 2028 Solheim Cup is scheduled for Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky, 20 years after Valhalla hosted the 2008 Ryder Cup.
What do professional women golfers carry in their bags that recreational players don't? Three items most LPGA and Solheim Cup players carry that recreational golfers almost never do: electrolyte packets (not just water) to replace sodium, potassium, and magnesium lost across a five-hour round; a sunscreen stick and SPF lip balm for glove-safe reapplication between holes; and anti-chafe balm or a small blister-prevention kit for the fifteen miles of walking across a three-day tournament.
Volleybird is a curated multi-sport subscription box for women who play tennis, pickleball, padel, and golf. Our October box includes something for every woman who watched this weekend and remembered why she started playing.
Cass Toroian is co-founder and CEO of Volleybird. She played NCAA Division I tennis and spent 25 years in finance before building Volleybird for the women's sports market she'd been part of her whole life.
Sources: LPGA.org, solheimcup.com, Golf Monthly, World Golf Hall of Fame, Wikipedia. All facts verified September 7, 2026.
