CROMVOIRT, Netherlands — After Jennifer Kupcho poured in roughly 120 feet of putts over the last two holes on Saturday night, U.S. captain Angela Stanford carried a green box of Heinken beer onto the team bus.
“Solheim Cup is to be celebrated on a Sunday, not a Saturday,” said European assistant captain Mel Reid. “We’re just happy that we're the ones now to take two crates of beer on the bus.”
Not 24 hours after Kupcho yelled “Vamos!” on the 17th green at Bernardus in the direction of Carlota Ciganda, she was shushed by the Spaniard in singles, who for a second time in her career, clinched the cup for Europe.
“I was really happy to see that I was playing against Kupcho,” said Ciganda. “She's a fighter, I'm a fighter, and I told her, ‘Look, great
playing.’ I mean, even yesterday what she did was amazing on 17 and 18. But today I knew she had no chance. I was like, I want to kill you.”
Ciganda’s fiery passion has become legendary at this event. No one can galvanize team Europe with a ferocious roar like the 36-year-old vet, who won 4-and-2 on Sunday and shows no signs of slowing down.
“I love beating the Americans,” she said.
For European captain Anna Nordqvist, who retired two weeks ago from the LPGA, her team showed the same grit and resiliency that have been the hallmarks of her superlative career. She’s a woman of few words, but as a hoarse Reid noted, that was probably a good thing as everything else about the week was so loud.
On Wednesday night, during the event’s gala program, Helen Alfredsson noted that at the 1990 Solheim Cup, organizers couldn’t give tickets away. They couldn’t have envisioned then, a sight like the first tee at the event’s 20th edition.
Fans cycled in to pack the arena-like grandstand and lined the pristine fairways of Bernardus – rain or shine – in what was surely the noisiest contest yet.
The matches looked tight on paper coming in, and that bore out each day, as both sessions on Friday ended in a tie, and the two teams came into Sunday singles knotted 8-8.
The U.S., traditionally strong in singles play over the history of the cup, actually hasn’t won a singles session since 2015.
Nordqvist drew fire for pairing her two best players – Lottie Woad and Charley Hull – together for all four team sessions and yielding only ½ point.
On Saturday night, after another tough loss, this time to a red-hot Yealimi Noh, the European captains sat down Woad and told her that she ranked third in birdies in the 24-player field with nine.
“It showed that I was playing good golf even though it didn’t feel like it at times,” said Woad, whose 2-and-1 victory over Auston Kim secured the cup for Europe, bringing them to 14 points.
Nordqvist’s captain’s picks, particularly the most little-known player on the team, Nastasia Nadaud, came up big with a 3-1-0 record that included a pivotal singles win over Andrea Lee in the middle of the lineup.
While Nordqvist put out a strong lineup early, Stanford saved many of her hottest players for further down the list. Europe came out swinging and zapped any overnight momentum the U.S. had built in a hurry.
Hull dispatched Megan Khang, who’d never lost in singles, to put the first point on the board and her first victory of the week. The momentum was so heavy in Europe’s favor, in fact, that Alison Lee’s spectacular comeback against Esther Henseleit in the second match of the day felt like a must-win for Team USA.
Lee, who came back from maternity leave and qualified for the team in less than one year, was 4 down through 11 holes and stormed back with five birdies in the last two holes. It marked the largest comeback victory in recorded Solheim Cup history. She’s the first player to go 4-0 on a losing team.
“This is where it gets really hard because what she did today was phenomenal,” said Stanford, “and she doesn't get to walk away with the cup.”
There was moment after Lee’s victory when American players began to outplay the Euros, but it didn’t last.
Nanna Koertz Madsen, who sat out all day Saturday, dusted Andrea Lee, 3 and 2, and then rookies Julia Lopez Rameriz and Woad won the next three matches to seal Europe’s fate.
Nordqvist’s four captain's picks combined for a record of 8-4-1, the best collective performance by a European team’s picks since 2013, when they won in Colorado. She even put Mimi Rhodes and Nadaud together for two matches and watched them fly.
“The first day I sent out Nastasia and Mimi a lot of people questioned why would you send out two rookies, but I said why not,” said Nordqvist. “And they delivered.”
The cup is back in European hands 🇪🇺🏆 pic.twitter.com/rX2daREToA
— LPGA (@LPGA) September 13, 2026
Sweden’s Linn Grant scored the most points for Europe, 4, thanks to a longtime partnership Maja Stark. Their success together dates back to their amateur days, but two years ago in Virginia, their Suzann Pettersen opted to go in another direction.
This time, Nordqvist put them out three times and they proved unbeatable.
Grant made history by becoming the first player to earn 4 points in a cup after getting shut out in the most recent edition.
Stanford didn’t question her lineup choices, noting that it was important to get the most rested players out first.
“I don't think we played bad,” said Stanford. “I think we just didn't make enough putts. And if you listen to everything I've ever said, Europeans always putt better. I don't know why. I still don't know why. I mean, I have a good idea, but I'm not going to say it right now. Apparently, I didn't get to know the superintendent as well as I should have. But I think they played really well, and you have to compliment them, and we gave it our best shot.”
Pressed further on the issue of green speeds, Stanford said she regrets not hammering home that point more: they’re going to be slow.
Stanford also mentioned not having the same strokes gained information available that the Americans enjoyed in Spain, but Europe didn’t have any of that either.
On Saturday night, after the Americans celebrated a moment that will go down in Cup lore, the Euros boarded their bus and put the music on. With Nordqvist still taking care of media obligations, Reid said a few words no one heard and then they simply enjoyed each other. There were drinks on their bus too, Woad noted, but no cameras to record it.
When they got back to the hotel they all put a song – an American song, ironically, “Sweet Caroline” – that galvanized them once more and made them forget what happened.
“We always say that our gift is being a unit in Europe, and there have been at times, the last couple of Solheim Cups where that has started to shift,” said Reid, “and it's been a little bit, not a shift, but it's not been as probably natural as it has been in previous years. Well, this is a shift.”
The unity has returned. Asked to describe the team in one word, rookie Woad, said “family.”
Will Nordqvist come back and do it again?
She left the door open for an encore.
Beth Ann Nichols is a senior writer for Golfweek covering the LPGA and all things women's golf. Follow her on X/Twitter (@GolfweekNichols).
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: 'I love beating the Americans': Europeans win 2026 Solheim Cup
