Team USA has not won a Solheim Cup on European soil since September 20, 2015, when the Americans erased a 10-6 deficit in Sunday singles at Golf Club St. Leon-Rot in Germany to win 14.5-13.5. As the 2026 matches begin at Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt, the Netherlands, the spotlight sits on world No. 1 Nelly Korda to end that drought. Korda arrives with a Solheim record no American has matched: four wins from four foursomes matches alongside Allisen Corpuz, the first U.S. pair to do it. She also arrives having lost her last two Sunday singles matches, one of them with the Cup on the line in Spain.
The second of those defeats is the one that should worry Angela Stanford. Korda was 3 up through eight holes. The section on Finca Cortesín explains how it turned.
Golf Raw was not at Bernardus and hasn't interviewed anyone on either team. Match records come from NBC Sports, ESPN, CBS Sports, Golf Monthly and AP wire reporting from the 2015, 2023 and 2024 Solheim Cups. Career totals we couldn't confirm against an official record are flagged in the text.
The drought since St. Leon-Rot
Three European-hosted Solheim Cups since 2015. Zero American wins.
The pattern isn't close. In 2019 at Gleneagles, Europe won 14.5-13.5, with Suzann Pettersen holing the winning putt before retiring, per the Ladies European Tour's own account. In 2023 at Finca Cortesín, the match finished 14-14, the first tie in the event's history, and Europe kept the Cup as holder, per NBC Sports. Golf Digest confirms the Americans are trying to win in Europe for the first time since 2015.
The drought on European soil, 2015 to 2026:
- 2015, St. Leon-Rot, Germany: USA 14.5, Europe 13.5. USA trails 10-6 entering singles and rallies.
- 2019, Gleneagles, Scotland: Europe 14.5, USA 13.5. Pettersen holes the winning putt on the 18th.
- 2023, Finca Cortesín, Spain: 14-14. Europe retains as holder on Carlota Ciganda's point.
- 2026, Bernardus Golf, Netherlands: USA seeks a first win in Europe in 4,009 days.
The 2024 home win in Virginia, 15.5-12.5 per Sky Sports, ended a run of three Cups held by Europe. It did not touch the away problem.
The two Nelly Kordas
Unbeatable with a partner in alternate shot. Beaten twice running on her own.
The foursomes number is verified and remarkable. AP reporting carried by The Globe and Mail confirms Korda and Corpuz became the first American duo to go 4-0 in foursomes, winning twice in Spain in 2023 and twice at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in 2024. NBC Sports called the four straight wins a Solheim record. Before Corpuz, Korda went 2-1 in foursomes with her sister Jessica across 2019 and 2021, per ESPN.
She was 3-0 through the pairs sessions in 2024, per CBS Sports, with an eagle putt at the 14th on Saturday morning flipping a match she and Corpuz had trailed. AFP reporting via Flashscore put her at four wins and a draw from nine matches in which she'd trailed by two or more holes.
| Format | What's verified | Signature result |
|---|---|---|
| Foursomes with Corpuz | 4-0-0, 2023 and 2024 | 1-up over Ciganda and Pedersen, 2024, from 2 down |
| Foursomes with Jessica Korda | 2-1-0, 2019 and 2021 | 6&5 over Ciganda and Law, 2019 |
| Sunday singles, last two | 0-2-0 | Lost 2&1 to Ciganda, 2023; lost heavily to Hull, 2024 |
Two honest gaps. Golf Raw couldn't open an official record confirming Korda's full career Solheim totals or her singles results from 2019 and 2021, so the table shows only what named reporting supports. And Sky Sports describes the 2024 singles as Korda being thrashed by Charley Hull, without a margin we could verify.
What happened at Finca Cortesín
Here's the payoff. Three up through eight. All square with three to play. Beaten on the 17th.
Golf.com's reconstruction has Ciganda leading nearly the whole way early, riding the home crowd and what it called Korda's balky putter to a 3-up lead through eight, before Korda won the 9th and 10th to cut it to one and squared the match with a par at the 15th. Golf Monthly's live coverage confirms the sequence from there: Ciganda birdied the 16th and the 17th to win 2&1. NBC Sports records Korda stuffing her second shot at the 16th, Ciganda answering inside her, and Korda missing while Ciganda holed.
That point retained the Cup for Europe, per NBC. Ciganda went 4-0 for the week.
Read it as a template rather than a fluke. A European home favourite, a crowd behind her, and a match that came down to two approach shots and two putts on holes 16 and 17. That's the scenario Bernardus will manufacture again if Stanford lets the Cup ride on one singles match.
Stanford's own 2015, and her 2026 plan
The captain has been the player in this exact story.
Golf Channel's 2015 reporting records Stanford beating Suzann Pettersen in Sunday singles at St. Leon-Rot, ending a personal Solheim losing run and helping ignite the comeback from 10-6. Flag the year. That's the last American win in Europe, and the woman who sparked it now picks the pairings.
Her picks tell you what she values. Stanford told Golf.com that “it ultimately came down to Lindy's a great putter” when explaining Lindy Duncan's selection, and told Golf Digest that her two priorities for a trip to Europe were putting and chemistry. Her assistants are Kristy McPherson, Paula Creamer and Brittany Lang, per the official Solheim Cup site.
Corpuz qualified automatically, per Sky Sports, so the partnership is available. Whether Stanford runs Korda and Corpuz in both foursomes sessions, or splits them to strengthen a second pair, hasn't been announced. Pairings are confirmed during the week and revealed before play. Anyone telling you the Friday morning lineup now is guessing.
What Golf Raw would do is not subtle. Two foursomes matches for Korda and Corpuz is two points the record says you get. Everything after that is about the other ten players.
What Bernardus adds
A Kyle Phillips heathland course near Eindhoven with water in play, per Sky Sports, and the first Solheim Cup staged in the Netherlands.
Golf Raw hasn't seen a published yardage or setup sheet for the week, so treat any course-length figure you read elsewhere with caution. What the venue certainly brings is a home crowd. The Ladies European Tour's Dutch vice-captain Anne van Dam knows the ground, and a third of Nordqvist's team are rookies with nothing to protect.
Sky Sports sets out the format: two foursomes sessions, two fourball sessions, then 12 singles on Sunday. Twenty-eight matches, 14.5 points to win.
FAQ
Why didn't Nelly Korda play in the 2015 Solheim Cup?
She wasn't on the senior team. Korda's Solheim Cup appearances began in 2019, per ESPN's reporting on her foursomes partnership with sister Jessica. The 2015 win at St. Leon-Rot came from a team that trailed 10-6 before Sunday's singles rally.
How many points does Team USA need to win at Bernardus?
Fourteen and a half to win outright, per Sky Sports. Fourteen would produce a tie, and as the 2024 winners the Americans would retain the Cup on 14-14, the same way Europe did at Finca Cortesín in 2023.
Who is the U.S. Solheim Cup captain in 2026?
Angela Stanford, a seven-time LPGA Tour winner who played six Solheim Cups, per the official Solheim Cup site. Her singles win over Suzann Pettersen in 2015 was part of the last American victory on European soil. Kristy McPherson, Paula Creamer and Brittany Lang are her assistants.
The Raw Verdict
Snapping an 11-year drought in Europe won't come from a broadcast package about Korda's swing. It comes from Stanford banking the two foursomes points the record says Korda and Corpuz deliver, then building a bottom half of the lineup that survives Sunday without needing a miracle from the top.
If the Cup comes down to Korda alone on the 17th against a European home favourite, the last two Sunday results say the trophy stays. The Americans win this if their captain remembers what she was in 2015: not the star, but the player nobody expected to hold on.
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Author. Golf Raw Editorial Staff monitors tournament golf, player data, and professional tours.
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