{"id":770022,"date":"2026-09-14T04:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T04:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/770022\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T04:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T04:46:12","slug":"europe-win-solheim-cup-against-usa-to-give-captain-anna-nordqvist-last-laugh-solheim-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/770022\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe win Solheim Cup against USA to give captain Anna Nordqvist last laugh | Solheim Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eyebrows were raised when Anna Nordqvist somewhat abruptly announced her retirement from competitive golf last month at the age of just 39. Heads were turned when Nordqvist kept Solheim Cup<\/a> faith with the pairing of Charley Hull and Lottie Woad despite a miserable points return in the Netherlands. Nordqvist sounded unsure about elements of the Solheim Cup\u2019s captains\u2019 agreement before a ball was whacked in anger. The last laugh belongs to the Swede herself, who can sail off into the sunset having added a triumphant Solheim Cup captaincy to a career that had already returned three major wins.<\/p>\n

What a rousing afternoon this soon became for women\u2019s golf in Europe. The understated Nordqvist was on the podium once more.<\/p>\n

The wait for a USA win on foreign soil, stretching back to 2015, goes on. Europe are due huge praise for their singles performance here, which had felt unlikely from a four-session \u00adposition of an 8-8 tie. Nordqvist and her players, including four rookies, were underdogs. On day three, there was seldom any doubt they would upset the odds. The record books will show 15-13 as the margin of victory when, in essence, there was more between the teams on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there has just been so many emotions bottled up,\u201d \u00adNordqvist said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been such a long road. It\u2019s been a lot of hard work. It\u2019s been really hard retiring weeks ago, then doing this and doing them both at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been living my dream. I\u2019m forever grateful for everything that\u2019s happened. It doesn\u2019t feel like I worked a day in my life. Having my family support from very far away, living in the US on my own, but to have them here at every single \u00adSolheim Cup, and now to share it with my nieces and nephews, seeing my brothers cry, my sister-in-law, it\u2019s just always been a family affair for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, it feels inadequate that \u00adNordqvist wants to step away from it all.<\/p>\n

The defining moment belonged to Woad. Her tap-in to secure a 2up win against Auston Kim meant Europe reached 14 points. Carlota Ciganda was 3up on Jennifer Kupcho with the same number of holes to play, \u00admeaning the 14\u00bd Europe needed to reclaim the trophy was inevitable. Ciganda made sure she won, which completed the formality of taking Europe to 15 points. \u201cI am very happy to do this for Anna,\u201d Ciganda said.<\/p>\n

Lottie Woad drinks in the celebrations after sealing victory in her match against Auston Kim. Photograph: Naomi Baker\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

There was also an element of revenge for Ciganda, who was undone by two moments of brilliance by Kupcho in Saturday\u2019s fourball session<\/a>. On Saturday evening Ciganda received a message of encouragement from Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olaz\u00e1bal, her Spanish compatriot and a Ryder Cup icon.<\/p>\n

Europe flew out of the traps. Hull played like a golfer with a point to prove in seeing off Megan Khang 3&2 in the opening match. Hull justified her captain\u2019s constant faith by winning the opening hole and staying ahead from that juncture. \u201cIt was a no-brainer to put Charley first,\u201d Nordqvist said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw the stats yesterday, \u00adCharley and Lottie were actually in the top\u2011four players that made the most birdies for the week. They just played really tough matches. People don\u2019t understand how good all these \u00adplayers are and how good the golf has been all day in the last three days.<\/p>\n

\u201cLottie has been playing so good this week and not really getting anything off of it. But holing the winning putt, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s ever going to be hard to remember for her.\u201d Hull was being force-fed champagne by her captain as victory sunk in.<\/p>\n

Esther Henseleit rampaged to 4up on Alison Lee after seven and still that after 11. What happened next is the finest comeback in Solheim Cup history. Lee won on the final green.<\/p>\n

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Carlota Ciganda brings up Europe\u2019s 15th point on the 16th green against Jennifer Kupcho. Photograph: Alastair Grant\/AP<\/p>\n

The problem for Angela Stanford and her USA team was the lack of progress to back up Lee\u2019s sensational work. Sweden\u2019s Linn Grant comfortably dispatched Angel Yin. Nanna Koerstz Madsen saw off Allisen Corpuz. Nastasia Nadaud, who excelled on her Solheim debut, defeated Andrea Lee for yet another European point. Julia L\u00f3pez Ram\u00edrez supplied further blue.<\/p>\n

Leona Maguire surprisingly lost, 2&1 against Lauren Coughlin, but Woad\u2019s moment had arrived anyway by that point. The USA achieved another win with Lindy \u00adDuncan\u2019s 3&1 success against Maja Stark. C\u00e9line \u00adBoutier and Rose Zhang in game 12 were in the unenviable position of playing out a match with the \u00addestination of the cup already clear. Zhang took the honours on the last green with a European party well under way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like we did a lot of things right,\u201d Stanford said. \u201cThe \u00adEuropeans played great today and that\u2019s the way it goes. Their backs were against the wall, they had absolutely nothing to lose and they came out and played well. I try not to have regrets, I believed in all 12 players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stanford\u2019s subsequent comments made it sound unlikely she will have the chance for redemption at Valhalla in 2028. Paula Creamer is among those in a \u201cpipeline\u201d of potential captains to which Stanford referred.<\/p>\n

This was a competition played in excellent spirit, save a moment on Sunday when Korda had words with a member of the gallery who was a little overenthusiastic in their European support. Otherwise, Bernardus served up a wonderful sporting spectacle. Nordqvist will for ever relish it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eyebrows were raised when Anna Nordqvist somewhat abruptly announced her retirement from competitive golf last month at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-770022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}