As happened throughout the 2026 Solheim Cup, the pure grit, toughness and depth of Anna Nordqvist’s European Team was enough to grab an easy win at the Solheim Cup, 15-13.
The day started strong for the Europeans, who, as they have done throughout the week, got off to a quick start. Charley Hull, Esther Henseleit and Linn Grant all opened up immediate leads in the first three groups, followed by Nanna Koerstz Madsen in the fifth match.
The United States played with its back against the wall all day, but some players thrived in that scenario. Despite falling down four six holes into the match with Henseleit, Alison Lee rallied back, completing the biggest comeback in Solheim Cup history and providing her fourth point of the week. World No. 1 Nelly Korda shook off a disappointing first two days as well, playing her best round of golf in months, defeating Mimi Rhodes 4&2.
Lauren Coughlin and Lindy Duncan, despite some late struggles, were also stable red points all day.
Aside from those four players though, it was tough for anyone to find an inch. Despite being down big early, Auston Kim and Jennifer Kupcho made their matches interesting early in the back nine, and Yealimi Noh was keeping a critical match against Julia López Ramirez close, but Europe dominated every other facet of the day.
Ciganda overcame a tough stretch to Kupcho, making statements late to grab a full, relatively easy point, looking every bit like the team leader she is. Nastasia Nadaud was brilliant again, defeating Andrea Lee on 16. Celine Boutier and Rose Zhang played even golf all day, no blood was drawn until hole 11, but that match didn’t come into play regardless.
Almost poetically, it was Lottie Woad who made the clinching putt. The young superstar and future stalwart on this team had an undeniably disappointing week, and it looked like that was continuing with a big almost blown lead to Auston Kim. She steadied herself though and hit the short, clinching putt to leave her with an unambiguously happy week.
For the United States, the slow starts came back to bite them. Almost every session the team got behind early and had to fight back to stay in it. Today, Europe outplayed them thoroughly early, and did a great job at finishing it off, even with all the youth and inexperience on that team.
For Europe, that youth will turn into future stardom. Three of the four rookies on the team won their singles match, and Mimi Rhodes fought well in an uphill battle against Nelly Korda. Those rookies are all in their early 20s and provide a foundation for the future of what should be a strong squad moving forward.
In what was a tightly contested Solheim Cup all week, the clearly better team asserted its dominance on Sunday.
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