Avid readers of The Sporting Base should know my views of the Solheim Cup by now. I am not in favour of the tournament–mostly because the event excludes many elite golfers. To put this into perspective, 12 of the top 15 players in the world do not even qualify to participate in the tournament because they do not call the United States or Europe home.
What we saw at the Solheim Cup in the Netherlands, and the Walker Cup in Ireland were American losses–something that should always raise eyebrows when it comes to international golf competition. The bottom line is it was a solid weekend for European golf, and validates the existence of these international events.
At the Solheim Cup, Europe defeated the United States 15-13. The top European player was Linn Grant of Helsingborg, Sweden, who won all four of her matches. Grant teamed up with fellow Swede Maja Stark, and beat Americans Rose Zhang and Jennifer Kupcho 3&2 in the Friday morning foursomes. Grant and Stark then beat Allisen Corpuz and Nelly Korda 3&2 in Saturday morning foursomes, and then won their third match as a team on Saturday as they beat Megan Khang and Lauren Coughlin 2&1 in Saturday afternoon four ball action. Then in Sunday singles, Grant beat Angel Yin 4&3.
At the Walker Cup in Lahinch, Ireland, it was a historic win for Great Britain and Ireland. The tournament which sees the top male amateur golfers from Great Britain and Ireland against the top amateur male golfers from the United States, Great Britain and Ireland won 13.5 to 12.5.
There are two significant storylines from the 2026 Walker Cup. We saw a great comeback and upset. The United States had a 9.5 to 6.5 lead heading into the afternoon singles, which saw Great Britain and Ireland win seven of 10 matches. This was also the first time since 2015 that the United States did not win the Walker Cup.
