Solheim Cup golf 2026: final day – Europe make flying start

Charley Hull carves her tee shot at the par-three 4th into rough to the right of the green. But she nearly holes the chip up, and that’s enough to scramble the half and retain her lead. Meanwhile on 1, Allisen Corpuz becomes the latest US player to find the bunker at the back of the green. Nanna Madsen nearly does the same, but her ball grabs the last bit of green and spins back to 12 feet. Advantage Europe in that one.

Mimi Rhodes very nearly drains a 30-footer on 1 for an early lead. But the ball stops one turn short. Not many putts racing past the hole so far. Not any. Back on the tee, Allisen Corpuz pulls her opening drive into the heather down the left. Her ball rears up and hits a marshal on the jacksie, a lovely cartoon touch. But back into the heather it disappears. From bracket to bracken. Nanna Madsen, freshly rested after a day off, splits the fairway. Meanwhile up on 2, Angel Yin spins her approach to kick-in range, and that’s the first dash of red on the board this morning.

1UP Hull v Khang (3)
1UP Henseleit v Al. Lee (2)
Grant v Yin 1UP (2)
Rhodes A/S Korda (1)
Koerstz Madsen v Corpuz

Alison Lee gets a bit of a flyer out of wet semi-rough down the right of 2. She doesn’t get close to the flag, and though she lags her long birdie putt up to tap-in distance, Esther Henseleit has thrown a dart to six feet from the centre of the fairway and tidies up for birdie. Another splash of blue on the scoreboard. That putt only just dropped, though. The greens slow, to belabour the point.

1UP Hull v Khang (3)
1UP Henseleit v Al. Lee (2)
Grant A/S Yin (1)
Rhodes v Korda

The greens haven’t run this slow all week: 10 on the stimp compared to 10.3 yesterday. And the players are struggling with the pace in these early matches. Angel Yin and Linn Grant become the latest to leave fairly straight birdie putts a couple of inches short on 1. Back on the tee, the world number one Nelly Korda prepares to face the rookie Mimi Rhodes, who already has two points in the bag for Europe this week. She’s on record as saying she loves a challenge and the heat of battle; she’s certainly got all of that on her plate today. They both find the wide, generous fairway.

1UP Hull v Khang (2)
Henseleit A/S Al. Lee (1)
Grant A/S Yin (1)
Rhodes v Korda

Charley Hull lets go of her club – a wet grip? – while sending her second at the par-five 2nd into a fairway bunker. She whips into the green and makes par, but Megan Khang set up a six-foot birdie chance to level the match. However she repeats the error of the 1st hole, leaving a dribbler short, failing to take into account the slowness of the wet greens. A let-off for Hull.

1UP Hull v Khang (2)
Henseleit A/S Al. Lee (1)
Grant v Yin

Angel Yin hasn’t played too much golf recently – she’s been ill earlier in the year, and sat out yesterday altogether – but displays no nerves in sending her opening drive down the middle. Linn Grant follows her. Up on the green, Alison Lee gets up and down from the bunker to salvage a half.

1UP Hull v Khang (1)
Henseleit A/S Al. Lee (1)
Grant v Yin

With the rain still coming down, and forecast to get heavier in the early afternoon, it’s preferred lies today. Finding the fairway more important than ever. But you still have to take advantage. Esther Henseleit throws a dart at the flagstick on 1, her ball ten feet shy of the pin. But Alison Lee makes exactly the same mistake Megan Khang did, finding the bunker at the back. She’s left with a slight downhill lie and not much green to play with. More good news for Europe coming up?

The US captain Angela Stanford references Jennifer Kupcho’s heroics as she makes a bullish statement to Sky: “We needed a jolt … they’re all fired up this morning … I’m pretty confident in the end of our line-up … they’re ready.”

Esther Henseleit and Alison Lee take turns to split the fairway with their opening drives. Up on the green, Megan Khang doesn’t give her five-footer enough oomph, the moisture on the green doing a number on her. The ball stays on the edge. The door open for Hull, and she walks on through. First blood to Europe!

1UP Hull v Khang (1)
Henseleit v Al. Lee

Hull is further from the flag so will take her putt first. A 30-footer with some right-to-left swing. She leaves the putt three feet short, the morning rain having slowed the greens. Khang splashes out from the bunker to five feet. A couple of little testers coming up. Back on the tee, the second match of Esther Henseleit and Alison Lee arrives for work. Bedlam, bedlam, bedlam.

The adrenaline must be pumping … and Megan Khang sends her approach through the green into a bunker at the back of 1. She can’t believe it. “Long?!” she asks her caddie. It’s long. Charley Hull responds with a slightly conservative play, finding the heart of the green, the pin tucked back left near Khang’s bunker. But that’s a slight advantage to Europe.

Europe captain Anna Nordqvist has a simple message for Sky Sports: “We’re on a mission today.”

Here we go, then … it’s come to this. A rainy day at Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt near Den Bosch in North Brabant, Netherlands. The gallery in good voice nonetheless. The first match of Charley Hull and Megan Khang receive the ovation they deserve. Both players have led their team out before, Khang beating Linn Grant in 2023, Hull seeing off Nelly Korda in 2024. That experience sees them good as they both pump fine drives down the track. No going back now!

It was a classic matchplay double whammy. An all-timer. Yesterday evening in the gloaming, with Europe looking likely to take a 9-7 lead into the Sunday singles, Jennifer Kupcho tramlined a 90-footer on 17 before guiding in a 30-footer on the last to pull the rug spectacularly, skilfully, nervelessly, dramatically from under the feet of the astonished hosts and level the scores at 8-8. A genuine Where Were You When …? event, 120 feet’s worth of brilliance you’ll see again and again and again and again for ever more. And you can double that should the USA win and/or retain the trophy this afternoon! Take it to the bank. Jennifer Kupcho: instant Solheim Cup legend.

Can Europe recover from that late, late, great bodyblow? They’ve got 12 chances to do so. They need six-and-a-half more points to regain the Solheim Cup; the USA require a mere six to retain. If the first two days are anything to go by – and Carlota Ciganda’s Seve-and-Spieth-infused heroics on Friday now seem a sepia-tinged dot in the dim and distant past in this post-Kupcho multicoloured world – this is going to be very tense, very dramatic … and an awful lot of fun. It’s on!

10.10am (BST): Charley Hull v Megan Khang
10:22am: Esther Henseleit v Alison Lee
10:34am: Linn Grant v Angel Yin
10:46am: Mimi Rhodes v Nelly Korda
10:58am: Nanna Koerstz Madsen v Allisen Corpuz
11:10am: Nastasia Nadaud v Andrea Lee
11:22am: Julia López Ramírez v Yealimi Noh
11:34am: Lottie Woad v Auston Kim
11:46am: Leona Maguire v Lauren Coughlin
11:58am: Maja Stark v Lindy Duncan
12:10pm: Carlota Ciganda v Jennifer Kupcho
12:22pm: Celine Boutier v Rose Zhang