The Solheim Cup is one of the most popular, most watched, and most exciting events in women’s golf, as the USA takes on Europe for bragging rights and the big shiny trophy. This year we’re in the Netherlands for it, and it should prove to be a cracker, with the bookies making it virtually a coin toss in terms of the odds.
- Start: 11-13 September
- Venue: Bernardus Golf Club in the Netherlands
- Live Coverage: Sky Sports Golf / Sky Sports Main Event
- Fun Fact: At the Solheim Cup, the players don't get any appearance fees nor compete for a winner's cheque. The Solheim Cup is played purely for continental pride, the trophy and bragging rights.
Best Bet: Back Charley Hull to Be European Top Points Scorer @5.0
This isn’t Charley Hull’s first rodeo. The English 30-year-old, who is open about her ADHD struggles and used to smoke while playing until quitting in 2025, will be making her eighth appearance in the Solheim Cup, having played 27 matches in it.
She has a superb record of winning 55% of her matches, with a further 11% resulting in ties. She was Europe’s top scorer all the way back in 2015 and repeated the trick in 2024, which included taking out the great Nelly Korda in the singles.
With all that experience and expected to play at least three of the four Friday-Saturday matches, she has a very good chance of being the European points scorer at 5.0.
What Is the Solheim Cup and How Does It Work?
The Solheim Cup is the women’s equivalent of the men’s Ryder Cup, contested every two years between the USA and Europe, with each team taking turns hosting the event; this time, it will be held at the Bernardus Golf Club in the Netherlands from 11-13 September.
Each team is made up of 12 players who play four-balls and foursomes for the first two days, and the captain picks which two players they want to be playing together across the two rounds of each of those formats just mentioned.
Each hole is played as a match within a match, and whoever wins the most holes over the 18 wins the overall match and gets a point. Unless they’re ‘all square ' after the 18 holes, in which case there’s no play-off or deciding hole; they just share the point and get a half each.
It’s completely up to the captain how many matches each player features in over the first two days. Though the skipper - Anna Nordqvist for Europe, Angela Stanford for the USA – tends to pick their strongest players to feature in more matches than the weaker players, it’s rare for anyone to play all four due to fatigue levels, though it does occasionally happen.
Then on Sunday it’s ‘mana-a-mana’ with all 12 players from each team in action in singles; again, each match is worth one point each.
In an interesting quirk, the Americans have a reputation for being stronger in singles, while Europe has a better record in pairs.
There are 28 points up for grabs, so whoever gets 14.5 points or more wins. If it finishes 14-14, it ends in a tie.
What Happened Last Time?
The USA won 15.5-12.5 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia in 2024. Lauren Coughlin made a big contribution for the USA by picking up 3.5 points, while Allisen Korpuz, current World Number 1 Nelly Korda and Megan Khang each won three.
As it happens, it was a rare case of Europe winning the singles (6.5-5.5), but by then, the USA had enough of a lead to go and win anyway, their first victory since 2017.
The current score across all Solheim Cups is 11-8 to the USA.
What’s the Betting Saying?
One reason this is always a fascinating event is the strong rivalry between the two teams and the rare chance to watch the players in action in the match play format, rather than stroke play, which is generally how pro golf is played. That means winning each hole is what matters, not your overall score.
To add to the intrigue, the bookies are making this almost a 50/50 affair, with the USA generally at 1.95 and Europe at 2.0.
But don’t forget about the tie, at 12.0. On the one hand, it’s difficult for it to end exactly 14-14 after so many matches; on the other hand, the closeness in the odds on both sides suggests there’s very little to split the pair, so that’s why it could be a lively runner.
Other popular markets include: correct score, the winner of Days 1 and 2, Top Overall Points Scorer, Top USA scorer, top Europe scorer and Top Rookie- limited to players making their Solheim Cup debut.
Eye-catching prices include 12.0 for Europe to win 15-13, 4.5 for Nelly Korda to be the top USA scorer, 5.0 for Europe youngster Lottie Woad to be the top Europe scorer, and 8.5 for the charismatic maverick English player Charley Hull to be the overall points scorer.
