Europe Has the Crowd. America Has the Trophy. Now the Solheim Cup Gets Its Biggest Test

The Solheim Cup began Friday morning in the Netherlands with noise around the first tee, pressure on both teams and one question hanging over the defending champions: can the United States finally win this trophy in Europe again?

It did not take long for Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz to provide an answer of their own.

The American pair defeated Charley Hull and Solheim Cup rookie Lottie Woad 4 and 3 in the opening foursomes match at Bernardus Golf, giving the United States the first point of the 2026 competition and making a little history along the way. Korda and Corpuz became the first partnership in Solheim Cup history to improve to 5–0 together in foursomes.

But Europe responded.

By the end of Friday morning’s opening session, the scoreboard stood at United States 2, Europe 2.

That balance felt appropriate for a competition that has repeatedly refused to become predictable.

The United States arrived in the Netherlands holding the trophy after its 15½–12½ victory in Virginia in 2024. But winning the Solheim Cup and winning it in Europe have become two very different challenges.

The Americans have not won on European soil since 2015.

Europe knows that history. The United States knows it too.

And Bernardus Golf is where the Americans are trying to end it.

Korda and Corpuz entered the week as perhaps the most dependable partnership available to U.S. captain Angela Stanford. Together they had won all four of their previous Solheim Cup foursomes matches.

Stanford’s decision to send them out first was hardly a surprise.

Europe answered with one of the most interesting combinations of the opening session: Hull, playing in her eighth consecutive Solheim Cup, alongside 22-year-old Woad, one of four rookies on Anna Nordqvist’s European team.

Experience beside youth.

And directly across from them stood the world’s No. 1 player.

For a moment, Europe had the better start. Hull and Woad won the opening hole and moved 1 up.

Then Korda and Corpuz settled into the match.

The Americans took control by winning three consecutive holes from the sixth through the eighth. Europe never found a way back, and the match ended on the 15th green with a 4-and-3 American victory.

For Woad, it was a difficult introduction to Solheim Cup golf.

For Korda and Corpuz, it was another reminder of why separating them has become almost impossible.

But one dominant match was never going to decide Friday morning.

Alison Lee and Lauren Coughlin gave the United States its second point, defeating Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Céline Boutier 3 and 2.

At that stage, America had established control.

Europe needed a response.

It got two.

Esther Henseleit and Leona Maguire defeated Andrea Lee and Lindy Duncan 2 up, before Sweden’s Maja Stark and Linn Grant beat Rose Zhang and Jennifer Kupcho 3 and 2.

Just like that, the early American advantage was gone.

2–2.

Four matches played. Two points each. Nothing separating the teams.

It was only the third time in the competition’s 20 editions that the opening session had finished tied.

That matters because recent Solheim Cups in Europe have been extraordinarily close.

Across the previous three editions played on European soil, the two teams accumulated exactly 42 points each. The difference between them across those competitions was never more than a single point.

The most dramatic example came in Spain in 2023.

The United States swept the opening foursomes session 4–0, seemingly taking command immediately. Europe fought all the way back, eventually producing a 14–14 tie that allowed it to retain the trophy.

That history is why Friday morning’s 2–2 score means more than it might appear.

There is no early escape route for either team.

There is also a larger challenge facing the Americans this weekend.

Winning at home is one thing.

Winning while thousands of spectators are celebrating your opponent’s best shots, while every European birdie changes the sound around the course and while the pressure grows with each session is something else.

That is what the United States has been unable to do in Europe for more than a decade.

Korda understands the responsibility attached to changing that.

As the world’s top-ranked player, she arrives carrying more attention than anyone else on the American roster. But the opening session also showed why this competition cannot be reduced to its biggest star.

Korda can win her match.

She cannot win twelve players’ matches.

Europe’s recovery from 0–2 to 2–2 demonstrated exactly that.

The Solheim Cup rewards partnerships, momentum and players who may spend most of the year competing individually but suddenly have to think about every shot as part of something larger.

There are no prize-money calculations here.

There is no individual trophy waiting Sunday evening.

There is simply Europe against the United States.

And after only one session, this year’s contest already looks capable of becoming another close one.

The Americans still have the trophy.

Europe still has home soil.

Korda and Corpuz have given the United States a record-setting partnership it knows it can trust.

Europe has already shown that one American surge will not be enough to push it aside.

Three days will ultimately decide who leaves the Netherlands with the Solheim Cup.

After Friday morning, neither side has moved an inch.

America came to Europe trying to end an 11-year wait. Europe has already made sure it will have to earn every point of it.