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The 2026 Solheim Cup - professional women's golf's premier international team competition - is headed to the Netherlands for the first time, with Bernardus Golf playing host to the event's 20th edition.
In less than a decade, Bernardus has built a sneaky-strong reputation as a championship golf course. It has three Dutch Opens - 2021, 2022 and 2023 - under its belt already, and takes a big step further into the spotlight as the host of the Solheim Cup.
Like many high-quality courses across Europe, Bernardus is publicly accessible, with a stylish eight-room lodge on site, as well as one of the only Michelin-starred restaurants that overlooks a golf course: Nami, which specializes in Nikkei-Japanese (i.e. Japanese-Peruvian fusion) cuisine. Après-golf sushi, anyone?
Bernardus' rugged design style and compact routing should make it a powder-keg of a match-play venue, with groups of players and engaged Dutch golf fans stacked on top of one another, providing what should be a spirited atmosphere for the first Solheim Cup on European soil since 2023's nail-biting 14-14 tie at Finca Cortesin in Spain. Bernardus will also open golf viewers' eyes as an appealing modern course in one of the world's most underrated golf countries, laid out by one of the game's most underrated globally-relevant architects.
Bernardus Golf and the 2026 Solheim Cup
Par 72, 6,808 yards
Green fee: €255
New-ish course showcase. Having opened in 2018, Bernardus joins a relatively long list of Solheim Cup venues that have hosted the matches less than a decade after opening. This goes back to the very first host of the event, Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Fla., which opened in 1986 and hosted the inaugural Solheim Cup in 1990. Other practically-new Solheim Cup venues include 2000 host Loch Lomond (opened in 1993), 2011 host Killeen Castle (opened in 2008) and 2013 host Colorado Golf Club (opened in 2007).
Tournament routing. In order to accommodate fans - many of whom who will arrive on site via bicycle - and optimize course flow for match play, play will begin on the western portion of Bernardus' three-part property, with what is typically the par-4 3rd hole and proceeding through the golf course as designed, with the usual first and second holes serving as numbers 17 and 18. Matches that go the distance will test players with a par 4 that is not overly long but has water in play on both the tee and approach in the form of a stream left of the fairway that snakes across into a pond along the front and right sides of the green. Bernardus' typical 18th hole, a risk-reward par 5, becomes an often-pivotal 16th hole in the Solheim Cup routing.
Underrated golf country. The Netherlands doesn't always come up when golfers bandy about the best places to play the game, but by all accounts, it ought to. Several parts of the country's North Sea-facing coast features dunes that are not dissimilar to those found on British, Scottish and Irish links golf courses. Several pre-World War II courses - Utrechtse De Pan, Noordwijkse, Koninklijke Haagsche (Royal Hague) and Kennemer - were built in these dunescapes and provide some of the best golf in continental Europe. Dutch golf is no joke, and Bernardus is part of a strong wave of newer courses built in the Netherlands.
Underrated course architect. Bernardus was laid out by architect Kyle Phillips, who has built a strong, globe-spanning portfolio of golf courses. A former design associate of Robert Trent Jones, II, Phillips has had his own design firm since 1997, and in nearly 30 years has built courses from the United States to Scotland to South Korea. Bernardus is one of nine new courses Phillips has laid out in continental Europe.
2026 Solheim Cup: TV times (ET)
Friday, September 11
4 Foursomes and 4 Four-Ball matches
1:30 am - 1:00 pm - Golf Channel
Saturday, September 12
4 Foursomes and 4 Four-Ball matches
1:30 am - 1:00 pm - Golf Channel
Sunday, September 13
12 Singles matches
5:00 am - 12:00 pm - Golf Channel
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