Lottie Woad delivered and Carlota Ciganda sealed the deal as Europe reclaimed the Solheim Cup with an enthralling 15-13 victory over the United States at Bernardus Golf Club.
Woad had struggled in her partnership with Charley Hull across the first two days in the Netherlands, as the duo lost three of their four matches together, but both Englishwomen showed their class to win their decisive singles on Sunday.
After Europe and USA started the day level at 8-8 following a thrilling day two, Hull kicked off the victory charge for Anna Nordqvist’s team with a 3&2 win over Megan Khang as a blue wave descended on the course in the Netherlands.
“It’s good,” Hull said after her victory. “It had been a frustrating week. Me and Lottie had played pretty well but we just couldn’t hole a putt and played against some tough opponents, but it felt good to get on the board.”
Linn Grant, Nastasia Nadaud and Julia Lopez Ramirez all delivered crucial points for Europe, meaning that US star Alison Lee producing the greatest comeback in Solheim Cup history – recovering from four down after 11 holes to beat Esther Henseleit 1 up – didn’t prove too damaging.
Instead, big European celebrations ensued when Woad – the hosts’ highest-ranked player at No 7 in the world but a Solheim Cup rookie – edged out Auston Kim 2&1 to move Europe to 14 points, with the further half point they needed to get to the 14.5 mark already guaranteed.
“I felt like I was kind of letting everyone down [in the first couple of days],” Woad said. “But the captains spoke to me and said there was a stat that I was third on birdies, so I was playing good golf and I just had to trust that. And that’s golf sometimes. It ends up I get the winning putt.”
Woad punched the air and jumped into the arms of her teammates who flooded onto the green in celebration and less than 10 minutes later, veteran Ciganda made it official by beating Jennifer Kupcho 4&2 to clinch a first outright win since 2021.
The victory was all the sweeter for the Spaniard, who also got the decisive point when Europe retained the Solheim Cup in 2023, after the feisty Kupcho had roared “vamos” when holing an outrageous 93-foot putt on the way to beating Ciganda in a spiky fourballs match on Saturday.
“Today I was really motivated to beat her,” Ciganda confirmed, before adding: “Because I knew it was going to be important.
“I think it’s been one of the best teams that we’ve had in the last few years. Everyone just a unit, a team. That’s what Europe is about.”
The Europeans have now won three of the last five editions, the only loss in that stretch coming in Virginia two years ago. The US team didn’t have possession of the crystal trophy for long and are still without a win on the road since 2015.
“This feels so good,” captain Nordqvist told Sky Sports. “There’s just been so much hard work this week and in the last two years leading up to this from, not only me, but all the background team.
“The helpers have been amazing this week, making it easy for the players just to play. We just had a really good vibe all week. Everyone has been really good team-mates.”
The gracious losing captain Angela Stanford said: “The Europeans played great today, and that’s the way it goes. Their backs were against the wall, they had nothing to lose, and that’s exactly what they did — they came out and played well.”
