The Solheim Cup Became a Rivalry at Dalmahoy
Joe Flanagan The inaugural Solheim Cup competition took place in Orlando, Florida, United States at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club from November 16 to November 18, 1990. The United States team beat the European team 11½ points to 4½. Picture Credit: Mark Newcombe / www.visionsingolf.com
The United States overwhelmed Europe in the inaugural matches. Two years later, Europe won seven singles matches in Scotland and gave the young competition the tension it needed to endure.
Bernardus becomes the Solheim Cup’s first Dutch host this week. It is the 20th edition, with 12 golfers on each team and 28 points available. The first match at Lake Nona had eight players per side and only 16 points.
None of that was guaranteed after the first playing in 1990.
The United States won 11 1/2 to 4 1/2 at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando. The new event had a respected name, elite players and the backing of Karsten and Louise Solheim, but a team match needs uncertainty. If one side merely confirms its superiority every two years, ceremony eventually overtakes competition.
Europe answered that problem at Dalmahoy Country Club outside Edinburgh in October 1992. The response was not a narrow escape. Europe beat the United States 11 1/2 to 6 1/2 and won seven of the 10 Sunday singles matches. The Solheim Cup suddenly had something no organizer could manufacture: proof that either side could take it.
A Young Event Crosses the Atlantic
The second Solheim Cup was played Oct. 2-4 on Dalmahoy’s East Course. The venue brought the match to Scotland, where the game’s history was impossible to treat as set dressing. Dalmahoy itself dates its East Course to a 1927 design by James Braid and identifies the 1992 matches as one of the defining events in its golf history.
The competition was still smaller than the modern version. Ten players represented each side, up from eight at Lake Nona. There were 18 points available: four foursomes matches Friday, four fourball matches Saturday and 10 singles matches Sunday. Since 2002, the familiar modern format has offered 28 points to 12-player teams.
Mickey Walker again captained Europe. Kathy Whitworth was to lead the United States, but the American team’s week changed before the golf began. Whitworth returned home after her mother died, and LPGA president Alice Miller took over the captaincy. It was a loss far larger than sport, and it belongs in the record without being used as a convenient explanation for what followed.
Europe Refuses Another Early Deficit
At Lake Nona, the United States had led 3-1 after the opening foursomes and 6-2 entering singles. Dalmahoy began differently. Laura Davies and Alison Nicholas beat Betsy King and Beth Daniel, 1 up. Helen Alfredsson and Liselotte Neumann defeated Pat Bradley and Dottie Mochrie, 2 and 1. Florence Descampe and Trish Johnson also won, while Dale Reid and Pam Wright halved with Patty Sheehan and Juli Inkster.
Europe left Friday ahead 3 1/2 to 1/2. That score deserves care because many summaries flatten the session totals or omit the half point. The fourball session on Saturday was split, two points apiece. Davies and Nicholas won again, this time 1 up over Sheehan and Inkster. Reid and Wright earned Europe’s other full point against King and Meg Mallon. Descampe and Johnson halved with Brandie Burton and Deb Richard, while Alfredsson and Neumann halved with Bradley and Mochrie.
The overall score was 5 1/2 to 2 1/2. Europe had a three-point advantage, but 10 singles remained. A young event had reached its first Sunday with the possibility of a genuine reversal from the inaugural result.
Seven Singles Wins Change the Match
Europe did not protect the lead. It expanded it across the board.
Davies beat Burton, 4 and 2. Alfredsson defeated Ammaccapane, 4 and 3. Johnson beat Sheehan, 2 and 1, and Florence Descampe defeated Daniel by the same margin. Wright handled Bradley, 4 and 3. Kitrina Douglas produced the largest margin of the day, beating Richard, 7 and 6. Neumann added a 2-and-1 victory over King.
The Americans earned three singles points through Inkster, Mallon and Mochrie. They could not stop the wider movement of the board. Europe took seven matches and finished with five more points than the side that had routed it two years earlier.
Davies was the central figure. She and Nicholas won both of their team matches, then Davies won comfortably in singles. Her 3-0 week gave Europe the top-end performance every upset needs. The rest of the result was deeper than one star, though. Seven different Europeans won singles, and every European player contributed at least half a point during the three days.
One Win Each
The United States had won the first match by seven points. Europe answered at Dalmahoy with a five-point victory. The series left Scotland tied at 1-1. The 1990 score was no longer much use as a prediction.
The next two editions showed how useful that uncertainty was. The United States won at The Greenbrier in 1994. Europe answered at St. Pierre in Wales in 1996. Home-course character, pairings and Sunday pressure now had somewhere to live because the outcome could no longer be treated as a foregone conclusion.
That inheritance reaches Bernardus. The Netherlands is hosting for the first time, just as Scotland hosted its first Solheim Cup in 1992. Anna Nordqvist’s European side and Angela Stanford’s American team will play the expanded 28-match version from Sept. 11-13, 2026. The details have grown around the competition, but the basic requirement has not changed. Each side has to believe the Cup can be taken from the other.
Dalmahoy supplied that belief early enough to matter. The first Solheim Cup proved the idea could be staged. The second proved it could become a rivalry.