Germany’s Esther Henseleit bumps Chiara Tamburlini to secure an automatic Solheim Cup spot.
Kate McShane, R&A via getty images
LYTHAM ST ANNES, ENGLAND | Europe’s Solheim Cup captain Anna Nordqvist will reveal today her four wild-card picks for September’s match at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands – and the announcement can’t come soon enough for the rattled Swede.
After a first-round 73 at Royal Lytham & St Annes in last week’s AIG Women’s Open, the 39-year-old cut a disgruntled figure when asked about the makeup of her team of 12.
“There’s just so much speculation,” Nordqvist said. “Everyone’s excited and I get it, but everyone wants a piece of you. My mind is absolutely shattered because there’s so many questions and so much talk about it.”
It didn’t help that for much of July she was being asked about the prospect of becoming a playing captain, a notion based on her own solid form (T7 in the Evian Championship and T28 in the Women’s Scottish Open) and the general paucity of solid alternatives.
“I’m not going to pick myself, but I feel like my golf is good enough to be up there with the girls. I hope that’s going to give a little bit of respect.”
Anna Nordqvist
She therefore started last week with a statement ending all such conjecture. “Thank you to everyone who believes in me and wants me to pick myself for Solheim Cup. I’m humbled,” she wrote on Instagram. “However, I signed up to be the captain and I am very proud to be – so I will not be picking myself for the team.”
One element of guesswork might have been removed from the equation but many others remained and, after completing weekend rounds of 77-68 at Lytham, Nordqvist revealed her flustered state of mind.
“It’s hard to put it in words how hard it’s been,” she said. “I told my whole team that you’re just going to have to help protect me.
“I felt like as soon as I came off the course, it was just so much stuff about Solheim Cup, which has been hard because I really wanted to go and enjoy this week.
“On Friday night I made eight phone calls and spoke to some players that are making it, some that didn’t which I knew was going to be hard.
“I guess there’s no good timing to deliver good news or bad news, but it was an exhausting hour and a half, and I crashed afterwards.”
European Solheim Cup captain Anna Nordqvist took her name out of hat she’ll choose from today.
Charlie Crowhurst/R&A via Getty Images
Asked if the pressure of the captaincy had been both greater than expected and hampered by her individual ambitions, she concurred.
“There’s been a lot more practical stuff to deal with and, maybe looking back, it was going to be a tough task to do both, but I’m very proud of myself for how I’ve done it.
“I’m playing good. I’m not going to pick myself, but I feel like my golf is good enough to be up there with the girls. I hope that’s going to give a little bit of respect.”
It was not a remotely difficult situation to forecast, but once the team is finalised Nordqvist is hoping to find the clarity that has proved elusive in recent weeks.
“Ahead of the second round at the Women’s Scottish Open, I didn’t realise why there were none of my team on the range. I’d shown up an hour early. I’ve never done that,” she said.
“Yesterday morning, I lost my yardage book. Another first. Clearly my head is not in the right spot.
“I finally get to go back to Sweden on Wednesday. I haven’t seen my family for a year and that’s been tough.”
For all the difficult telephone calls on Friday night she was yet to finalise all of her selections, partly because the automatic qualifying places were yet to be confirmed and Sunday’s final round witnessed a bold bid by the Czech Republic’s Sara Kouskova.
Few had considered her a possibility to snatch a qualifying spot at the start of the day, but she raced to 7-under through 16 holes to be T3 on the championship leaderboard and second in the Ladies European Tour projected qualification spots.
Alas, a double bogey-bogey finish ended her hopes.
Switzerland’s Chiara Tamburlini went into the week in the second spot in the same rankings. She crashed out at the cut with rounds of 75-74 and spent the weekend nervously hoping not to be overtaken.
“I’ll try not to watch the leaderboard,” she said. “But I’m going to need a lot of distracting.”
Late on Sunday her fate was determined by the performance of Esther Henseleit. The German had to finish solo second or better to knock Tamburlini out of the reckoning and her 40-foot birdie putt on the final green to force a playoff did just that.
England’s Charley Hull topped those LET rankings and will join Henseleit in the team. Another six players qualified from the world rankings. They were Lottie Woad (England), Maja Stark and Linn Grant (Sweden), Celine Boutier (France), Carlota Ciganda (Spain) and Nanna Koerstz Madsen (Denmark).
And so to Nordqvist’s decisions.
She insisted that she would not be swayed by one performance at Royal Lytham, which was just as well because no-one produced a result of any note.
Ireland’s Leona Maguire offers Solheim Cup experience and she was T8 in the Women’s Scottish Open.
Tamburlini had an excellent 2025 on the LET but is yet to crack the top 10 in 2026, which will hamper her cause despite the near-miss.
England’s Mimi Rhodes, Spain’s Julia Lopez Ramirez and France’s Nastasia Nadaud are in contention for debuts but they have just two, one and zero top-10s apiece on the LPGA this year.
It all rather highlights why many wanted the captain to consider herself, and why others even suggested England’s Georgia Hall, who gave birth earlier this year, might earn a shock call-up.
Dutchwoman Dewi Weber finished T3 in June’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. It was undoubtedly one of the finest performances by a European this summer but she is not an LET member and is therefore ineligible for the team.
The only way she could have forced the issue was by winning the Evian Championship, Women’s Scottish Open or the AIG Women’s Open. A victory would have earned her an invitation to join the tour.
Nordqvist will end the chatter this afternoon. The U.S. Solheim Cup team is slated to be finalized on Aug. 24, following the CPKC Women’s Open.
Matt Cooper
