Bernardus Golf - home of the 2026 Solheim Cup

Bernardus Golf – Home of the 2026 Solheim Cup

Ozziegolf visited Bernardus Golf in June 2026, three months out from the biggest week in the club's short history. I was fortunate to spend a morning at Bernardus with Jeroen Stevens, Project Manager of the 2026 Solheim Cup and one of the most respected administrators in Dutch golf. During my visit we walked the course and discussed preparations for the Solheim Cup.

Jeroen Stevens comes from a family rich in golfing history and experience. His grandfather worked as a caddie and later a golf professional at Eindhovensche Golf, his father was a pro at De Gelpenberg, and his own playing career included multiple appearances for the Dutch national team. He went on to help found Topgolf Management Services in the mid-1990s and was one of the driving forces behind the creation of Golfteam Holland, a support structure designed to help promising young Dutch professionals establish their careers.

For more than two decades he worked at the Royal Dutch Golf Federation (NGF), including a long stint as director. It was in that role that Stevens negotiated bringing the Solheim Cup to Dutch soil for the first time. He now oversees the tournament's delivery directly from Bernardus, and walking the grounds with him, it was obvious this project means a great deal to him personally.

The Solheim Cup is the women's answer to the Ryder Cup, a biennial match-play contest between teams of twelve professionals from Europe and the United States. It was launched in 1990 at the instigation of Karsten and Louise Solheim, the Norwegian-American couple behind PING, who wanted the best female players in the world recognised with an event to match the men's biggest team fixture. Since then it has grown into the largest event in women's golf, drawing six-figure crowds and broadcasting into hundreds of millions of homes worldwide.

The 2026 edition, running from 7-13 September, will be the 20th staging of the Cup and the first ever held in the Netherlands. Anna Nordqvist captains Team Europe, with Angela Stanford leading Team USA, and Dutch star Anne van Dam — a Solheim Cup player herself since her 2019 debut — returns as a European vice-captain, giving the home crowd a personal stake in proceedings.

Artists impression

Bernardus only opened its doors in 2018. It was designed by the American architect Kyle Phillips, the man responsible for Kingsbarns in Scotland, The Grove in England and Yas Links in Abu Dhabi. Phillips took flat former farmland and shaped it into a heathland-style, sand-based layout, importing heather to provide stability to the ground. It plays to a par of 72 over roughly 7,450 yards from the tips, with a spread of four par threes, ten par fours and four par fives, and the bunkering is deep, sculpted and everywhere — a component that Phillips himself has said draws inspiration from the classic sand belt design philosophy seen in many of the famous sand belt courses in Melbourne.

Bernardus hosted the KLM Open on the DP World Tour for three straight years, from 2021 to 2023. Off the course, the clubhouse is a striking piece of architecture in its own right, with a Michelin-starred restaurant, and a spa, and lodge accommodation on site. Sustainability has also been part of the DNA here from day one, with the club leaning hard into biodiversity projects and smart water management.

The course has two halfway houses supplied with everything a golfer could need including beers and copious supplies of the owner’s brand wine – all complementary for anyone playing the course. One of these oasis sits between two holes and Stevens tells the story of two visiting players who started their round in the morning and simply played those two holes continuously with multiple stops at the halfway house until they were discovered at nightfall.

Artists impression of first hole

Even with work started such as grandstand positions marked out and infrastructure being trenched in for broadcast and hospitality, it was easy to see that Bernardus presents as a proper championship test. The compact routing means spectators will be able to move between holes easily and it is possible to observe multiple holes from central locations. Stevens pointed out where grandstands would be built, where spectator entry points would be, and where the main hospitality village would sit — all with the enthusiasm of someone who can’t wait for the tournament to begin.

If the course itself is the headline act, the practice facilities at Bernardus are the supporting cast that could steal the show. This is genuinely one of the best-equipped practice facilities in Europe. The practice range is enormous and beautifully turfed. As well as the amazing practice range there is a huge dedicated short-game complex with its own short holes, contoured greens and cavernous bunkers, built to replicate the conditions players will face out on the course, and multiple practice putting greens.

One of the most interesting things about this Solheim Cup is how fans are actually going to get there. There is no spectator parking at Bernardus at all. Instead, organisers are routing everyone through Den Bosch train station, with a free shuttle bus covering the roughly 12-kilometre run in about 20 minutes, or, for the more adventurous, a free bike for a scenic 9-kilometre ride of around half an hour straight through the Brabant countryside. Bike parking will be plentiful right at the course, just a short walk from the spectator entrance. Having just covered the Dutch Ladies Open I can attest to the willingness of the Dutch to cycle to events.

At the official 'Year to Go' celebration, European captain Anna Nordqvist and USA captain Angela Stanford rode from Den Bosch station, alongside vice-captains Caroline Hedwall and Paula Creamer, covering the route fans will be encouraged to take themselves. It's all part of organisers' promise to deliver the most sustainable Solheim Cup yet, and after seeing fans cycle to the Dutch Ladies Open this year I have no doubt thousands of fans will happily make the ride rather than wait for a bus.

To help relieve congestion, facilitate spectator movements, and provide for a spectacular finishing hole the course routing is significantly changed from the normal setup. The club's regular par-5 second hole — a challenging hole with water running its full length and two large bunkers guarding the green, which played to a scoring average of 5.3 during KLM Open week — becomes the tournament's 18th. At the other end, the regular third hole, a short, friendly par four with just a wedge into the green, becomes the tournament's 1st, chosen because it is an easy walk from the transport drop off and bike parking for spectators and is well away from the congestion of the clubhouse.

It's fair to say the Solheim Cup, contested strictly between Europe and the United States, doesn't leave much room for an Australian storyline — no Aussie or Kiwi will ever tee it up in the matches themselves. But there is a thread back home anyway. Kyle Phillips, the architect behind Bernardus, has spoken openly about his admiration for the classic Australian design, the kind found on Melbourne's famous sandbelt, as a touchstone for his own work. The deep, natural-edged bunkering that will frame so many of the Solheim Cup's key moments in September owes at least a philosophical debt to Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath and their sandbelt neighbours. For an Australian golf writer walking the fairways of Berdardus, it was a nice, unexpected bit of home to find eleven thousand miles from Melbourne.

The Verdict

Bernardus Golf is a course that has done everything right in a very short amount of time — smart design, serious tournament pedigree already banked, and a team led by people like Jeroen Stevens who clearly understand exactly what they're building towards. Come September, when the best players from Europe and the United States tee it up in front of what should be enormous, enthusiastic Dutch and overseas crowds, Bernardus will also be a star of the show.