The 2021 Solheim Cup was the 17th edition of the

Solheim Cup The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named after the Norwegian-American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving force beh ...

matches, held from September 4–6 at the Inverness Club in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

. The Solheim Cup is a biennial team competition between the top women professional golfers from

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Pat Hurst Pat Hurst (born May 23, 1969) is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. Hurst's mother is originally from Japan and her father is an American of German heritage. She was born in San Leandro, California, and raised in th ...

was captain of the U.S. team for the first time and Catriona Matthew was captain of the European team for the second time. The Inverness course was a par 72 and . The 2021 competition was won by Europe with 15 points to 13. It was the second victory by the European team in America, having first won there in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Format

The competition is a three-day

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

event between teams of twelve players with a similar format to the

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

, with each match worth one point. The format is as follows: *Day 1 (Saturday): Four foursome (alternate shot) matches in a morning session and four fourball (better ball) matches in an afternoon session. A total of eight players from each team participate in each session. *Day 2 (Sunday): Four foursome (alternate shot) matches in a morning session and four fourball (better ball) matches in an afternoon session. A total of eight players from each team participate in each session. *Day 3 (Monday): 12 singles matches. All 12 players from each team participate. With a total of 28 points, 14 points are required to win the Cup, and 14 points are required for the defending champion to retain the Cup. All matches are played to a maximum of 18 holes. If the score is even after 18 holes, each team earns one-half point.

Team qualification and selection

Eligibility criteria

The European and United States teams had different eligibility criteria: Team Europe Members of the European team must: #be current members of the

Ladies European Tour The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. It is based at Buckinghamshire Golf Club near London in England. Like many UK-based sports organisations it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal stru ...

in any category or membership; #must be a "European national". To be a "European national", the player must satisfy the criteria set out in the "Nationality Policy" issued by the

International Golf Federation The International Golf Federation (IGF) was founded in 1958 and is the international federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the world governing body for golf. The IGF has two membership categories representing the ...

. There is no longer a minimum number of LET Ranking Events that must be played. Team USA Members of the United States team must be current members of the LPGA Tour and meet one of these three citizenship criteria: * U.S. citizens by birth, regardless of their birthplace. * Those who were naturalized as U.S. citizens before age 18. * Those who became U.S. citizens by adoption before age 13.

Team selection

The European and United States teams are selected by different methods. Team Europe Team Europe consists of the top two players from the LET Solheim Cup standings, followed by the top four LET members on the

Women's World Golf Rankings The Women's World Golf Rankings, also known for sponsorship reasons as the Rolex Rankings, were introduced in February 2006. They are sanctioned by eight women's golf tours and the organisations behind them: Ladies Professional Golf Association (L ...

who were not already qualified via the Solheim Cup standings, and six captain's selections. The 2021

Women's British Open The Women's Open (originally known as the Women's British Open, and still widely referred to by that name outside the UK) is a women's major golf championships, major championship in Professional golf tours#Women's tours, women's professional go ...

, held at

Carnoustie Golf Links Carnoustie Golf Links is in Carnoustie, Angus, Scotland. Carnoustie has four courses – the historic Championship Course, the Burnside Course, the Buddon Links Course and a free-to-play short, five-hole course called The Nestie. Carnoustie G ...

, Scotland, ending on August 22, was the final event of the qualification period, and the full team, including the captain's picks, was announced on August 23. Team USA Team USA consists of the leading seven players from the LPGA Solheim Cup points rankings, the top two players in the

not already qualified via the points rankings and three chosen by the team captain. LPGA Solheim Cup points are earned for top-20 finishes on the LPGA Tour over a two-year period ending on August 22 with the 2021

. Points are doubled in major championships, and top-20 finishes during the 2021 LPGA Tour season earned 50% more points than those in 2019 and 2020.

Teams

Ages on first day of matches, September 4; Rolex rankings at team selection on August 23. Captain's picks shown in yellow. Source: Source:

Day one

''Saturday, September 4, 2021''

Morning foursomes

Afternoon four-ball

Day two

''Sunday, September 5, 2021''

Morning foursomes

Afternoon four-ball

Day three

''Monday, September 6, 2021''

Singles

Source:

Individual player records

Each entry refers to the Win–Loss–Half record of the player.

Europe

United States

References

External links

* {{Solheim Cup tournaments Solheim Cup Golf in Ohio Sports competitions in Ohio