The global golf calendar delivers a stacked lineup of tournaments across every major professional tour this week, headlined by the milestone 20th edition of the Solheim Cup, the premier women’s team competition between Europe and the United States, making its first-ever stop in the Netherlands.
Hosted at Bernardus Golf in Den Bosch, this year’s match play event features a 6,557-yard, par-72 layout, with live television coverage airing on Golf Channel across Friday and Saturday from 1:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and a truncated broadcast window from 5 a.m. to noon on the final day Sunday. Team USA enters the competition as defending champions, after a dominant 2023 victory at Virginia’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, where the Americans never relinquished the lead after the opening session and carried a 10-6 advantage into final-day singles play to secure a 15½-12½ win.
Leading the two squads are captains Anna Nordqvist for Europe and Angela Stanford for Team USA, with Nordqvist set to retire from the LPGA Tour following the event. History favors Europe on home soil: the continental side has lifted the cup five times in the last eight editions, and has not dropped a home-hosted competition since a 2015 defeat in Germany. Team USA brings a relatively inexperienced roster to the Netherlands, with just five of its 12 players notching an LPGA Tour victory since the last Solheim Cup. World-class star Nelly Korda anchors the American side, boasting 23 global individual wins alone – five more than the combined total of the rest of her teammates. Nine members of the 2023 victorious U.S. squad return for this year’s event, with Korda and Megan Khang leading the experience ranks as they prepare for their fifth Solheim Cup appearance. For Europe, captain Nordqvist has included four first-time Solheim Cup players, headlined by rising star Lottie Woad, who currently ranks eighth in the women’s world golf rankings. Two veteran European stars, Charley Hull and Carlota Ciganda, will make their eighth tournament appearances, more than any other competitor in this year’s field. The 2028 Solheim Cup is already scheduled to be hosted at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. Full event details are available at https://www.solheimcup.com/.
Across the Atlantic on the DP World Tour, the Amgen Irish Open tees off this week at Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg, Ireland, marking the first time the historic tournament has been hosted at the 6,838-yard, par-70 Co. Clare course. With a total $6 million purse and a $1 million winner’s share, the event draws a star-studded field led by defending champion and local favorite Rory McIlroy, who kickstarts a demanding six-tournament fall schedule spanning three continents with his home national open. Former U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to attend the tournament over the weekend.
Multiple major champions and top-ranked contenders are in the field, including Jon Rahm, a two-time Irish Open winner (2017, 2019) who makes his first DP World Tour start since the Scottish Open. A host of LIV Golf players are competing this week, including Joaquin Niemann, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Thomas Pieters, Adrian Meronk and Thomas Detry, with Garcia and Niemann earning spots via sponsor invitation. Four-time major champion Brooks Koepka also enters on a sponsor exemption, marking his first tournament appearance since he failed to qualify for the 2024 PGA Tour postseason. Eugenio Chacarra enters the week third in the Race to Dubai standings, closing in on one of the 10 PGA Tour cards up for grabs at the end of the DP World Tour season. 2024 Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald is also in the starting field. Broadcast coverage is split across multiple networks: Golf Channel airs play Thursday 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Friday 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. (with early Friday coverage exclusive to Golf Channel’s mobile platform from 4:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.), while CNBC carries weekend coverage from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Next week the DP World Tour moves on to the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, with full details available at https://www.europeantour.com/dpworld-tour/.
On the PGA Tour Champions circuit for players over 50, the Sanford International gets underway this week at Sioux City, South Dakota’s Minnehaha Country Club. The 6,747-yard, par-70 course hosts a $2.2 million total purse, with the champion taking home a $330,000 winner’s share. Retief Goosen returns to defend his 2023 title. Television coverage airs on Golf Channel: Friday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. (with early coverage on Golf Channel mobile 2-2:30 p.m.), and Sunday from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Four-time tournament winner Steve Stricker returns for back-to-back weeks of play, after a tied 55th finish at last week’s Ally Challenge in Michigan. Recent hot streak holder Steven Alker, who won the Ally Challenge on PGA Tour Champions last week and added a Legends Tour title in Northern Ireland days later, is not in the field this week. Two sponsor exemptions went to Mario Tiziani and Jamie Donaldson, the latter best known for clinching Europe’s 2014 Ryder Cup victory at Gleneagles. Charles Schwab Cup leader Stewart Cink, who has notched four wins this season, is also skipping the event. Zach Johnson, who has earned three wins in his rookie Champions season, enters the field, though he trails Cink by nearly $1 million in the Schwab Cup standings. Only three players in the Schwab Cup top 10 – George McNeil, Ernie Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez – have yet to secure a win this season, though all three have already passed $1 million in 2024 earnings. The Tour will move to the PURE Insurance Championship next week, with more information available at https://www.pgatour.com/pgatour-champions.
The Korn Ferry Tour, the developmental circuit for the PGA Tour, hosts the Simmons Bank Open this week in Franklin, Tennessee at Vanderbilt Legends Club. The 7,197-yard, par-70 course offers a $1.5 million purse with a $270,000 winner’s check. Zach Bauchou is the defending champion, while Ross Steelman enters the week atop the season-long points standings. Broadcast coverage airs across Golf Channel and its mobile platform: Thursday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on linear television, with Friday through Sunday coverage featuring 4-5 p.m. mobile coverage and 5-7 p.m. linear coverage. Next week the Tour hosts the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, with more details available at https://www.pgatour.com/korn-ferry-tour.
The top-tier PGA Tour is off this week following last month’s Tour Championship, where Scottie Scheffler claimed both the tournament win and the 2024 FedEx Cup title. The Tour will return next week for the Biltmore Championship in Asheville, North Carolina, with full coverage details available at https://www.pgatour.com/.
A full slate of smaller global and developmental tours are also in action this week: the Epson Tour (women’s developmental circuit) hosts the Guardian Championship in Prattville, Alabama; the Japan Golf Tour hosts the Shinhan Donghae Open in Incheon, South Korea; the Challenge Tour debuts the new English Trophy in Reading, England; PGA Tour Americas hosts the Digital Commerce Group Open in Victoria, British Columbia; the Sunshine Tour hosts the SunBet Challenge in Durban, South Africa; the Japan LPGA hosts the Sony JLPGA Championship in Ishikawa, Japan; and the Korea LPGA hosts the KB Financial Group Golden Life Championship in Icheon, South Korea.