Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport, and join the conversation by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we discuss the European’s Solheim Cup victory and LIV Golf’s future in light of the league’s bankruptcy filing.
Europe beat the U.S. to win the Solheim Cup on Sunday in the Netherlands, winning seven of 12 singles matches to break an 8-8 tie after team play and win (or retain) the Cup for the fourth time in the last five editions. What’s your diagnosis of the Americans’ loss?
Alan Bastable, executive editor (@alan_bastable): It was, among other things, a reminder that the U.S. Solheim Cuppers have not been playing well of late, period, with just two players notching LPGA wins this season. Those two players — world No. 1 Nelly Korda and No. 17 Lauren Coughlin — also happen to be the only Americans in the top 20 in the world. Rose Zhang needed a captain’s pick to make the squad; Andrea Lee came into the week off a couple of missed cuts; and Megan Khang, another of U.S. captain Angela Stanford’s picks, missed the cut in seven of her last nine starts. The Solheim Cup is not an event at which you can afford to come in searching for your game, and the Americans hit far too many loose shots. In fairness, the Europeans weren’t really in form heading into the event, either, but, as so often happens, they rode the home-team vibes and holed the putts they needed to hole. The blue wave early in singles also was a statement. Europe seemed more determined.
Josh Sens, senior writer, (@joshsens): That’s a spot-on diagnosis. It wouldn’t be a Solheim Cup without some second guessing, which we’ll get into below. Meantime, though, another constant in these team events is momentum, and the Europeans were impressive in riding that ebb and flow. After Jennifer Kupcho’s heroics late-day Saturday, the U.S. seemed prime to ride a wave into Sunday. But the wave came early from Europe instead.
Jessica Marksbury, senior editor, (@jess_marksbury): It’s a bit of a cliche at this point, and something we seem to repeat at many international matches for both men and women, but Europe just played better on Sunday. On paper, the U.S. should have prevailed in singles. But golf is fickle, and match play even more so. It just didn’t go our way.
Who was your MVP for each side?
Bastable: For Europe, hard to separate the excellent play of Linn Grant and Maja Stark, considering they won three matches together, including both opening matches in the Saturday sessions. But gotta give the nod to Grant who was a perfect 4-0, made all the more impressive when compared to her 0-4 clunker at the last Cup. Talk about a bounce back. For the U.S. side, easy: Alison Lee. Unreal week. After taking off 2025 for maternity leave, she came back in 2026 and not only earned her way onto the squad but proved to be the team’s best player. Four matches, four wins, including a singles comeback for the ages on Sunday; Lee was down 4 through 11 to Esther Hensleit and came back to win 1 up, with little Levi on the grounds, rooting on mom. Fabulous stuff.
Sens: Ball don’t lie, as the kids say. I can’t quibble with any of those picks.
Marksbury: No question, it’s the 4-0 ladies: Alison Lee for the U.S. (What a performance!) And Linn Grant for the Euros.
Time to nitpick. What decision(s) from U.S. captain Angela Stanford are you second-guessing?
Bastable: The biggest question of the week was always going to be whether Angel Yin, who had been ill for much of the season and played only two competitive rounds (81-76 at the FM Championship) since June, was going to be ready for the pressure cooker that is the Solheim. Stanford could have swapped out Yin for the U.S. side’s alternate, Lilia Vu, but chose to ride with Yin. Yin said she was ready, but she didn’t look it, going 0-1-1 with at least a few untidy shots that showed her rust. Call me old-fashioned, but I also didn’t love the optics of the U.S. team cracking beers and celebrating on the bus Saturday evening. Can’t help but think that didn’t serve as fuel for the Euros.
Marksbury: The only thing I can think of is pure hindsight: I would have liked to see the U.S. singles a bit more front-loaded. I understand that you need some reserves in case it’s close at the end, but I would have put a still-recovering Yin a bit farther down in the lineup, not the third match out. Those early matches are important in terms of momentum, and the U.S. was not able to capitalize.
Sens: Yin was the big question mark coming in, and she remains the big question mark in the aftermath. Yes, she’d earned the spot, and she was keen to play, but little suggested that her game was Solheim Cup-ready. In retrospect, you can’t help thinking that Lilia Vu would have made more sense. I’m with Jessica as well, though. Among the what ifs is … what if Stanford had gone out early with the players who were in the best form.
Bastable: Regarding the Yin situation, it should be noted that Vu was a curious alternate choice. Sure, she’s a former world No. 1, but she has been woefully out of form, having missed the cut in each of her last 8 starts. You have to wonder if that wasn’t also weighing on Stanford’s decision-making.
Sixteen of the top 20 female players in the world hail from neither the U.S. nor Europe. To better showcase the full might of the women’s game, Is it time to create a team event featuring a rest-of-the-world team?
Bastable: You bet it is! The world-ranking numbers heading into the week spoke volumes. U.S. team average: 39; Europe: 54. That tells you that the LPGA’s best players hail from other parts of the world. Look at the majors, too: 11 of the last 15 have been won by players from the rest of the world. Those pros deserve a team-event stage.
Marksbury: Team match play is so much fun to watch, and when patriotism is also in play, it’s even better. The LPGA’s International Crown gives us a fun taste, with four-woman teams from around the globe, but expanding the team size or going into full U.S.-versus-rest-of-world format would be great theater.
Sens: Sure. Bring it on. Question is, how do you form a team that would be competitive? Would American-centrism allow for a combo team of U.S. and Europe to take on the rest?
LIV Golf this week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a filing that sets in motion a restructuring process as the league prepares to enter the next phase of its existence, LIV 2.0. The filing unearthed several documents not previously known to the public. Which of them was of the most interest to you?
Bastable: Gosh, there was so much to trawl through (thankfully, our colleague, Sean Zak, did much of the heavy lifting). I was fascinated by all the cash still owed to LIV’s stars: $7.5 million to Jon Rahm; $5.8 million to Bryson DeChambeau; $5.5 million to Dustin Johnson; and on and on. Those figures are a pittance versus what these guys made over the course of their LIV careers but still striking when you consider where this league was a year or two ago: with seemingly bottomless reserves. LIV’s TV revenue (or lack thereof) also was a shocker: approximately $10 million, or only 5% of its overall revenue. We knew the league was struggling in that department but didn’t know to what degree.
Marksbury: Being reminded of Cameron Young’s near departure to LIV was jarring. At this point, it’s seems amazing to think about just how much of an existential threat LIV posed to the PGA in recent years. How things have changed!
Sens: Those are juicy details. But there’s also the total losses: $5 billion. That’s a staggering sum, but little more than pocket change to the Saudi fund that launched the circuit. It’s yet another reminder of the surreal, distorting sums LIV injected into professional golf, and the wildly irrational (and frankly, nauseating) market it created.
Even though this filing was somewhat expected, after this more recent round of LIV news, are you now more or less bullish on the future of the league?
Bastable: Bryson DeChambeau, the league’s biggest star and among its most ardent supporters, lawyering up (which is another thing we learned last week) doesn’t feel like a positive development. But who’s to say, maybe enough players will buy into the equity model and the league lives on as a souped-up developmental league of sorts.
Marksbury: None of this inspires much confidence. But I have to think that retaining starpower in the form of Bryson and Jon Rahm is of the utmost importance at this point. Without that kind of top-tier credibility going forward, it’s hard to see any kind of future in which the league would be on par with the PGA Tour, or even its developmental circuits.
Sens: It might stumble on in zombie form for a while. But beyond that, I don’t see it coming back to any authentic kind of life.
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