Bernardus Redemption: Hull and Woad Deliver When Europe Needed Them Most

A Captain's Faith, A Course's Witness

There's something about a links-adjacent course in the Netherlands that makes you feel the weight of decisions more acutely. Bernardus Golf, with its sandy soil and wind-swept fairways, bore witness to one of the most fascinating captaincy gambles in Solheim Cup history this past Sunday—and I found myself holding my breath from three thousand miles away.

Anna Nordqvist kept faith with Charley Hull and Lottie Woad through four bruising sessions. When the singles matches began with Europe needing a victory to reclaim the trophy, these two exhausted players—who had struggled mightily over the first two days—were asked to deliver once more.

The Weight of History

When Nordqvist announced her opening foursomes pairing, more than one observer drew uncomfortable parallels to Hal Sutton's 2004 Ryder Cup decision to pair Tiger Woods with Phil Mickelson. That particular experiment crashed spectacularly—the two stars lost twice on day one and were never partnered again.

Hull and Woad's journey felt eerily similar at first. A foursomes loss. A half in the fourballs. Friday ended with the scores knotted at 4-4, but the cracks were showing. Meanwhile, Nordqvist had repeated the Celine Boutier and Nanna Koerstz Madsen pairing despite losses of 3&2 and 5&3. The four players who had provided both European points in the morning—Esther Henseleit, Leona Maguire, Maja Stark, and Linn Grant—watched from the sidelines in the afternoon.

Doubling Down at Bernardus

Unlike Sutton, who abandoned his experiment immediately, Nordqvist doubled down. Then doubled down again.

Hull and Woad went out in the bottom match Saturday morning, generating widespread expectation they would finally rest in the afternoon. But no. A 6&5 defeat in the foursomes. Then a loss on the final green in the fourballs. The match stood deadlocked at 8-8 heading into Sunday. Europe needed the singles to reclaim the trophy.

I've walked enough courses to know that match play extracts something from players that stroke play never touches. The Seve Ballesteros and José María Olazábal partnership—11 wins from 15 matches as the greatest Ryder Cup duo in history—routinely struggled in singles after giving everything in the earlier sessions. Ballesteros won just two singles during their reign together; Olazábal managed one.

But at least they entered those Sundays with victories behind them. Hull and Woad had none.

Sunday's Redemption

Nordqvist sent Hull out first. Again. The decision felt almost defiant—as if the Swedish captain was daring the golf gods to prove her wrong one final time.

Hull won the opening hole against Megan Khang and was never caught. The tempo she set rippled through the European team, that peculiar alchemy of team confidence that transforms individual matches into a collective surge.

Woad drew the eighth match, facing Auston Kim in what would become the deciding contest. When her short putt dropped on the 17th green, the debutant had just secured Europe's victory. Behind her on the course, Carlota Ciganda and others were still grinding, but the mathematics had already been settled.

Because or Despite?

This is the question that will echo through women's golf for years: Did Europe win the Solheim Cup because of Anna Nordqvist's decisions, or in spite of them?

I've stood on enough first tees to know that captaincy is part chess match, part faith healing. The four difficult sessions Hull and Woad endured could have broken them. Instead, Nordqvist's refusal to abandon them created something—obligation, perhaps, or maybe just the freedom of having nothing left to lose.

My takeaway from Bernardus: Sometimes the right decision looks identical to the wrong one until the final putt drops. Anna Nordqvist trusted her players more than the scorecards suggested she should. Hull and Woad repaid that trust when it mattered most. The Netherlands will remember this Solheim Cup as the tournament where faith became vindication—though it took until Sunday evening to know which side of that line we'd land on.