Bernardus: the Solheim Cup's last two holes are a visitor's first two

On 13 September 2026 Lottie Woad holed a two-foot putt on the 17th green at Bernardus Golf to beat Auston Kim 2 and 1, and Europe won the Solheim Cup 15–13. Anyone who books a day at the club in Cromvoirt, in North Brabant, plays that hole first. For the Solheim Cup, organisers started each round on the club’s 3rd, which turned its 1st and 2nd into the 17th and 18th. The same switch put the club’s par-3 17th and par-5 18th at 15 and 16.

In the singles, Alison Lee was 4 down after 11 holes to Esther Henseleit, birdied the 17th (the club’s 1st) and won 1 up. The Associated Press called it the greatest comeback in Solheim Cup history.

The course, opened in 2018, had already staged the Dutch Open from 2021 to 2023.

The 1st and 2nd, into the wind and past water

From here on, the hole numbers are the club’s.

The 1st is a par 4 of up to 415 metres, and the club says it usually plays into the wind. The best angle to the green is from the left of the fairway, which brings a fairway bunker into play. With the flag on the left, a miss on that side runs away down a steep slope. The club’s own advice is to be happy with par.

The 2nd, 395 metres from the back, has water down the left off the tee and bunkers on the right, and its small green has a deep run-off to the left and water to the right. Roel Verdonschot, the head professional, singled it out before the Solheim Cup: “You face a tee shot that you cannot afford to miss left, but you do not want to miss right either.”

€195 a day from 1 November

Bernardus does not sell green fees. It sells a day membership: as much golf as you want that day, a Kaddey trolley ready when you arrive, and use of the gym, sauna, hammam and tennis court. A partner who does not play can use the other facilities free of charge. You book the first tee time on the club’s website, and staff arrange any further rounds once you are there.

• Price (at the time of writing): €255 from 1 April to 31 October and €195 from 1 November to 31 March.
• Cancellation: free up to 48 hours before the tee time; 50 per cent of the booking if you cancel within 24 hours; the full amount for a no-show.
• Groups: two tee times book by email with the club; three or more (nine golfers upwards) go through its events team.
• Staying: the club has an eight-room lodge and Nami, a restaurant with one Michelin star. Golf Monthly lists stay-and-play packages at €625 to €1,890 per person, one of them adding a round at De Lage Vuursche. That club was co-founded by Ben Pon, the Porsche racing driver and California winemaker after whom Bernardus is named.
• Getting there: the club is a few minutes’ drive from ‘s-Hertogenbosch and about 30 minutes’ drive from Eindhoven, according to Golf Monthly.

Built on maize fields

Construction began in 2017 on 85 hectares of maize fields. The architect, Kyle Phillips, who also designed Kingsbarns, The Grove and Yas Links, told Golf Course Architecture: “It was bone flat.” Crews swapped the dark top layer of sand for the lighter, better-draining sand underneath and dug a cluster of lakes in the middle of the site. Phillips left small wrinkles in the ground he shaped.

The site in May 2013. Photo: Klankbeeld / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

The fairways are fescue, and the club says it uses no chemicals on the course. Instead its 17 greenkeepers manage the balance of bacteria and fungi in the soil, and the fairways are allowed to go brown and firm. Adding up the club’s hole-by-hole figures gives 6,806 metres from the back tees, par 72, with four par 3s and four par 5s.

Holes 2 to 8, the part of the course furthest from the clubhouse, lie beyond a river. The 7th is a Cape-style par 5 of up to 530 metres with a large lake down the right of the fairway and green. The 8th, the shortest hole at 79 to 146 metres, has the lake short and right of the green and a large bunker beyond it. In the Solheim Cup it was the 6th. From the tee used then, the shot is entirely over water, Verdonschot said.

The 16th to 18th

The 16th green is Phillips’s variation on a Biarritz, with swales coming in from each side that stop short of meeting in the middle. The 17th, a par 3 of 84 to 167 metres, has a river in front and to the side of the green and a large thumbprint-shaped hollow on its left edge, which Golf Course Architecture called “the perfect place for a sucker pin”. Trees shelter the tee, so the wind over the water is hard to read. Verdonschot calls it his favourite hole.

The 18th is a par 5 of up to 525 metres with water down the left. With a helping wind and firm ground the green can be reached in two, but a long approach that finds the bunker on the right leaves a recovery from the sand that can run on towards the water on the left.

Sources

• Bernardus Golf: Day Member and prices
• Bernardus Golf: the course, hole lengths and practice facilities
• Bernardus Golf: Sustainability
• Bernardus Golf: Bernardus history
• Bernardus Golf: Awards
• Bernardus Golf: Terms and conditions
• Solheim Cup 2026: The course (hole 1)
• Golf Course Architecture, via Kyle Phillips Golf Course Design: Bernardus (issue 59, January 2020)
• Athlon Sports: Bernardus was rerouted to make the Solheim Cup turn late
• Today’s Golfer: 2026 Solheim Cup course guide, hole by hole
• MyGolfWay: Three holes to watch at Bernardus Golf
• Golf.com: Europe reclaims the Solheim Cup with a dominant singles performance
• Associated Press, via AJC: Solheim Cup finale
• Golf Monthly: Bernardus Golf facts
• Golf Monthly: How much it costs to play Bernardus
• Wikipedia: Bernardus Golf