GCA speaks with the Dutch club’s golf course superintendent as he prepares to host this year’s contest on the Kyle Phillips layout
Bernardus Golf, near Cromvoirt in the Netherlands, will host the 20th edition of the Solheim Cup from 11-13 September 2026. It will be the first time a Dutch club has hosted either the Solheim or the Ryder Cup, and follows a three-year stint from 2021 to 2023 of hosting the country’s national open on the DP World Tour.
The course, designed by American architect Kyle Phillips and opened in 2018, has quickly become recognised as one of Europe’s best layouts (Top100golfcourses places it at number 39 in continental Europe). Phillips oversaw a transformation of a site that was previously three flat cornfields to create a heathland-style design punctuated with lakes that are the primary feature of three holes.
As the club prepares to host European and USA’s best women golfers, GCA spoke with golf course superintendent Niall Richardson to find out how the course is shaping up.
How has the course at Bernardus matured since it first opened?
When Bernardus opened in 2018, the foundations were excellent but – as with any new golf course – time has been its greatest asset. Over the past eight years, the turf has matured, the playing surfaces have become more consistent, and the course has developed a character of its own.
The heather, native areas, pines, oaks, and surrounding landscape are now well established, giving the course a much stronger visual identity while also enhancing biodiversity. From a maintenance perspective, we have developed a far deeper understanding of how the course responds throughout the seasons and how to fine-tune our agronomic programmes to deliver firm, fast conditions more consistently.
The course is now considerably more refined than it was when we first opened, while fully retaining the architect’s strategic intent, particularly through the interconnected fairways, generous corridors, and shared landing areas.
Bernardus Golf is a Kyle Phillips design that opened in 2018 (Photo: Bernardus Golf)
What did the club learn from hosting the Dutch Open from 2021 to 2023, and how have those experiences influenced preparations for the Solheim Cup?
Hosting three consecutive Dutch Opens was invaluable. Each tournament allowed us to refine every aspect of our preparation – from course conditioning and presentation to logistics, communication and collaboration with the tournament organisers.
The 2021 event was staged in September, closer to the timing of the Solheim Cup, while the 2022 and 2023 editions took place in May. That gave us valuable experience of preparing the course for championship golf at different stages of the growing season.
One of the most important lessons was understanding precisely how the course performs under tournament pressure, and where relatively small adjustments can make a significant difference. By the final round of two editions, moisture levels on parts of the greens had fallen to six or seven per cent, in some areas beyond the wilting point.
I would not normally allow the greens to dry down to that extent, but tournament preparation occasionally pushes you beyond your usual comfort zone and reveals the true limits of the surfaces. The course responded extremely well, although I was very happy to switch the irrigation system back on after play on Sunday evening!
The events also enabled us to build a strong working relationship with the DP World Tour and demonstrated that Bernardus can consistently deliver a professional championship setup. The Solheim Cup will, of course, be a very different event.
Matchplay creates a distinct atmosphere and can encourage more aggressive golf, but the operational experience we have gained means we begin our preparations from a very strong position. Our focus is now on creating the best possible stage for both the players and spectators.
Bernardus will close three weeks prior to hosting the Solheim Cup to allow the greenkeeping team to get the course in the best condition possible (Photo: Bernardus Golf)
Have any changes been made to the course ahead of the Solheim Cup?
We have not made any major changes to the golf course itself. Most of the work undertaken in recent years has focused on creating wider spectator corridors and improving circulation. We have carefully transplanted established areas of heather to protect them from spectator traffic and relocated approximately 60 trees. Those trees will remain in their new positions, ensuring that the improved routes can also support future tournaments.
For logistical reasons, the Solheim Cup routing will begin on Bernardus’s third hole. We have rented adjoining farmland close to that tee, allowing the fan zone, public entrance and back-of-house infrastructure to be located away from the core golf property. This significantly reduces the impact on the course’s flora, fauna and natural areas.
We have also addressed several pinch points. Bernardus was designed as a championship golf course, but not specifically as a venue for a tournament of this scale, so selected areas have been widened to improve the movement of players, officials, television crews and equipment between holes.
Fundamentally, however, the course remains faithful to the layout constructed in 2016 and 2017. That is a strong endorsement of the original design: the priority has been to enhance tournament logistics and the spectator experience, rather than change the course’s playing strategy.
There have been no major changes to the course, with its heathland character maintained and preserved (Photo: Bernardus Golf)
Why is Bernardus particularly well suited to matchplay golf?
Bernardus offers an excellent balance of strategic challenge and genuine scoring opportunities, which is exactly what matchplay requires. The course rewards bold decision-making without being excessively punitive, encouraging players to take on risk when the situation demands it. Several holes can produce rapid swings in momentum, creating exciting golf and helping matches remain competitive until the closing stages.
The open landscape also provides excellent sightlines. Bernardus is not an expansive site, but the routing makes exceptionally intelligent use of the available land. Its interconnected fairways and compact layout mean spectators will not need to cover vast distances to follow a match. That should create a more intimate atmosphere, allowing crowds to move with the players rather than remain in one fixed position, and generating a very distinctive energy across the course.
The stage is being set for the European and American teams… (Photo: Bernardus Golf)
Are you doing anything differently from an agronomic perspective in preparation for the Solheim Cup?
Our philosophy remains unchanged: to produce healthy, resilient turf capable of performing at the highest level. We will have considerably more support during tournament week and in the period immediately beforehand.
The course will close for three weeks, giving us the space required both to refine the playing surfaces and to complete the tournament build. The main difference, however, will be the level of detail. During normal weekly maintenance, there is always a priority list, and it is rare to complete every item before new demands arise. For the Solheim Cup, that changes. Our objective is to address every detail, with up to 100 people involved in preparing the course, with a particular emphasis on firmness, green speed and surface uniformity.
Long-term planning is critical. We continuously monitor turf health and invest in precision maintenance practices, using detailed data to inform our agronomic decisions. Protecting the course is equally important. When the air temperature reaches 40C, for example, temperatures at canopy level can be considerably higher. Fescue is a highly resilient grass, but it does not respond well to that level of heat, so occasionally closing the course is a necessary agronomic decision rather than simply an operational one.
Alongside performance, sustainability remains central to everything we do. Our goal is to deliver championship-quality playing conditions while using water, nutrients and plant protection products responsibly, with the lowest practical level of inputs. We do not routinely apply fungicides, and we are not prepared to reverse the progress made over the past decade purely to achieve cosmetic perfection for a single week. There may be minor natural imperfections, but the course will be presented to the highest possible standard within our environmental principles.
Ultimately, our aim is to present Bernardus exactly as it was intended to be played: firm, fast, strategic and visually exceptional.
“Bernardus offers an excellent balance of strategic challenge and genuine scoring opportunities,” says Niall Richardson (Photo: Bernardus Golf)
Bernardus is working with agronomic consultancy Turfgrass, who have now provided advice for seven consecutive Solheim Cups. In ‘A clear vision for championship conditions’, from the October 2025 issue of Golf Course Architecture, Julian Mooney explains more about delivering surfaces that are tournament-ready.