Europe Solheim
Team Europe celebrates with the Solheim Cup last year. Image Credit: PA

Washington: Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia, will host the 2024 Solheim Cup, the LPGA said on Wednesday.

The picturesque layout in a suburb southwest of Washington, DC, sits along the shores of Lake Manassas and was founded and designed by legendary golf course architect Robert Trent Jones.

The course, which opened in 1991, hosted the first four Presidents Cups held in the United States but the Solheim Cup, which features the best American women’s golfers against a team of Europe’s top players, will be the first major women’s event held at the club.

“Playing the Solheim Cup on this magnificent golf course near our nation’s capital will provide the perfect backdrop for these elite athletes to battle for the Cup,” LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said in a news release.

“I have no doubt that the club and its members will serve as wonderful hosts, and that fans from around the world will enjoy an experience of a lifetime.” Dates for the 2024 Solheim Cup, which will mark the event’s return to an even-year rotation, opposite the Ryder Cup, will be announced after the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour finalise playing schedules for that year.

The LPGA and LET previously announced the Solheim Cup would move to even years starting in 2024 to avoid a clash with the Ryder Cup, which moved to an odd-year schedule after the 2020 edition was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The next edition of the Solheim Cup, which is the most prestigious international women’s professional golf team event, will be played September 22-24, 2023, at Finca Cortesin in Spain.

Europe are the reigning champions after edging the United States 15-13 at Inverness Club in Ohio last September to retain the Cup. The Americans lead the overall series 10-7.