SOLHEIM CUP

September 9, 2026

Celine Boutier

Leona Maguire

Esther Henseleit

Nanna Koestz Madsen

Bernardus

Team Europe

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: I'm joined by four European players, Celine Boutier, Esther Henseleit, Nanna Madsen, and Leona Maguire. I'm going to start with Celine. This is your fifth Solheim. How excited are you to be back in Europe for the Solheim?

CELINE BOUTIER: Yeah, very excited. Definitely looking forward to getting started with the home crowd behind us. Yeah, I guess it's been four years since last time, so it's nice to have a bit more support this week.

THE MODERATOR: Esther, this is your first time playing a Solheim Cup on European soil. Obviously you played last time in the U.S. With the Netherlands being so close to Germany, how many fans do you think will travel from Germany to watch you play?

ESTHER HENSELEIT: Yeah, hopefully many. There's already been a lot of Germans out there. So it's been great to give some signatures, take some pictures. And, yeah, it's very close to home and it makes it feel even more special. But I feel like the whole team's just going to have a great crowd behind them.

THE MODERATOR: Nanna, it's also your first time playing in Europe in a Solheim Cup. It's been five years since your last appearance. How proud are you to have made the team and the fact you get to experience this on home soil?

NANNA KOERSTZ MADSEN: I am very proud to make the team. Super excited for this week. When I played, it was back in COVID, so we didn't have any European spectators. So I'm just so excited to see the first tee on Friday. Yeah, just experience the atmosphere and stuff. So, yeah, it will be a cool.

THE MODERATOR: Leona, we know that you're a stalwart in the Solheim Cup for Europe now since your debut in 2021. You spoke earlier this week about being inspired by Katie Taylor as you went to watch her fight last weekend. How many Irish fans are you hoping come here this week and how inspired are you by Irish sport?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I think Irish women's sport has been on a huge upper trend recently. The European games in Birmingham was fantastic and then, obviously, Katie Taylor's fight was one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. There's a few Irish people here already. I've taken a few pictures and signed. I think it almost felt like at least half the crowd was Irish over there. Maybe not quite as many this week. But I'm sure there will be plenty that make the trip and it's always fun to play in front of home fans.

THE MODERATOR: Going to open it up to questions.

Q. Leona, you've been on a couple of these teams now. You've got some new faces this year. How would you assess the overall team, how it compares to some of those you've been a part of in the past?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I think we're always fortunate as Europeans that the team always gets along really well. There's always a really great sense of camaraderie amongst the team. But I think this team's a little bit younger, fresher. The younger rookies are really excited to be here and excited to get going. I think that's a great energy to have around the team room.

So yeah, it brings sort of a new dynamic to the team a little bit, some new pairings, some new energy, and that's what you want going into a Solheim Cup. Everyone's really excited to get going and really take sort of advantage of the opportunity that we have this week.

Q. What's the biggest difference playing one of these at home versus when you play away in the United States?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I think the crowds. I mean, you know, you get used to, when you're in the U.S., people clapping when you hit a bad shot or miss a putt or the silence even when you hit a great shot. Whereas the European fans are always incredibly respectful, incredibly supportive. The first tee is a very special place and you'll hear a lot about that this week.

I think the European fans, they have their chants, they have their songs, they have their outfits. I'm excited to see some of them. There's always some new ones every year. It's a special week because we don't get this kind of support every week. We really appreciate it, I think, a bit more on a week like this.

Q. Nanna, how would you describe the captaincy of Anna Nordqvist? What has she done vice captains to make the group come together and gel for the week?

NANNA KOERSTZ MADSEN: I think Anna's done an amazing job. She's been super transparent and she is very set in her ways and it's been very easy to be a part of her team. We have the vice captains, where we have one we can go to, I guess. We can all talk to each other. Like, it's a really good group. It's not, like, you can't. But, no, it's been very organized and yeah, she's done a great job.

Q. Nanna, you told me you've been doing quite a bit of bonding in the team room or hotel this week. What sort of things have you been doing to get to know each other better and to prepare for the week in Team Europe on the social side?

NANNA KOERSTZ MADSEN: Well, we had a quiz the other night with baby photos of the caddies (laughing). What else have we been doing? Yeah, we play darts, ping-pong.

LEONA MAGUIRE: One of the nice things about the European team is there doesn't need to be any extra bonding this week. We all already are quite good friends, a lot of us. It's not a huge effort to be even nicer and even friendlier to everybody. It's just an extension of how we are on any other week.

NANNA KOERSTZ MADSEN: Together with the caddies, it's a good group.

Q. Esther, your role has changed, obviously, from being a rookie last time, and now you're almost -- to me, you feel like a staple to the team. So how does that feel differently to you kind of having maybe a new role on the team? And what are you trying to maybe teach the rookies this year? There's four new ones. What kind of advice are you giving them for the week?

ESTHER HENSELEIT: It's definitely different. I feel like the first time you play a Solheim Cup, you just show up. You don't really know what to expect. Yeah, it's just a lot of stuff around the golf, something like this, the gala dinner, the welcome reception. There's just a lot of going on. I feel like the second time you do it, you know what to expect. You know what to kind of get here ready. You don't have much time for your golf.

But it's also, like, a really fun thing to do for one week. But, yeah, the rookies, I would say that's my biggest advice to them is what I said to them. Yeah, just make sure you get some sleep before. Come here rested. You're not going to have much time to improve your game once you get here. So I would say that would be my biggest advice to them. And I feel like they have been doing great. So it's been fun to not be the rookie this time, but they're all really just excited and ready to get going, so I feel like they don't need much advice from my side.

Q. A question about the golf course. What do you think are the most important things if you have to categorize it from -- let's say tee box is the most important and the shots into the greens or the putting, is there, like, a certain thing that you particularly need or is it a golf course where you need to be spot-on in every situation, especially around the greens?

ESTHER HENSELEIT: It definitely challenges all parts of your game. I would say the most important thing, especially for, like, the team competition, the foursomes and the four-balls, is that you hit the fairways because it's really tricky once you get out of position. Yeah, once you're on the fairway, I would say it does give you some chances and you can really go for some flags and hit them close.

Yeah, the greens haven't been super fast, so I feel like you can be very aggressive once you're on the greens. So I would say, yeah, make sure to hit the fairways and then you can be very aggressive from there.

Q. From your experiences in Solheim Cup, we know how close they can get on a Sunday with the unique nature of the crowds. Could you perhaps describe for me what it feels like inside when you're on your own in a singles match and the scoreboard is so tight when you're coming to the climax of one of these things.

ESTHER HENSELEIT: I mean, I feel like you just have to concentrate on yourself. You're kind of trying to right the momentum a little bit, and especially with the home crowd, you kind of want to soak that up and use it as something positive to push you. But, yeah, in the end, you're out there on your own and you're just trying to focus on yourself and the next shot and make sure you yourself get the point.

Q. Also, if I could just add into that question to maybe give you something to work off, does it differ from when you're in contention for a big title individually within the team dynamic?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I think the biggest difference is you go from foursomes and four-balls and you have a partner and two caddies in the group to all of a sudden you just have you and your caddie. But that's really just like any other week. You're still trying to play your own game, hit your own shots.

Yes, you're sometimes taking a look at the leaderboard to see how much blue or red is on it, and hoping when you look up that there's more blue. In singles, I tended to be early, so the mindset is to try and put some blue on the board so that when the girls do look at the scoreboard, there's some blue on it.

But ultimately you're trying to win your match wherever you are, and you're always a little bit more tired on Sunday after playing and there's a lot of adrenaline, a lot of crowd energy, and that sort of carries you through.

Q. Wondering about the course. As an amateur, you know how almost impossible it is to hit a ball out of the heather onto a green. As a pro, what are your options once you're in there? Could you go for the green 150 yards away or are we going to see people just chipping out?

NANNA KOERSTZ MADSEN: You're going to see people just chipping out.

ESTHER HENSELEIT: I feel like it like tries to give you a little bit of hope. When you get up there, you think, oh, I can get this to the green and you hit it and it just goes sideways. I feel like you can get lucky, even where -- like, the rough here you can get some good lies. It's really patchy, but you can also just be stuck in the middle of the heather and just chip it out to the fairway. It's just luck, really.

Q. Leona, you have an incredible record in the Solheim Cup. Wondered if you thought why you think you're such a good match player?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I think I just enjoy it. I think that's the overarching sentiment this week. It's like anything, the more you enjoy something, the better you tend to do at it. I played a lot of match play growing up in amateur golf, and I think growing up with a twin sister as well being so competitive with her that probably helped with that as well. But ultimately this week you're just trying to do whatever you can to help the team. You don't want to let anybody down and you want to do your part. So there's a little bit extra motivation that way too.

Q. I wondered for all four of you if you have a favorite goodie that you received this week.

CELINE BOUTIER: I think my favorite was the tote bag that we got, like the blue one with the Team Europe on it in yellow. But that's not a golf item. It's more like -- yeah.

ESTHER HENSELEIT: We got a really nice picture, like a drawn picture of all of us, kind of in a picture frame, and some postcards with us on it that are, like, watercolor painted. They're really cool, I think.

NANNA KOERSTZ MADSEN: Yeah, they're cool. I like the beanie visor. (Laughing.)

LEONA MAGUIRE: You can pull off the beanie visor.

I think that's the cool thing. It's the gifts that you can't necessarily buy. It's those sort of custom ones this week that probably won't be in the merch tent that we get. And there's always sort of excitement every night. There's always something in the room. The little elves have been in the room while we're at the course, and you always come back every evening and see what it is. But we got some custom sunglasses too, which are pretty cool. For me, anyway. I like sunglasses. So they were cool too.

Q. Celine, you've been playing with Nanna for the last couple of days. What do you think the keys are going to be on the finishing stretch? You're going to see a lot of matches probably decided on 15, 16, 17. What do you think the challenges are going to be on those specific holes? I saw you hit a good one on 15 yesterday.

CELINE BOUTIER: Yeah, I think it's going to be some good finishing holes, especially with the wind that we've been having. Specifically on 15. I mean, I think it depends a lot on the pin location. But, like, the wind is coming pretty strongly from the right, so you have to control the ball flight.

I think 16 is a great par-5 kind of risk-reward situation with the wind that's kind of helping quite a bit. So I think that's an exciting hole that's probably going to be key towards the end.

And then 17 is straight into the wind, so that's quite a difficult par-4 as well. You have to put it in play and then from there you have quite a long iron shot. So it's going to be interesting.

And then 18 is pretty difficult with the water on the left, the bunker on right, and the wind coming from the left as well. And then from there, it's also not a given second shot. So I think the finishing holes are quite tricky, but they can be also rewarding if you're striking the ball well. So I think they're very good and it's going to be very exciting finishes for the matches.

THE MODERATOR: That was the last question. Thank you guys for waiting with us. And thank you, everyone, for your patience during that.