​Three-time major winner Anna Nordqvist made history at the Amundi Evian Championship by finishing in a share of seventh place. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Nordqvist became the first current Solheim Cup captain to crack the top 10 in any major during a Solheim Cup year. Historically, only one current Solheim Cup captain had ever finished in the top 20 of a major during a Solheim year, with Catrin Nilsmark placing T-15 at the Kraft Nabisco in 2003.
Nordqvist, from Sweden, watched the action from the tee as she prepared for Evian-les-Bains, France, during the third round of The Amundi Evian Championship 2026 at Evian Resort Golf Club on July 11, 2026. She followed up with a 66 in the final round at Evian Resort Golf Club, marking her first top-10 finish in three years. Her 13-under total stands as a historic milestone, making her the first current Solheim Cup player to finish under par in any major during a Solheim Cup year, according to Elias. For reference, Juli Inkster finished even par at the 2017 Evian Championship.
Three weeks earlier, Nordqvist had already broken new ground by becoming the first Solheim Cup captain to make the cut at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship during a Solheim Cup year.
“I mean, like I’ve gone through hell and back the last couple years,” Nordqvist said. “So I’m really proud of myself for never giving up, for fighting those days when it seems really dark. It’s just been really nice to start feeling like myself a little bit this week, or this year in general.”
Nordqvist has been the leader of Europe as they head toward the 2026 Solheim Cup, scheduled to be held at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands. Her journey has been defined not only by competitive success but also by personal trials that tested her resilience. Three years ago, not long after Nordqvist revealed on social media that she and husband Kevin McAlpine, an LPGA caddie, were in the process of divorcing, McAlpine died suddenly at age 39. Nordqvist has described that period as watching her life shatter into a thousand pieces.
Her struggles extended to health issues, including surgery to remove a cyst the size of a grapefruit. Fortunately, the cyst was benign. Through it all, Nordqvist has shown remarkable endurance. She has also been candid about the pressures of balancing captaincy with maintaining her game. Some European players have even encouraged her to pick herself for the team, yet Nordqvist—who has been part of every European team since 2009—acknowledges the difficulty of managing both roles. When the European squad reconvenes for practice next week at Bernardus, she will be observed from a golf cart as a spectator while the rest of the team trains.
The 39-year-old acknowledged that sustaining her form while shouldering captaincy has been a learning process. “Looking back at it, I don’t know if I took on a little too much at times,” she admitted. “But I also embraced it. I wanted to do this journey with the girls and just be out here and know what’s going on and be able to be supportive.”
Beth Ann Nichols, a senior writer for Golfweek, covers the LPGA and all facets of women’s golf. This article originally appeared on Golfweek and was optimized for search visibility with emphasis on the European Solheim Cup captain’s major-championship milestone at the Amundi Evian.