On Sunday at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands, Nelly Korda delivered a crucial early singles win for Team USA against Europe’s Mimi Rhodes. With that win, she earned her 12th career Solheim Cup match victory. But that victory didn’t come without difficulties. During her post-round conference, she specifically pointed to the distracting crowd and how she tackled it to secure a point on Sunday Singles.

“It was great. I mean, I played some really solid golf. So did she. But, you know, I made a lot of birdies on the front nine, and I just came out here and really focused on myself. Ang [Angela Stanford] told us, Focus on yourself, focus on getting your point, and that’s what I did. It does get a little distracting with all outside noise here in Europe, but I stayed in my bubble,” Nelly Korda revealed.

The World No. 1 was even part of a heated confrontation. She reportedly asked a fan to “have some class” during her Singles round with Mimi Rhodes. But she already knew the crowd would be loud and not on their side. Speaking ahead of the biennial event, she noted that the crowd “will definitely not be on our side” because a European country was hosting the Solheim Cup. According to Nelly Korda, the players had to lean on each other to tackle such a crowd.

That’s usually how it is. The European team faced this same thing last year during the 2025 Ryder Cup. In fact, Rory McIlroy revealed that the crowd focused more on cheering against them than on cheering for the American team.

Loud crowds have now become part of team events because national pride is on the line. Jennifer Kupcho complained about the same thing yesterday. After her late heroics on the 17th and 18th holes during the Saturday fourballs game, she and partner Lindy Duncan both said that the crowd was getting loud.

Kupcho shushed the crowd after a birdie on the 10th as a spontaneous reaction, wanting to bring their energy down a bit. Then, she focused on her own game and stayed in the bubble to clinch the point for the American team.

But amid that distraction, Nelly Korda did dominate the round against Rhodes. She took command on the second hole with a birdie finish, which the European pro snatched back on the par-five fifth. But Korda followed that with birdies on the sixth and seventh holes, while Rhodes had a par finish.

The American professional then won the ninth hole to enter the back nine with a 3-up lead. On the back nine, Nelly Korda won the 12th and 16th holes while Rhodes got the 15th. By the 16th, Korda was 4 up, as Rhodes gave up without playing the final two holes.

This focused, commanding round came under a lot of pressure for Korda. As the World No. 1, her captain and team needed her to score early.

“Yeah, Ang [Angela Stanford] trusted me, I was one of the first ones to kind of go out and hopefully lead the way off. All of us kind of play the same equal part on this team. Every girl is so amazing, inside and out, individual, even as golfers. So to put some red on the leaderboard is really important to show motivation for the girls behind us, so hopefully we can go out now and cheer them on,” she added.

Nelly Korda won the point, but it was a personal win in a losing cause. She helped tie the score 10-10, but the Europeans won four consecutive Singles matches after that. Lauren Coughlin, Lindy Duncan, and Rose Zhang put up a fight at the end, but it wasn’t enough as the American team lost 13-15.