Scottie Scheffler, Nelly Korda are the biggest things in golf for a reason
83
The heights they are reaching have become comical, two golfers taking over their respective sports with such dominance that — at least for this moment — it’s difficult to imagine anyone beating them.
Nelly Korda just won her fifth straight start, ending with a major, the Chevron Championship. Scottie Scheffler just won four of five starts with a Masters in the middle. The men’s and women’s world No. 1s are no longer just the best players in their sport. They are becoming two of the best ever. It’s reached the point Scheffler was playfully asked this week in Hilton Head if the two of them are in a competition.
“I don’t know, man,” he joked, “I think if it’s a competition she’s got me pretty beat right now. Five wins in a row. She had that T16 at the beginning of the year, which was just terrible. I can’t believe she did that.”
And with their runs of greatness has come a fun little trend: Who can post the most ridiculous, impressive statistics or notes to quantify how incredible their golf has been in 2024.
“The best five weeks since this.”
“The most strokes gained since that.”
It’s become so extreme and entertaining that we decided, hey, let’s make a list of the most impressive and telling notes on Scheffler’s and Korda’s historic runs.
1. In their last 10 combined starts, Korda and Scheffler have beaten 1,163 golfers, per Monday Q Info. Only one golfer beat either. Stephen Jaeger avoided a playoff and beat Scheffler by one stroke at the Houston Open after the latter’s putt on 18 missed. For Korda, it’s the first time somebody has won five straight LPGA events since Annika Sorsenstam (2004, 2005). Scheffler’s run of W-W-T2-W-W is just the fifth streak of five T2s or better in the last 30 years. Tiger Woods did it eight straight times twice, and seven straight on another occasion. Scheffler has matched Vijay Singh’s 2004 run.
2. Korda and Scheffler became the second pair of world No. 1 players in both men’s and women’s golf to win majors in consecutive weeks (since the inception of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking). Tiger and Lorena Ochoa did it in back-to-back weeks at the Women’s British Open and PGA Championship in 2007, according to The Athletic contributor Justin Ray.
3. In the last 42 days, Scheffler has earned $16.3 million. That’s the second most earned in a PGA Tour season, and he did it in just five events. That means that Ted Scott, Scheffler’s caddie, has made approximately $1.78 million this year, putting him at 45th on the 2024 PGA Tour money list, ahead of Rory McIlroy.
| PLACE | PGA TOUR GOLFER | 2024 MONEY |
|---|---|---|
1 | Scottie Scheffler | 18,693,235 |
2 | Wyndham Clark | 9,111,009 |
3 | Sahith Theegala | 6.565,228 |
4 | Ludvig Aberg | 6,511,053 |
5 | Hideki Matsuyama | 6,007,495 |
44 | Eric Cole | 1,790,728 |
Ted Scott (Scheffler's caddie) | 1,780,000 | |
45 | Rory McIlroy | 1,714,672 |
Tour average | 1,026,231 |
Scheffler is chasing down his own record. He won $21.04 million last season.
4. It’s not just Scheffler’s wins. It’s his two years of historic consistency. Scheffler has finished top-3 in 23 of his last 51 events. That’s beating almost the entire field 43 percent of the time. For reference, Xander Schauffele is No. 2 on DataGolf and has been one of the most consistent players in men’s pro golf not named Scheffler. Schauffele’s betting odds before the RBC Heritage projected him to finish top five 30 percent of the time. For one tournament. Scheffler has been finishing top three nearly one and half times that pace.
5. Scottie’s lead in the world rankings over No. 2 Rory McIlroy is bigger than McIlroy’s lead over No. 788 Tiger Woods. Scheffler has double the OWGR points as McIlroy, with 690 total points for an average of 15 points to McIlroy’s 338, averaging 7.4.
The gap between world No. 1 Nelly Korda and world No. 2 Lilia Vu on the Rolex Women’s Golf Rankings is just as large as the gap between the Vu and the 185th-ranked player, Auston Kim.
6. Scheffler has twice as many rounds of 64 or lower this season (4) than rounds of even par (2). Even par is his worst score in 2024 (Round 2 at the Houston Open and Masters). He hasn’t shot over par since a 3-over 73 at the Tour Championship in August.
7. With her win at the Chevron Championship, Korda became the third LPGA player to win five tournaments in five starts, joining Nancy Lopez (1978) and Sorenstam. After withdrawing from this week’s LA Championship Korda could go for a record sixth win as soon as the Founders Cup (May 9-12 in Clifton, N.J.).
8. No American golfer had won five tournaments in a single LPGA season since Juli Inkster in 1999. Korda just won five in consecutive events before May.
9. Korda leads the LPGA’s 2024 season-long points race with 2,702 CME Globe points. Lydia Ko is in second place and has earned less than half of that. Korda has already earned enough points to have finished third each of the last two years.
10. Korda, 25, became the youngest American player to win a second LPGA major since Juli Inkster (who was 23) in 1984 (via Justin Ray). Inkster ultimately won seven from 1984 to 2002. Meg Mallon is the only other American to get to four majors in the 21st century. Korda is halfway there.
The only good news for the rest of the PGA and LPGA Tours? Scheffler and Korda have decided to take this week off.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photos: Andy Lyons, Andrew Redington / Getty Images)
Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. Try a week on us.
Sort By:
Subscribe to join the conversation.
B
B
· Tue
Casual fans might see Scheffler as boring, but true golf fanatics know otherwise. Hard not to appreciate his ball striking. He's a machine both from the tee and the fairway. His approach to the game is as pivotal to his success as his talent. And finally, he's the most genuine guy on tour. Very easy to root for. I hope he continues to dominate.
A
Anonymous D.
· Tue
Two normal people. A breath of fresh air.
A
Andrew P.
· Tue
These numbers don't count of course because Taylor Gooch wasn't playing against them.
No comments:
Post a Comment