The heights they reach have become comical, with two golfers taking over their respective sports with such dominance that – at least for now – it’s hard to imagine anyone beating them.
Nelly Korda is coming off her fifth straight start, ending at a major tournament, the Chevron Championship. Scottie Scheffler just won four of five starts with a Masters in the middle. The men’s and women’s world numbers 1 are no longer just the best players in their sport. They become two of the best of all time. It got to the point where Scheffler was asked this week in Hilton Head if the two were in competition.
“I don’t know, man,” he joked, “I think if it’s a competition, she’s pretty much beating me right now. Five victories in a row. She had that T16 at the start of the year, which was just terrible. I can’t believe she did that.
And with their courses of greatness has come a fun little trend: who can post the most ridiculous and impressive stats or scores to quantify how incredible their golf has been in 2024.
“Best five weeks since that.”
“The greatest number of strokes won since.”
It’s gotten so extreme and entertaining that we’ve decided to put together a list of the most impressive and revealing notes on historic races from Scheffler and Korda.
1. In their last 10 starts combined, Korda and Scheffler have beaten 1,163 golfers, by Monday Q Info. Only one golfer has beaten either. Stephen Jaeger avoided the playoff and beat Scheffler by one stroke at the Houston Open after the latter missed his putt on 18. For Korda, it is the first time someone has won five consecutive events in the LPGA since Annika Sorsenstam (2004, 2005). Scheffler’s WW-T2-WW series is only the fifth run of five T2s or better in the last 30 years. Tiger Woods has done it eight times in a row twice, and seven in a row on another occasion. Scheffler matched Vijay Singh’s run in 2004.
2. Korda and Scheffler became the second pair of world No. 1 players in men’s and women’s golf to win major tournaments in consecutive weeks (since the inception of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings). Tiger and Lorena Ochoa did it in back-to-back weeks at the Women’s British Open and PGA Championship in 2007, according to Athleticism contributor Justin Ray.
3. Over the past 42 days, Scheffler has earned $16.3 million. It’s the second most won record in a PGA Tour season, and he did it in just five events. That means Ted Scott, Scheffler’s caddy, has earned about $1.78 million this year, placing him 45th on the 2024 PGA Tour money list, ahead of Rory McIlroy.
2024 PGA Tour Money List
Place | PGA Tour golfer | Silver 2024 |
---|---|---|
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 caddy) |
1,780,000 |
|
45 |
Rory McIlroy |
1,714,672 |
Lap average |
1,026,231 |
Scheffler continues his own record. He made $21.04 million last season.
4. It’s not just about Scheffler’s victories. These are his two years of historic regularity. Scheffler has finished in the top 3 in 23 of his last 51 events. This beats almost the entire field 43 percent of the time. For reference, Xander Schauffele is #2 on DataGolf and has been one of the most consistent players in men’s professional golf, not named Scheffler. Schauffele’s betting odds before the RBC Heritage predicted he would finish in the top five 30 percent of the time. For a tournament. Scheffler finished in the top three at almost one and a half times that pace.
5. Scottie’s lead in the world rankings over No. 2 Rory McIlroy is larger 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 compared to McIlroy’s 338, with an average of 7.4.
The gap between world No. 1 Nelly Korda and world No. 2 Lilia Vu in the Rolex women’s golf rankings is just as big as the gap between Vu and 185th-ranked player Auston Kim.
6. Scheffler has twice as many rounds of 64 or less this season (4) as rounds of par (2). Even by, this is his worst score in 2024 (2nd round at the Houston Open and Masters). He hasn’t shot above par since a 3-over 73 at the Tour Championship in August.
7. With her victory 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 claim a record sixth victory at the Founders Cup (May 9-12 in Clifton, NJ).
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 points race through the 2024 season with 2,702 CME Globe points. Lydia Ko is in second place and has won less than half. Korda has already accumulated enough points to finish third each of the last two years.
ten. Korda, 25, became the youngest American player to win a second LPGA major since Juli Inkster (23) in 1984 (via Justin Ray). Inkster ultimately won seven between 1984 and 2002. Meg Mallon is the only other American to win four major tournaments in the 21st century. Korda is halfway there.
The only good news for the rest of the PGA and LPGA circuits? Scheffler and Korda decided to take this week off.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / Athleticism; (Photos: Andy Lyons, Andrew Redington/Getty Images)