There’s a reason Scottie Scheffler, Nelly Korda are golf’s greatest

The heights they’ve reached have become comical, with two golfers taking over their respective sports with such dominance that, for now at least, it’s hard to imagine anyone beating them.

Nelly Korda had just won her fifth consecutive tournament and the eventual major, the Chevron Championship. Scottie Scheffler had just won four of five tournaments, one of which was the Masters. The men’s and women’s world No. 1s are no longer just the best athletes in their sports. They are becoming two of the best ever. Scheffler was jokingly asked this week in Hilton Head if the two would play.

“I don’t know, man,” he joked, “I think if this was a game, she’d have me beat by now. Five straight wins. She got T16 at the beginning of the year, and that was really bad. I couldn’t believe she would do this.

As their greatness continues, a fun little trend has emerged: who can post the most ridiculous, impressive statistics or notes that quantify how incredible their golf will be in 2024.

“The best five weeks since.”

“The most strokes since.”

It got so extreme and interesting that we decided, hey, let’s list the most impressive and telling notes about Scheffler and Coda’s historic run.

1. Korda and Scheffler have beaten a combined 1,163 golfers over the past 10 tournaments. Q message every Monday. Only one golfer has beaten any of them. Stephen Jaeger avoided a playoff and beat Scheffler by one shot at the Houston Open (who missed a putt on the 18th hole). For Korda, this is the first time since Annika Sorsenstam (2004, 2005) that someone has won five consecutive LPGA events. Scheffler’s WW-T2-WW finish was just the fifth of five consecutive T2 or better finishes in the past 30 years.Tiger Woods has done it eight times in a row twice, and once it was seven consecutive victories. Scheffler’s score matched Vijay Singh’s score in 2004.

2. Korda and Scheffler become the second pair of men’s and women’s golf world’s No. 1 players to win major championships in consecutive weeks (since the launch of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking).Tiger Ochoa and Lorena Ochoa reportedly accomplished the feat in consecutive weeks at the 2007 Women’s British Open and PGA Championship Competitor Written by Justin Ray.

3. Over the past 42 days, Scheffler earned $16.3 million. It was the second-highest earnings of the PGA Tour season, and he did it in just five events. That means Scheffler’s caddy, Ted Scott, will earn about $1.78 million this year, putting him in 45th place on the 2024 PGA Tour money list, ahead of Rory McIlroy.

Scheffler is chasing his own record. He earned $21.04 million last season.

4. This wasn’t just a win for Scheffler. It was a historic two-year stretch for him. Scheffler has finished in the top three in 23 of the past 51 races. That beats almost the entire field 43% of the time. For reference, Xander Schauffele is ranked No. 2 on DataGolf and is one of the most consistent players in men’s professional golf (besides Schauffele). Schauffele’s previous betting odds at RBC Heritage gave him a 30 percent chance of finishing in the top five. For a game. Scheffler’s top three times were almost one and a half times that pace.

5. Scottie’s lead in the world rankings over No. 2 Rory McIlroy is greater than McIlroy’s lead over No. 788 Tiger Woods. Scheffler has twice as many OWGR points as McIlroy, with a total of 690 points and an average of 15 compared to McIlroy’s 338 points, an average of 7.4.

In the Rolex Women’s Golf Rankings, the gap between world No. 1 Nelly Korda and No. 2 Lilia Vu is as wide as the gap between Vu and No. 185 Auston Kim.

6. Scheffler has had twice as many rounds of 64 or lower this season (4) as he has had rounds of even par (2). Even par is his worst result in 2024 (Houston Open and Masters 2nd round). He hasn’t shot a par since a 3-over 73 at the Tour Championship in August.

7. With the win at the Chevron Championship, Korda became the third LPGA player to win five out of five starts, joining Nancy Lopez (1978) and Sorenstam. After withdrawing from this week’s Los Angeles tournament, Korda could be on course for a record sixth win at the Founders Cup, May 9-12 in Clifton, N.J.

8. No American golfer has won five events in a single LPGA season since Juli Inkster in 1999.

9. Korda leads the LPGA 2024 season standings with 2,702 CME Globe points. Lydia Ko came in second, but her income was less than half. Korda has earned enough points to finish third each of the last two years.

10. Korda, 25, became the youngest American to win a second LPGA major since Julie Inkster (23) in 1984 (via Justin Ray). Inkster ultimately won seven majors from 1984 to 2002. Koda is already halfway there.

The only good news for the rest of the PGA and LPGA tours? Scheffler and Korda decided to take this week off.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb/ Competitor; Photo: Andy Lyons, Andrew Reddington/Getty Images)