Scottie Scheffler, Nelly Korda are the biggest things in golf for a reason

The heights they’re reaching have grow to be comical, two golfers taking up their respective sports activities with such dominance that — not less than for this second — it’s troublesome to think about anybody beating them.

Nelly Korda simply gained her fifth straight begin, ending with a significant, the Chevron Championship. Scottie Scheffler simply gained 4 of 5 begins with a Masters within the center. The lads’s and girls’s world No. 1s are now not simply the very best gamers of their sport. They’re changing into two of the very best ever. It’s reached the purpose Scheffler was playfully requested this week in Hilton Head if the 2 of them are in a contest.

“I don’t know, man,” he joked, “I feel if it’s a contest she’s acquired me fairly beat proper now. 5 wins in a row. She had that T16 in the beginning of the yr, which was simply horrible. I can’t imagine she did that.”

And with their runs of greatness has come a enjoyable little development: Who can put up essentially the most ridiculous, spectacular statistics or notes to quantify how unbelievable their golf has been in 2024.

“The perfect 5 weeks since this.”

“Essentially the most strokes gained since that.”

It’s grow to be so excessive and entertaining that we determined, hey, let’s make an inventory of essentially the most spectacular and telling notes on Scheffler’s and Korda’s historic runs.

1. Of their final 10 mixed begins, Korda and Scheffler have overwhelmed 1,163 golfers, per Monday Q Information. Just one golfer beat both. Stephen Jaeger prevented a playoff and beat Scheffler by one stroke on the Houston Open after the latter’s putt on 18 missed. For Korda, it’s the primary time any person has gained 5 straight LPGA occasions since Annika Sorsenstam (2004, 2005). Scheffler’s run of W-W-T2-W-W is simply the fifth streak of 5 T2s or higher within the final 30 years. Tiger Woods did it eight straight occasions twice, and 7 straight on one other event. Scheffler has matched Vijay Singh’s 2004 run.

2. Korda and Scheffler grew to become the second pair of world No. 1 gamers in each males’s and girls’s golf to win majors in consecutive weeks (because the inception of the Rolex Ladies’s World Golf Rating). Tiger and Lorena Ochoa did it in back-to-back weeks on the Ladies’s British Open and PGA Championship in 2007, in keeping with The Athletic contributor Justin Ray.

3. Within the final 42 days, Scheffler has earned $16.3 million. That’s the second most earned in a PGA Tour season, and he did it in simply 5 occasions. That signifies that Ted Scott, Scheffler’s caddie, has made roughly $1.78 million this yr, placing him at forty fifth on the 2024 PGA Tour cash listing, forward of Rory McIlroy.

Scheffler is chasing down his personal report. He gained $21.04 million final season.

4. It’s not simply Scheffler’s wins. It’s his two years of historic consistency. Scheffler has completed top-3 in 23 of his final 51 occasions. That’s beating nearly the whole discipline 43 % of the time. For reference, Xander Schauffele is No. 2 on DataGolf and has been probably the most constant gamers in males’s professional golf not named Scheffler. Schauffele’s betting odds earlier than the RBC Heritage projected him to complete high 5 30 % of the time. For one event. Scheffler has been ending high three practically one and half occasions that tempo.

5. Scottie’s lead on this planet rankings over No. 2 Rory McIlroy is larger than McIlroy’s lead over No. 788 Tiger Woods. Scheffler has double the OWGR factors as McIlroy, with 690 whole factors for a median of 15 factors to McIlroy’s 338, averaging 7.4.

The hole between world No. 1 Nelly Korda and world No. 2 Lilia Vu on the Rolex Ladies’s Golf Rankings is simply as giant because the hole between the Vu and the 185th-ranked participant, Auston Kim.

6. Scheffler has twice as many rounds of 64 or decrease this season (4) than rounds of even par (2). Even par is his worst rating in 2024 (Spherical 2 on the Houston Open and Masters). He hasn’t shot over par since a 3-over 73 on the Tour Championship in August.

7. Together with her win on the Chevron Championship, Korda grew to become the third LPGA participant to win 5 tournaments in 5 begins, becoming a member of Nancy Lopez (1978) and Sorenstam. After withdrawing from this week’s LA Championship Korda may go for a report sixth win as quickly because the Founders Cup (Could 9-12 in Clifton, N.J.).

8. No American golfer had gained 5 tournaments in a single LPGA season since Juli Inkster in 1999. Korda simply gained 5 in consecutive occasions earlier than Could.

9. Korda leads the LPGA’s 2024 season-long factors race with 2,702 CME Globe factors. Lydia Ko is in second place and has earned lower than half of that. Korda has already earned sufficient factors to have completed third every of the final two years.

10. Korda, 25,  grew to become the youngest American participant to win a second LPGA main since Juli Inkster (who was 23)  in 1984 (through Justin Ray). Inkster finally gained seven from 1984 to 2002. Meg Mallon is the one different American to get to 4 majors within the twenty first century. Korda is midway there.

The one excellent news for the remainder of the PGA and LPGA Excursions? Scheffler and Korda have determined to take this week off.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photographs: Andy Lyons, Andrew Redington / Getty Photographs)