Scottie Scheffler claimed his fourth win in five events on Monday when the weather-delayed RBC Heritage concluded at Hilton Head.
That run includes a second Masters title and has seen the world number one extend his sizeable lead over Rory McIlroy at the top of the rankings.
Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the facts and figures around Scheffler’s streak and how they compare to previous runs.
What makes Scheffler’s streak so impressive?
Has this been done before?
Dominance. pic.twitter.com/kp7V151O0r
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 22, 2024
Scheffler is the first player to win four times in five starts on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods, who did so at the end of 2007 and again to start 2008. He is also the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh (2004) – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour. With many players taking a break after winning a major, Scheffler is also the first to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming a green jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985.
How much has Scheffler earned?
Does the world ranking reflect Scheffler’s dominance?
Week 16, April 15th – April 21st, 2024, Winners Rank Change.
A total of 1253 players competed across 10 OWGR Eligible Tournaments, here are the winners & their Ranking positions. The average age of the winners is 30 yrs.#OWGR#OfficialWorldGolfRanking pic.twitter.com/Yd1vTc1D0c
— OWGR (@OWGRltd) April 23, 2024
In a word, yes. Ahead of the Genesis Invitational in mid-February, Rory McIlroy could have become world number one by winning at Riviera with Scheffler finishing third or worse. Now, Scheffler has more than double the total and average points of McIlroy, while the average points gap between the top two (7.6493) is bigger than that between McIlroy and the players tied for 4,123st in the standings.
So is Scheffler the most dominant player in world golf?
Unstoppable forces ?
Scottie Scheffler ? Nelly Korda pic.twitter.com/g5xSSHGRq1
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 22, 2024
Not quite. Hours before Scheffler completed his victory in Hilton Head, fellow American Nelly Korda had wrapped up a fifth consecutive win on the LPGA Tour by claiming her second major title in the Chevron Championship. Korda’s winning streak matches that of Nancy Lopez in 1978 and Annika Sorenstam in 2004-05, although her bid for an unprecedented sixth straight win will have to wait after she cited exhaustion when pulling out of this week’s event in Los Angeles. While Scheffler has earned £13.14m from his last five events, Korda’s five wins have been worth £1.94m.
