Scheffler, Korda can be the next Woods and Sorenstam
It says so much about the domination of Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda that, at the moment, their biggest rivals do not seem to be those who are playing on their respective tours – but each other.
One wins. So does the other. One extends a ridiculous streak. So does the other. One breaks a record. So does the other. Back and fore like Picasso and Matisse.
Of course this could be a mirage. They are both still in the mere foothills of their careers. But if only in the eyes of the media, itself, this duo appears to be in a career-long battle as to who will leave the bigger legacy.
This last weekend witnessed Korda and Scheffler – already nicknamed “Neffler” – highlight their staggering ascendancies.
In Houston on Monday, Korda lifted the first female major title of the season – The Chevron Championship – at the same time extending her winning run to five straight tournaments, equalling the LPGA Tour record.
And then in Hilton Head on Tuesday, Scheffler finished off the job at the stormdelayed RBC Heritage, beating Sahith Theegala by three shots and so becoming the first male golfer to prevail in the week immediately after he won a major since Tiger Woods 18 years ago.
This was the Masters champion’s fourth win in his last five events. And in the other, he finished second.
So one-up to Korda, then, in this showdown of the generational talents. How Scheffler must bemoan that runnerup behind Stephan Jäger, two weeks before he conquered Augusta for the second time in three years.
Needless to say, Scheffler bemoans no such thing. And, naturally, Korda is not about to brag about being, to this point anyway, the superior in the “Neffler” power couple. They barely know each other and as both have “only” two majors on their resumes, they are not about to embark on the ribbing that Woods and Annika Sorenstam indulged in during their peaks two decades ago.
Yet it is worth recalling the route and nature of that particular relationship, because of where they both went in tandem and how they took complete control of the game. As far as “Neffler” is concerned, these are still early days, yet it is fair to comment that not since Tiger and Annika have the men’s and women’s game seen the formation of supposed hegemonies at the same time.
Tiger and Annika were friends and pushed each other on. When one won a major they would text the other the scoreline at that juncture. Sorenstam sent a message reading 9-9 to Woods when she won the LPGA Championship in 2005. Woods replied with something unprintable. All good fun and so the exchanges continued.
By the end of the following season, Woods was 12-10 ahead, but by then the rivalry had only served to make their dominions that much more authoritative. Yes, they were competitive with each other and that ‘oneupmanship’ spurred each other ever forwards, but they could also compare notes.
“We had that understanding of what it’s like to be at the top and what it takes and the sacrifices you make,” Sorenstam said. “In each other we had somebody to talk to that could kind of relate to that.”
And it was not merely a one-way street of Sorenstam cramming from the Woods mental masterclasses, either. “Tiger would ask me questions,” she said. “He’s very inquisitive about getting better.”
Will “Neffler” ever develop such a mutually beneficial connection? The rest will pray they do not and, in truth, while Sorenstam and Woods were remarkably similar in their drive and their belligerence, Korda and Scheffler are very different characters.
Scheffler is a man of faith, uninterested in fame and unaffected by the hoopla, while Korda is also humble and quiet.
Naturally, neither is scared to win and are fighters to the bone and the next few months should be fascinating to discover if, even in the short term, their outrageous sequences can be kept up long term.
Korda, 25, has the chance to rewrite the record books and leave behind Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez by winning six LPGA crowns in succession. Meanwhile, Scheffler, 27, will return home to be by the side of wife Meredith, who is due to give birth to their first child.
Scheffler is mooted to reappear at the USPGA Championship in three weeks and the bookmakers have him at 4-1, the same as he started the Masters, to make it two from two in 2024. Korda is a similar price to win the US Women’s Open at the end of next month.
These are Tiger and Annika odds and while, no doubt, it is far too soon to hail Scheffler and Korda in that sort of company, they are making it very difficult to resist comparing and contrasting with their historic forays to the top of the leaderboards.
Each and every streak must and will end, especially in a sport of many variables. But when they do, it does not mean the practitioners do not remain on entirely different levels. At the very least, “Neffler” looks here to stay for a while.