It was nearly impossible not to draw parallels between Nelly Korda and Scottie Scheffler during their remarkable 2024 seasons, with the pair blowing their competition away for much of the year.
Nelly Korda and Scottie Scheffler both won their first majors of the year in 2024. Meanwhile, they ended the season with 16 wins worldwide between them.
Remarkably, they both had to deal with periods of the season where their places at the summit were being questioned.
Plenty of PGA Tour players said they would rather have Xander Schauffele’s year as he won two majors. Elsewhere, Lydia Ko was in the conversation for Player of the Year after winning the Olympic gold medal and the Women’s Open. And Jeeno Thitikul was rivalling Korda in a lot of categories by the end of the season.
Nevertheless, both Korda and Scheffler held off those challenges.
Nelly Korda can take inspiration from Scottie Scheffler as she looks to secure a top 10 at the Women’s Scottish Open
Surprisingly however, Korda has not been able to add to her tally of wins in 2025. The world number one has not been able to quite kick on.
Obviously, it has been a different story for Scheffler, who has won four times so far.
Korda looks set to just miss out on the title at the Women’s Scottish Open this week. She goes into the final round at Dundonald Links five shots back of Lottie Woad, who Korda lauded after playing alongside in the first two rounds.
It is still an encouraging performance ahead of the final major of the year. And perhaps she can take a lot of confidence from Scheffler as she gears up for Royal Porthcawl.
Scheffler’s performance at the Genesis Scottish Open seemed to provide little indication of what was to come one week later at The Open Championship.
Scheffler was 118th for strokes gained putting at The Renaissance Club. And yet, the 29-year-old finished inside the top 10 as Chris Gotterup went on to take the title ahead of Rory McIlroy.
With The Open heading to Royal Portrush, it was no surprise that the focus was on McIlroy throughout the build-up. But Scheffler came through and absolutely dominated. It was almost surprising that he only won by four in the end, with Sunday proving to be something of a procession.
Nelly Korda’s outstanding recent record in the Women’s Open
Korda is yet to play Royal Porthcawl. However, she does have five top 15 finishes in her last six starts at the Women’s Open, including finishing tied for second 12 months ago.
Korda has not quite been able to find that gear this week that she had in the crucial moments in 2024.
But given that it was a similar story for Scheffler on the links the week before the last major of the year, perhaps there is reason for her rivals to be alarmed by the fact that she is still on course to finish in the top 10 on Sunday.
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