From Byron Nelson to Tiger Woods to Nelly Korda, here are golf’s greatest winning streaks

May 9, 2024 Vaseline stjohnson 0

Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda have awesome leg warmers. Both have won a major championship in recent weeks. Korda has won five consecutive starts, tying the LPGA record held by Nancy López and Annika Sorenstam.

Scheffler has lost to exactly one player in his last five starts. Along the way he won the Masters, the Players and two Signature Events. In the only event he didn’t win, the Texas Children’s Houston Open, he missed a playoff by one stroke when a 5-footer on the final green didn’t land.

Both players are dominating their respective tours with incredible play and consistency, and Korda’s path to a sixth consecutive victory begins Thursday at the Cognizant Founders Cup.

Here’s a look at some of the game’s great winning streaks.

Golf’s record streak was from March 1945 to August of the same year, with 50 consecutive rounds of par or better. Nelson won a total of 18 events that year. The streak is often described as the one that occurred during World War II, when several star players served. Still, the even or better streak knows no names. In his bid for a 12th consecutive title, Nelson finished fourth in Memphis.

Tiger Woods cover of Sports Illustrated 2006

Tiger Woods appeared on the cover of SI after his victory at the 2006 British Open. / Robert Beck/Sports Illustrated

Second on the PGA Tour’s consecutive wins list with seven, Tiger’s first such streak came in 2006-07. Beginning with the British Open at Royal Liverpool, Woods won six consecutive PGA Tour events to end his 2006 season, including victories at the PGA Championship and WGC-Bridgestone. The streak extended into 2007, when Woods began the year with a win at Torrey Pines. (During his winning streak on the PGA Tour, Woods played overseas three times and twice finished second, but they were not Tour events.)

Six consecutive wins between 1999 and 2000 tied what had been Ben Hogan’s second-longest streak. Beginning with the NEC Invitational, Woods won four in a row to end the 2000 season on the PGA Tour, including the Tour Championship and the American Express event that followed. He then began 2000 with victories in the Tournament of Champions (a playoff victory over Ernie Els) and a fascinating victory at Pebble Beach, where he rallied from a seven-shot deficit with seven shots left to play. In his attempt to make it seven straight games, he tied for second at Torrey Pines.

His 10-win season in 1948 included six consecutive victories beginning with a victory at the US Open played at Riviera, where he set a tournament scoring record at the time. Hogan also won the PGA Championship that year.

Nancy López on the 1978 Sports Illustrated cover.

Nancy López swept the LPGA in 1978. / Harry Benson/Sports Illustrated

Imagine compiling a historic streak as a 21-year-old rookie; That’s what the New Mexico native did in 1978, winning five in a row plus nine total. The streak included a major (LPGA Championship) and landed her on the cover of Sports Illustrated. “There was a lot of talk about whether I was a flash in the pan.” Lopez told SI’s Bob Harig last month. “Will I be able to do well next year? It was lucky? “I decided I was going to prove myself.” He won eight times in 1979.

The Swede had 54 LPGA wins on his resume in late 2004, when he went on a streak that ended early in the 2005 season with an eight-stroke victory in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, his eighth major title. He would finish his career with 72 wins.

The World No. 1 began her current streak in January in Florida and then rattled off three in a row in March-April, including the LPGA match play event. Then, a week after her fourth straight win, came a big win in the Chevron Championship. In the 12 rounds of stroke play during her streak, only two topped 69.

Here he is again, winning five in a row starting with the 2007 BMW Championship and continuing to the Tour Championship, where Woods captured the first FedEx Cup title. In 2008, he won his first three starts of the year at the Buick Invitational, WGC Match Play and Arnold Palmer Invitational. A win at the European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic was not included. He finished fifth at Doral to end the streak, then second at the Masters before winning the US Open at Torrey Pines, followed by knee surgery that kept him out the rest of the year.