So, assuming you can figure out the distance difference so that on average they are hitting the same club on approach shots, who wins?
I haven't watched Nelly enough to know why she is so good. The LPGA stats I found aren't nearly as detailed as PGA stats, so its hard to tell from that, other than the 2 obvious ones: She leads the tour in scoring average and GIR, same as Scottie. Is she a really good putter? Is she hitting it close or making a lot of long putts?
Their fairways and greens hit %s are nearly identical. It might just come down to which course they play. I have no idea how LPGA courses compare to PGA courses in terms of degree of difficulty after you even out the distance difference. Scottie does have a lower scoring average by about a shot and a half per round.
They have similar profiles. I don't believe the women women have shotlink every week like the men mostly do (the only times they don't are multi-course tournaments like Pebble and Amex) so I don't think the strokes gained are as detailed or useful as the men.
Here's Nelly's ranks:
Strokes Gained off the Tee: 14th (0.76)
Strokes Gained Approach: 21st (0.93)
Strokes Gained Around the Green: 7th (0.78)
Strokes Gained Putting: 68th (0.30)
Total Strokes Gained: 3rd (2.76)
Here's Scottie (exclusing this week):
SG off the tee: 2nd (0.93)
SG approach" 1st (1.34)
SG around the green 5th (0.54)
SG Putting: 96th (0.014)
I won't try to compare the two head-to-head, it's probably not fair, but distilled down, both are so dominant from tee-to-green that average to below average putting doesn't even matter. Results wise, it's basically Tiger & Annika again with how dominant they are on their individual tours.
Scottie wrapped up his victory at the RBC this morning with ease. Made bogey on 18 so the final margin was 3 but it was never really that close. First player since Tiger in 07/08 to win 4 of 5 starts. Someone pointed out that this one might've been the scariest for Scottie. Immediately following a Masters victory, very little prep, signature event, middling round on Thursday (69; was T25ish) and by the back 9 of the final round he was still up by 5.
Someone did the math and assuming a standard 5/7/10 pay structure for Scottie's caddie, Ted Scott, he on his own would be around 30th on the money list for the season.