Tiger Woods not as good as before: Rory McIlroy

Palm Beach (Florida, US), Mar.3 (ANI): American golfer Rory McIlroy has said that Tiger Woods is playing like 'an ordinary golfer', and believes he is no longer the force he once was.

"Having played with Tiger since 1997, there's an old saying that class is permanent and form is fickle and he's the classiest player I've ever played with. I'd be wise enough not to write him off. I've seen him play poorly and win - he doesn't necessarily have to get back to where he was," The Guardian quoted him, as saying.

In McIlroy's first-person piece, which appeared on the Sports Illustrated Golf Plus website, he wrote: "I wasn't playing against Tiger Woods when he had that aura. I was watching on TV ... There was a presence about him. There still is to some extent, but when you're on the golf course, you simply block it out.

"But Tiger is not playing as well as he was even a couple of years ago, never mind going back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when he was the best. I'm not sure we are going to see him dominate again the way he did," McIlroy said.

"He's simply playing badly by Tiger's standards. He's playing like an ordinary golfer. People expect more of him because of what he has achieved," he added. (ANI)