Paul Casey dishes on the difference between Tiger Woods and today’s stars

There is arguably no athlete who has dominated in their prime like Tiger Woods did during the 2000s. From 2000 to 2008, Woods won an incredible 50 tournaments and 12 major championships. If you took just that eight-year peak, he would still have an argument for greatest player of all time. Simply put, Woods was peerless during this time.

Paul Casey seems to agree as well.

In a recent Subpar podcast with Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz, Casey explained just how dominant Woods was during his prime.

“Who’s the best right now?” Casey asked. “They all do it slightly differently. Rory (McIlroy) certainly with his style and the way he does it when he’s in full flow, it’s a thing of beauty. But Tiger was different.”

To put that statement into context, McIlroy is a surefire Hall of Famer. He has won four times in the last year, including the Players Championship and Tour Championship, winning Player of the Year honors in the process. He’s in arguably the best form of his career and is almost certainly the best player in golf right now. But Woods was a different animal.

“He was like creation,” Casey said. “It sounds weird, but he was like — the ball is heading towards the trees and he fully expected it to bounce out in the fairway. And it did! And the putt at Torrey Pines. You couldn’t hole any putts at Torrey Pines that year when he got in the playoff with Rocco. How did that thing go in?”

Casey was, of course, alluding to Woods’ infamous 72nd hole birdie in the 2008 U.S. Open to force a playoff (that he would eventually win) with Rocco Mediate. He went on incredulously in awe of Woods’ continued feats that have defined his career.

“There was just stuff that happened, it was like ‘How does that happen?’” Casey said.

The full interview can be seen below. Check out Subpar every Tuesday as Knost and Stoltz sit down with some of the best personalities in golf.

To receive GOLF’s all-new newsletters, subscribe for free here.