Jack Nicklaus was clear in his view of Rory McIlroy. (Image: Golf Channel.)
Jack Nicklaus firmly believes that will stop the rot and pick up a title, ending a decade-long Major curse at Augusta in April.
McIlroy came agonisingly close to picking up his first Major win since 2014 at the , but bogeyed three of the final four holes and lost out to .
Having failed to banish those demons, , before returning to miss the cut at the Open and lose the PGA Championship in a play-off to Billy Horschel.
He was most recently in action at the Dubai Desert Classic, finishing tied for fourth.
Nicklaus believes that McIlroy is simply “too good” not to win any more Major titles, with the 85-year-old American icon confident that he will get back to winning ways.
“The Masters, I still firmly believe Rory will win the Masters. He’s just too good not to,” Nicklaus told .
McIlroy is subjected to as much pressure as any professional golfer and Nicklaus feels that the psychological pressure is as much of an issue as anything else on the course.
“Well, that is what he has to deal with,” Nicklaus said of the pressure on McIlroy. “Psychologically, he hasn’t won for a while and when he gets himself in a position, i.e last year at Pinehurst.
Rory McIlroy competing in Dubai. (Image: Getty)
“He had a little short putt 16 that he wouldn’t miss one in 1000 times, but he did, and then missed another one at 18. But, you get yourself where you haven’t won for a while, and it’s difficult to get out of that.”
Once McIlroy finally scratches that itch, he could become a huge force in golf once again, according to Nicklaus.
The 18-time Major winner thinks that if McIlroy gets over the line at Augusta he could be on his way to multiple victories before hanging up his clubs.
“I love Rory McIlroy, I think he’s a great person,” Nicklaus continued. “He’s a great, great guy; as talented player as there is out there, and he’s got a lot more Majors in him. You just got to get them out of him. And you know that’s the problem.
“But he’s good, he’s really good. I don’t know what’s going to take. But one of these days he might just – he won those four pretty fast, all of a sudden he might break through and win a Major and then he’s going to probably win two or three more pretty quickly. So we’ll just see, but I’m rooting for him, I like him a lot.”