The great Jack Nicklaus has backed Rory McIlroy to finally end his long wait for a fifth Major - and believes he'll complete the career Grand Slam by winning The Masters.
2025 sees McIlroy enter the 11th year since his last Major triumph, when he claimed The Open and PGA Championship in 2014 to take his tally to four Major titles.
Nobody would have believed he would fail to win another in the decade that followed, but after another agonising near miss at last year's US Open the wait goes on.
And although Nicklaus accepts that McIlroy has a psychological barrier to break through, he believes he has "a lot more Majors in him" especially the big one at Augusta.
“The Masters, I still firmly believe Rory will win the Masters. He’s just too good not to," Nicklaus told Golf Channel as he celebrated his 85th birthday.
The 18-time Major champion says in the age of increased press attention and social media, McIlroy has a lot more pressure on him to add another Major and complete the career Grand Slam - which he'd do by slipping on the Green Jacket at Augusta in April.
But as showcased at Pinehurst last year, when McIlroy lost a dramatic US Open to Bryson DeChambeau, getting over the hump is not easy.
“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. 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."
And if McIlroy can just find that breakthrough, Nicklaus believes two or three Majors could follow quickly as they did the first time around when the Northern Irishman won four in three years.
“I love Rory McIlroy. I think he's a great person. He's a great, great guy; as talented player as there is out there, and he's got a lot more Majors in him," Nicklaus added. "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."
