The pressure is certainly on Rory McIlroy to end his major champion drought.
The Northern Irishman rattled off four major victories between 2011-14. However, despite still being one of the sport’s best players, it’s been 11 years since he won one of the big four.
But Jack Nicklaus thinks the 35-year-old McIlroy will soon knock the weight off his shoulders.
“(McIlroy’s) a great, great guy,” Nicklaus told Gary Williams on Golf Channel Tuesday. “He’s as talented a 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 that’s the problem.”
The one that eludes McIlroy the most is the Masters, which would be the final leg for him to complete the career grand slam. Most famously, he held the 54-hole at Augusta in 2011 but shot a final-round 80 to finish T15.
“I still firmly believe Rory will win the Masters," said Nicklaus, who turned 85 this week. “He’s just too good not to.”
McIlroy almost ended his major drought last year at Pinehurst’s U.S. Open. He was leading on the back nine Sunday, but missed a two-and-a-half footer for par on No. 16 and a 4-footer for par on 18 to finish runner-up by one to Bryson DeChambeau. It’s arguably the most devastating loss of his career.
The Golden Bear, though, believes that if McIlroy puts himself in more positions like that, the victories will come.
“What he has to deal with is exactly what you’re talking about, psychologically,” the 18-time major champion said when asked about McIlroy’s mental challenges. “He hasn’t won for a while and when he gets himself in a position—last year at Pinehurst, he had a little short putt at 16 that he wouldn’t miss 1 in 1000 times, but he did and then missed another one at 18. But you get yourself or you haven’t won one for a while, and it’s difficult to get out of that.”
But if McIlroy, the world No. 3, can get over the major hump, the floodgates might open.
“All of a sudden (McIlroy) might break through, win a major,” Nicklaus said. “Then he’s gonna probably win two or three more pretty quickly.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jack Nicklaus Says Rory McIlroy Will Win 'Two or Three More' Majors and the Masters.
