Discipline is what Rory previously lacked, Jack says
Jack Nicklaus and soon-to-be fellow grand slam winner Rory McIlroy met for lunch and McIlroy laid out how he planned to play Augusta National.
Nicklaus, one of the four living players of the six who won the modern career grand slam, said he listened as McIlroy laid out his game plan for playing in the most important tournament of his life.
“I sat down with Rory last week and we had lunch and we were talking and I said, Rory, I said, I know you prepared … so tell me how you’re going to play the golf course?” Nicklaus told CBS Sports.
“And we went through it shot for shot and we got done with the round.” Nicklaus said. “I didn’t open my mouth. I said, well, I wouldn’t change a thing.
“I said, that’s exactly the way I would try to play the golf course.”
Nicklaus who took to McIlroy from the first time he met him at Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament years ago (he commented then that McIlroy showed up clean-shaven, unlike other players in the field) said he’s followed McIlroy’s career closely, and added that discipline has been partly what had held McIlroy back.
“The discipline to do that is … the discipline is what Rory has lacked, in my opinion,” Nicklaus said.
“He’s got all the shots, he’s got the game. He certainly is as talented as anybody in the game, but if you go back and see his history in the last few years, he gets to a place that a lot of time and all of a sudden that an eight or a seven pops up, and that keeps you from getting to where he needs to go.
“I mean, I’m a big fan of Rory’s and I like Rory a lot, so that’s what I think,” Nicklaus said.
The Golden Bear also confessed that when it came time for McIlroy to make the winning putt, he told his wife Barbara that the Northern Irishman was going to miss, which of course he didn’t.
Beside Nicklaus and McIlroy, winners of the modern career grand slam are Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen. Only Nicklaus, Player, Woods and McIlroy are still living.
McIlroy was overcome with emotion after he sunk the winning putt, breaking down in sobs on the 18th green.
“There were points in my career where I didn’t know if I would have this nice garment over my shoulders,” McIlroy said as he conducted his postround press conference in his Green Jacket, a 38 regular, according to Augusta National Golf Club.
“I didn’t make it easy today. I certainly didn’t make it easy. I was nervous. It was one of the toughest days I’ve ever had on the golf course.”
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Featured image of Rory McIlroy after making the winning putt on No. 18 courtesy of Augusta National Golf Club
