Legendary Jack Nicklaus singled out Rory McIlroy’s lack of concentration as the Northern Irishman yet again attempts to win the one major championship to allude him.
It’s been near on a decade since McIlroy won a third leg of golf’s grand slam with victory at the 2014 Open Championship and at now age 34, the present World No. 2 again finds himself 72 holes shy of victory at Augusta National.
And no sooner had Nicklaus joined fellow golfing legends Gary Player and Tom Watson in hitting the opening tee shots of the 88th Masters, the trio headed off to meet the press.
GOLDEN BEAR @jacknicklaus NOT HAPPY …..
Nicklaus critical of @McIlroyRory lack of concentration but believes Rors can win golf’s Grand Slam ‘though so too was Arnie & Tom (Watson)’, says Jack
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Nicklaus was soon asked about McIlroy and his chances in a 16th Masters if he can join him in golf’s Grand Slam club.
“I only have one criticism of Rory,” 18-time major winner Nicklaus said.
“You have to concentrate 100 per cent of the time. For some reason, Rory always has a little bit of a lapse somewhere around the tournament. He’ll find a double bogey or triple bogey that sneaks in there.
“I don’t know how he does it or why he does it, but it happens. And I wish that wouldn’t happen.”
During the earlier press conference Nicklaus said he believed McIlroy would win the Masters at some point, but pointed out that Watson and Arnold Palmer both missed out on a career grand slam after failing to win the US PGA.
“I mean, is Tom Watson good enough to win the Grand Slam? Absolutely,” Nicklaus said.
“Was Arnold Palmer good enough to win the Grand Slam? Absolutely. Is Rory McIlroy good enough to win the Grand Slam, absolutely, but they have got to do it, and they all know that.
“Do I think Rory will win here? Yeah. He could win this year. He could win next year. He’s just too talented not to. But then again, they (Watson and Palmer) were too talented not to win those, too. You just never know.”
McIlroy made a slow start to his 10th bid to complete the grand slam, covering his first six holes in one over par while playing partner and pre-tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler picked up two birdies on the same stretch.
