Golf legend Jack Nicklaus to Rory McIlroy: "Don't do dumb things"
Multiple major champion Jack Nicklaus has revealed what his pre-Masters pep talk with Rory McIlroy involved.
Multiple major champion Jack Nicklaus has given fresh details of what his pre-Masters conversation with Rory McIlroy involved.
McIlroy, 35, finally fulfilled his lifetime ambition of slipping on the green jacket two weeks ago on his 17th attempt at Augusta National.
The Northern Irishman had dinner with the Golden Bear before the first men's major of the year whereby he broke down his approach to every hole.
Nicklaus said he would have tried to play the golf course the same way although he has revealed McIlroy deviated from his plan after a nightmare start.
The 85-year-old said their conversation began with him conveying a simple message: "Don't do dumb things."
"Rory got away from his game plan on Sunday, and he got away with it," Nicklaus was quoted as saying to attendees of a charity event in Ohio, per Golf Digest.
"He made double bogey on the first hole and did not birdie the second hole. And he had told me the week before [the tournament], I had asked him, how are you going to play the third hole?
"He said, 'Three of my tee shots are going to be with the driver down underneath the green, and when the pin's left, I'm going to lay it back.' And then he drove it with the pin left, and I thought, 'he's ticked.'
"I said, 'We're going to find out whether he's going to get away with it or not.' And he did. He got away with it, but he got away with it by playing a beautiful pitch shot [to make birdie].
"And I think he felt that inside himself that he was not playing the smart play by laying back. He was already rattled.
"To play that full shot in there, he might've even made a worse shot out of it. So he went and played it the other way and made birdie.
"And I think that set the tone for what happened the rest of the day."
McIlroy made the turn at Augusta with a two-shot lead. A birdie at the 10th gave him more daylight at the top of the leaderboard.
But his round threatened to unravel when he found the water at the par-5 13th despite laying up short of the green.
Inexplicably, McIlroy found the water from inside 90 yards.
Nicklaus contended that McIlroy absolutely played the correct shot, but the execution was poor.
"He knows where that shot has to go," he said.
"I cannot believe he let it squirt out to the right. I donโt care what he does. Chunk it onto the green.
"The ball is going to roll down to the hole, but you cannot do what he did. Pardon the expression, that's a brain fart."
McIlroy's mistake led to a double bogey and it opened the door for Justin Rose, Patrick Reed and Ludvig Aberg.
Another dropped shot followed on the 14th.
He then hit one of the shots of his life on the 15th and also took the lead with a birdie on the penultimate hole.
But a dropped shot at the last forced a sudden-death playoff with Rose.
Added Nicklaus: "Rory didn't shoot himself out of the tournament, because he is so talented, and hit so many good shots to overcome it.
"He continued to come back. I give him a world of credit. He had the whole golfing world and mountains on his shoulders, and now he's gotten rid of them."
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