Rory McIlroy finally joined Jack Nicklaus and only four other men in the Grand Slam club after he won The Masters in April.
It took McIlroy 11 years to complete the Grand Slam – something that Nicklaus did back in 1966 at the age of 26.
The Northern Irishman has been the most successful golfer since Tiger Woods, although Scottie Scheffler is slowly catching up when it comes to PGA Tour events and majors won.
However, Nicklaus is still the standard bearer for all professional golfers due to his record of 18 major championships.
McIlroy meets up with Nicklaus before The Masters every single year to discuss his strategy for the event at Augusta National.
Who is the better player: Rory McIlroy or Scottie Scheffler?
And Nicklaus predicted that McIlroy would win many more majors after he finally triumphed at the Masters in 2025.
However, the year before McIlroy finally got the monkey off his back by winning at Augusta National, Nicklaus shared a big concern he had about the 36-year-old.
The one big criticism Jack Nicklaus had of Rory McIlroy in 2024
Nicklaus has always been a huge fan of McIlroy.
And the 73-time PGA Tour winner’s admiration of the Northern Irishman is the main reason why he has been so frustrated at times when watching him play.
Nicklaus knows how good McIlroy is and what he’s really capable of.
However, there was a point in time back in 2024 when the ‘Golden Bear’ shared his one big issue with something McIlroy seemed to do regularly out on the golf course.
“I only have one criticism of Rory,” 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.”
Of course, McIlroy silenced his critics by finally getting over the line at Augusta National back in April.
However, the interesting thing is that McIlroy did not win The Masters by making no mistakes. He actually made four double bogeys throughout the week, but fortunately he balanced those out with a whole host of birdies and eagles.
How Jack Nicklaus reacted to Rory McIlroy skipping The Memorial Tournament
McIlroy shocked everyone back in May when he decided to skip The Memorial at ‘Jack’s Place’.
At the time, Nicklaus was asked to give his opinion on McIlroy missing the event at Muirfield Village.
He said: “Yeah, it surprised me.
“But, you know, guys have got schedules and got things they do. And, you know, I haven’t talked to him for him to tell me why or why not. It’s just his call.
“I made a lot of calls that I had to make when I played to play or not play and sometimes it wasn’t as popular as people thought it was. But, you know, sometimes you have to make those calls.
“I don’t hold anything against Rory for that.“
Nicklaus clearly didn’t hold anything against McIlroy after his decision to miss out on playing The Memorial.
And that simply added further credence to the notion that Nicklaus is a huge admirer of McIlroy.
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