Why Jack Nicklaus believes Rory McIlroy hasn’t won a major in nearly 10 years

Jack Nicklaus says he is a fan of Rory McIlroy.

He says McIlroy is a nice guy. He says he is an amazing player.

And he has an idea why McIlroy hasn’t won a major tournament in nearly 10 years.

Nicklaus was speaking Thursday on the Golf Channel during the network’s broadcast of the Memorial Tournament, a tournament featuring 18-time winners. McIlroy had just finished his first round.

In August of 2014, he had just completed major victory number 4, at the PGA Championship at Valhalla. He was 25 years old. People were predicting. Including Nicklaus. On Thursday’s Golf Channel broadcast, announcer Rich Lerner reminded him that he once thought McIlroy would win as many as 15 majors.

But since 2014? Here’s a look:

— 2015: Masters (fourth), US Open (tied for ninth), Open Championship (did not play due to ankle injury), PGA Championship (17th)

— 2016: Masters (tie for 10th), US Open (missed cut), Open Championship (tie for fifth), PGA Championship (missed cut)

— 2017: Masters (tied for seventh), US Open (missed cut), Open Championship (tied for fourth), PGA Championship (tied for 22nd)

— 2018: Masters (tied for fifth), US Open (missed cut), Open Championship (tied for second), PGA Championship (tied for 50th)

— 2019: Masters (tie for 21st), PGA Championship (tie for eighth), US Open (tie for ninth), Open Championship (missed cut)

— 2020: PGA Championship (tie for 33rd), US Open (tie for eighth), Masters (tie for fifth) (The Open Championship was not played.)

— 2021: Masters (missed cut), PGA Championship (tied for 49th), US Open (tied for seventh), Open Championship (tied for 46th)

— 2022: Masters (second), PGA Championship (eighth), US Open (tie for fifth), Open Championship (third)

— 2023: Masters (missed cut), PGA Championship (tied for seventh), US Open (second), Open Championship (tied for sixth)

— 2024: Masters (tie for 22nd). PGA Championship (tie for 12)

There was a high finish. There have been close calls. He has also won 17 PGA Tour events since winning the 2014 PGA. Which makes the big drought at least confusing. You’d think someone with McIlroy’s ability would get in.

But he hasn’t, and Nicklaus said on the Golf Channel that he thinks it’s in his mind. To be clear, here’s the full back-and-forth between him and Lerner.

Said Lerner: “Jack, I remember you saying this before, when he won the PGA Championship at Valhalla 10 years ago, he said at the time that he thought he could win 15 majors. That was the last one.”

Nicklaus said: “Well, it’s been a while for him, but I’m a big Rory fan. I’ve been a big Rory fan for a long time. He’s a good person, and he’s an amazing player, he has a great golf game, he plays a lot of great shots, and I don’t know where he loses sometimes. But you know, he can’t seem to focus everywhere.”

Commentator Frank Nobilo said: “I think you’re right, Jack. There are like two Rorys today. His badness, even if he admits it to you, is bad. But his good is like, he is better than anyone else. ”

Said Nicklaus: “Better than anyone else.”

Notably, McIlroy has two more major starts this year, the next coming in four days at the US Open.

On the Golf Channel broadcast, Nicklaus was also asked about Scottie Scheffler, this year’s Masters champion and world No. 1. He spoke of his composure. He talked about his ability to avoid mistakes. Below is the complete exchange.

Lerner said: “Better than anybody else, obviously that’s Scottie Scheffler. What do you think of Scheffler?”

Nicklaus said: “Well, I think Scheffler is great. I think he brought new life to the game. He can obviously play well. He comes week after week and plays amazing. That is unbelievable. No one has done this in a long time.”

Lerner said: “I thought one of the things he shared with you, about Scheffler, is that he’s rational. I just thought…”

Nicklaus said: “I think Scheffler is calm about what he’s doing. Watch Scottie play. He doesn’t look like he’s doing anything weird.”

Nobilo said: “You play a lot the way you used to play. I mean…”

Nicklaus said: “I don’t know how I was playing, but he is playing very well. But still he doesn’t make dumb mistakes.”

Nicklaus also thought about Justin Thomas, a 15-time Tour winner who hasn’t won since winning the PGA Championship in 2022.

“I mean, you look at JT’s scorecard there,” Nicklaus said on the Golf Channel, “he’s got four, five bogeys on that scorecard and he’s still one shot under par. That to me is making mistakes that you shouldn’t be making. And he’s a good player. He’s a player great kid. I love JT. He’s been struggling lately.

“And usually when you go back and look at it, it’s because you probably don’t have enough discipline at the right time to say, OK, I don’t want to play that shot.”

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for planning, writing and promoting news on the golf course. And when he’s not writing about how to hit the golf ball forward and straight, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash down his scores. You can contact him about any of these topics – his news, his game or his beer – at nick.piastowski@golf.com.