It hasn’t been very long since Rory McIlroy finally got the monkey off of his back after 11 years of heartbreak. McIlroy won the 2025 Masters in dramatic fashion, defeating Justin Rose in a playoff.

The victory completed the career grand slam, having now won all four of golf’s majors. But according to Jack Nicklaus, the win was more about the tournament and less about that piece of history.

Nicklaus, the host of this week’s Memorial Tournament, said plainly: “To me, the monkey was not the Grand Slam. The monkey was the Masters.

“Now, the Grand Slam was a product of winning the Masters. If you ask him which was more important, I think he would have to say the Masters.

That’s because it was,” Nicklaus said.

The six-time Masters winner has been a constant source of support for McIlroy over the years.

PGA Tour’s Rory McIlroy Has a Masters Truth Bomb Dropped on Him by Jack Nicklaus. (Image Collage | Credits: Getty Images) Getty Images
Back in 2010, when McIlroy was struggling through a winless streak on the PGA Tour, it was Nicklaus’s advice that helped him break through, leading to his iconic 62 at Quail Hollow.

A similar moment unfolded during his Masters victory, when McIlroy sat down with Nicklaus for lunch, going shot by shot through his strategy.

“And I said, well, I wouldn’t change a thing. That’s exactly the way I would try to play the golf course,” Nicklaus later revealed.

Interestingly, after McIlroy won and collapsed to the ground, howling and crying in happiness, Nicklaus sent him a note.

Nicklaus’ letter to Rory right after he won was a tradition he picked up from his ‘boyhood idol,’ Bobby Jones.

I told him, I don’t think anybody’s won by having four double bogeys,” Nicklaus said during the pre-tournament Memorial conference.

The 85-year-old legend continued:

“But that just showed me how much talent you have to overcome that to win and how you played some unbelievably spectacular shots, such as the iron at 7 that he hit over the tree that actually hit the tree. The phenomenal iron he hit at 15, the shot he hit at 17.”

Yet, despite the brilliance, Nicklaus didn’t hold back on what could have been better.

“Then, of course, to miss that little short putt at 18 on a pitch-out on his second shot with a wedge, which was not very good. But he played some bad shots. The shot he hit at 13, I can’t believe.”

Nevertheless, the Northern Irishman showed incredible resiliency and bounced back each time. Golf fans might never be treated to such a rollercoaster of emotion at Augusta National again.