Rory McIlroy ran into Jack Nicklaus at a West Palm Beach parking lot in 2009 and walked away with a mentor. Every conversation since has added something to the Ulsterman’s golf notebook. No double bogeys at the Masters. Scout the venue well and more. This week, while speaking to Amanda Balionis after his third round, McIlroy shared the one advice Nicklaus offered him for Muirfield.

“He’s always telling me how to play more cut shots, especially on these greens [at Muirfield], to get it to land softer,” said the six-time major winner. “It’s amazing to be able to pick Jack’s brain, and he said some really nice things about me at the Champions Center at Augusta this year, so I’m really grateful for that.”

Now, McIlroy is known for his elite draws (curving the ball right to left), and Muirfield, according to Links Magazine, is a course that strongly favors fades (when the ball curves left to right). Meaning, players whose natural tendency is to hit a fade have an added advantage. You can argue that elite ball-strikers like McIlroy can curve the ball both ways, and that is correct. But even elite pros, over time, develop a tendency to hit a stock shot. Take the two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler.

The World No. 1 hits a stock tee shot: a power fade. Tiger Woods used to do the same, and he is the only player to conquer it three consecutive times. So Jack Nicklaus’s advice to Rory to hit a cut (fade) was on point. But has Rory been able to leverage that?

As of publishing, McIlroy has hit only 20 of the 40 fairways. He hasn’t been able to take advantage of the par-3s, either. On Thursday, he played the four par-3s at Muirfield at even par, but on Friday, he went 2-over. On moving day, before the round was suspended, he made one birdie on the par-3 fourth and saved par on the other three. Compare that with the 36-hole leader J.T. Poston.

The 33-year-old has birdied the par-3 fourth in both the first and second rounds. On the cut day, he birdied both the par-3s on the front nine and saved par on the back nine. His lone bogey on a par-3 came on Saturday. He is through the fifth hole and is six shots ahead of the Northern Irishman. He has also gained a whopping 12 strokes against the field.

Nicklaus knows McIlroy’s tendency is to hit a draw and warned him against falling back to it. The course tests players’ ability with the irons. There too, fades are more helpful than draws, as he explained to McIlroy; the ball lands softly on the green instead of rolling to the fringe.

The Ulsterman has repeatedly spoken about his desire to shake hands with the Golden Bear on the 18th green after winning the tournament. Nicklaus knows it too and has tried to help him. Their relationship goes back further than most people know.

The two first met in February 2009, not at a tournament but in the parking lot of the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens. Since then, they’ve grown genuinely close. The 37-year-old now practices at the Bears Club, which is Jack Nicklaus’s club, so they see each other all the time.

“He and I were having lunch a couple of weeks ago, and Jack just came over and sat with us,” Rory McIlroy said.

Nicklaus has quietly become one of McIlroy’s most trusted voices. Before the Masters, his advice was short and sharp: no double bogeys. Rory McIlroy took it seriously, went to Augusta, and won the 2026 Masters. Jack Nicklaus has been equally warm about him this week.

“The most impressive thing is he’s not a big guy, and he hits it so darn far,” Nicklaus said. “When he throttles it back a little bit, he becomes a really, really good player. When he keeps hitting it too hard, Rory gets himself in trouble. I love Rory. He’s a wonderful guy and a great player. We’ve become very close friends, and I like to see him play well.”

McIlroy is gaining 1.679 strokes per round on the field in total on the PGA Tour, one of the best figures out there. He’s picking up 0.842 off the tee and 0.641 on approach to the green. His tee-to-green number is 1.582, which shows how well he has been hitting the ball overall. But he can not quite figure out Muirfield. When asked directly why this course has never given him a win, the Northern Irishman did not dodge the question.

“The fairways pinch in right around the spots where I would be finishing with the driver. So it’s frustrated me in a way that I feel like my biggest weapon [driving prowess] is in some way neutralized here. It’s just about me being a little more disciplined and not being so aggressive with my strategy.”

He has made 14 starts here and is still waiting for his first win. One round remains, and whether the lessons from the man who built this course are finally enough to get him over the line will be answered by Sunday. However, he has taken Nicklaus’s advice of advance scouting to heart.

Rory McIlroy applying Jack Nicklaus’s strategy

McIlroy has already taken a trip to Shinnecock Hills, the venue of this year’s U.S. Open. What he found at Shinnecock Hills was something special. Fairways are wider than they were in 2018, with a first cut of rough at five inches and greens rolling 11 to 11.2 on the stimpmeter.

He walked away thinking the course did not need to be sped up. Shinnecock will work itself out. Get the hole locations right and firm it up. Most players learn that kind of detail on Tuesday of tournament week. Rory was there weeks earlier, walking the course with a purpose that most of the field simply did not match.

He did the same thing before the Masters; he played multiple rounds at Augusta, taking full advantage of his status as a defending champion. The scouting removed a layer of uncertainty that everyone else was still carrying on the Masters week. Jack Nicklaus suggested it, Rory McIlroy acted on it, and now it is just part of how he prepares.