Jack Nicklaus could not have been more complimentary about Rory McIlroy and the Holywood man's victory in The Open and believes his future major tally will be limited only by his desire and ambition.

The Golden Bear, who has been something of a mentor to the Ulsterman for several years, said he "would be very surprised" if McIlroy doesn't become one of the game's greats, depending on his "desire and focus."

But it appears that a recent chat after McIlroy called to see him after imploding on the second day of The Memorial recently had some influence on the way he went about winning this third major at Hoylake. McIlroy's course management was superb. 

Nicklaus said: "When I was 25, I probably played golf courses a little bit more with power than I did with finesse.

"I think Rory has a tendency to do that and it has served him well on several occasions, but probably doesn't serve him well on other occasions - and didn't serve me well on some other occasions.

"But as you get older, you sort of say, 'Hey, I think I'd rather play that from 160 yards than 120 yards out of foot-deep rough'. That's maturity and age.

"I certainly don't have any criticism of Rory by any means because his career is progressing very nicely and I think he is going to win a lot of major championships.

"I love his swagger, I love his demeanour, I love the way he has a confident cockiness, yet not offensive with it. It's self-confidence, I guess you'd call it, and I like that in him.

"I've spent a little bit of time with him and I like him very much."

McIlroy was asked about his love of hitting the driver in his pre-Open press conference and whether it might be almost too hard to resist that club given how well he hits it.

"I think that the driver, it is one of the best clubs in my bag and I do hit it well, and when I'm on, I can take advantage of that length and make golf courses pretty short for myself," he said. "But there's different ways to play different courses."