Nicklaus: Rory has “a lot more majors in him”.

Jack Nicklaus says Rory McIlroy must overcome a psychological barrier to end his more than decade-long wait for a fifth major win but he still believes the Holywood star has “got a lot more majors in him”.

Speaking to Golf Channel on his 85th birthday this week, Nicklaus was asked to assess the game’s top players, including McIlroy and world number one Scottie Scheffler.

McIlroy, who won four majos between 2011 and 2014, came close to end his 10-year major wait in last year’s US Open at Pinehurst No. 2 but bogeyed three of the last four holes to finished second, a shot behind Bryson DeChambeau.

“Well, that is what he has to deal with,” the 18-time major winner said of McIlroy’s long major drought, which he will bid to end by winning the Masters and completing the career Grand Slam at Augusta National in April.

“Psychologically, he's he hasn't won for a while when he gets himself in a position, you know, like last year at Pinehurst, I mean, he had a little short putt 16 that he wouldn't miss one in 1000 times, but he did, and then missed another one at 18. “But, you know, you get yourself where you haven't won for a while, and it's difficult to get out of that.

“The Masters, I still firmly believe Rory will win the Masters. He’s = just too good not to you know.

“I love Roy McIlroy. I think he's a great person. He's a great, great guy; as talented player as there is out there, and he's got a lot more majors in him. You just got to get ‘em out of him. And you know that's the problem.

“But you know he’s good, he's really good. I don't know what's going to take, but it's going to one of these days. He won those (first) four (majors) pretty fast, all of a sudden he might break through and win a major and then he's going to probably win two or three more pretty quickly.

“So I'll just say, you know, I'm rooting for him. As I say, I like him a lot.”

World number one Scheffler has two green jackets to his name but even after making a stellar start to his career, Nicklaus believes the like McIlroy over the last decade, the Texan will have to face a series of emerging stars.

“Scottie’s really a good player,” Nicklaus said. “He’s a nice guy, everything seems to be very balanced. He’s married, has a family, he loves other stuff. He likes to be involved. I like Scottie a lot.

“He's had a great past and he's going to have a great future still in front of him. And probably there's a lot of really, really good young players that are coming along that are going to make his life more difficult.

“But also they're going to find a lot of young guys who want to have success we haven't even heard of yet.”