World No.1 Rory McIlroy could be forgiven for feeling more than a little excited when he tees off at Augusta National on Thursday, but six-time Masters champion Jack Nicklaus has told him the key to earning his first green jacket is patience.
McIlroy will become just the sixth man to complete a career grand slam of all four majors if he takes victory at this week's Masters. Such is the Northern Irishman's eagerness to get started that he even admitted he was ready to play the tournament last week.
But Nicklaus, who became the oldest man to earn a green jacket at the age of 46 with his final Masters title in 1986, has called on McIlroy not to rush his game as he takes on the famous Augusta course.
Nicklaus revealed to ESPN: "I talked to Rory last week and I said: 'You've got a big week coming up, just be patient. You've got a lot of years so just be patient with what you're doing this year and you'll do fine'.
"That's what I tried to do myself, just be patient and play the golf course. If you look at this course, you've got half a dozen shots where you can go to the airline and get a ticket to go home.
"But if you play those half-a-dozen shots well, and be as aggressive as you want around the rest, you can do pretty well, and sometimes you can win."
McIlroy has insisted he will be targeting the par-5s this week in a bid to eliminate the big scores that have plagued him in recent years. The 25-year-old played the par-5s in just even par a year ago, and in each of his past five Masters appearances, he has had a score of at least 77 or higher.
But Nicklaus stressed the importance of an accurate short game around Augusta's lightening-quick greens, suggesting a conservative approach was no bad thing.
Nicklaus added: "I was talking with Rory and [world No.128] Camilo Villegas, and Camillo had not come up to play many practice rounds. So I told him: 'You're never going to get hurt at the centre of the greens here'.
"If you go look at this golf course, if you're patient with it, and you're looking at the centre of the green, you can never have a putt very far from the centre of the green.
"I always played the golf course from the centre of the green and then just inched my way towards wherever the pin placement was. That way you're always staying on the safe side of the hole, you're not going to give yourself a short-sided third shot. Then you find, by the end of the day, you'll usually do pretty well.