Rory McIlroy has turned his back on social media and enlisted the help of Jack Nicklaus as he aims to win two of the year's remaining major championships.
McIlroy switched off his phone and gave away his laptop to cope with the aftermath of his split from fiancee Caroline Wozniacki last month, an approach that paid instant dividends as he won the BMW PGA Championship just four days later.
The former world No.1's phone will remain silent during the US Open and his Twitter account will be less active for the "foreseeable future", McIlroy opting to revert to more old-fashioned means of communication with 18-time major winner Nicklaus.
"I spent two hours with Jack Nicklaus last week in his office in Palm Beach and had a great conversation about everything; business, golf, brand, the whole lot," McIlroy said in his pre-tournament press conference at Pinehurst. "And I got a lot from that. He said to me 'How the hell can you shoot 63 and then 78 [in the first two rounds of Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament]. I said I wasn't meaning to, Jack. I'm trying not to!
"He said to me he was never afraid to change things up in the middle of a round if it wasn't going well. [If] he felt like he wasn't swinging well, he'd make a swing change right then and there. I had a great conversation with Jack and I feel very honoured that I'm able to call him up for advice."
Having struggled in the majors last year - memorably describing his golf after missing the cut in the Open as "brain dead" - McIlroy had targeted doubling his tally of two titles in 2014. The 25-year-old recorded his best-ever finish of eighth at the Masters and believes he is close to the form that justifies his being made favourite for a second US Open title this week. "You have to go back to Padraig Harrington in '08 to have a multiple major champion in a single year," he added. "It doesn't happen that often. But I feel like my game is in a good enough place where I can definitely give myself a chance to do that.
"I've got three majors left this season and they're the biggest tournaments in the world and you want to try to do as well as you can in them and you do everything you can to prepare the best way possible. It's only been five majors since I won at Kiawah, so it's not that bad."
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