Rory McIlroy has spoken of a 90-minute talk with Jack Nicklaus which he hopes will help him achieve his golfing dreams.

"It was an unbelievable experience," said the 20-year-old Northern Irishman, now in Miami for the CA world championship starting on Thursday.

McIlroy, who has begun working with American sports psychologist Bob Rotella, added: "One of the reasons why I wanted to go to Bob was to try to finish the job off a bit more and be a more clinical.

"Jack's been the best at winning and was probably the most clinical of them all.

"It was great to sit down and talk with him (at lunch during last week's Honda Classic) and see his approach to winning, what went through his head whenever he was in contention and what things he might have done differently to other people.

"It was probably the best 90 minutes I've spent in a long time. He said the best ever tournament he played he didn't win - The Open in '77 (Tom Watson beat him) - and there were other times where he didn't play his best, but got the job done.

"One of the biggest things I took from it was patience. Just learn to wait and learn to bide your time and know that if you believe in yourself it will happen.

"He had a lot more majors handed to him than he went out and won."