RORY MCILROY'S plight having brought full focus on the perils for top sportsmen in seeking to enjoy life, fellow major-winner Justin Rose yesterday revealed a fondness of his own for living dangerously.

The Englishman had noted that his Ryder Cup team-mate may think again about how he spends his spare time after McIlroy was ruled out of this week's Scottish Open and, in all probability, next week's defence of his Open Championship as a result of the ankle injury suffered in a football kick-about with friends.

"It's a tough question, middle of the season, before a major championship, yeah, hindsight is a wonderful thing," he observed.

"He probably wouldn't do it again and it's probably the last time he does play football in the middle of season. It's unfortunate for him obviously.

"Yeah, it's brought up the question of what we should do this time of year but, hey, you should live your life.

"We obviously all love the way he plays and he plays really free and that doesn't go hand in hand with somebody who wraps himself up in practise all day and doesn't really do anything, or I guess enjoy himself.

"There's a lot of pressure on all of us, I suppose. I guess you can look at it both ways, how you sort of get that release and whether that's messing around with your mates, because it's so much pressure on you to stay focused all of the time."

Yet to most observers Rose's way of killing a bit of time in his new locale would seem that bit riskier.

"I'm not the biggest daredevil in the world, so probably, I don't know, anything involving water relaxes me, like spearfishing . . . that's probably the most James Bond-like, dare-devilling thing I get up to," he revealed.

"I guess living in the Bahamas now, it's what the locals do and what some of my friends do. It's what I've been roped into doing.

"I'm not particularly comfortable in the water yet but had a couple of cracks at it. Learning new things and pushing yourself to do different things is a great way to switch off and sort of free your mind from golf."

Not that last year's US Open champion is looking to do any such thing at the moment, with the only thing distracting him from this week's Aberdeen Asset Scottish Open being next week's Open Championship at St Andrews, which he has already visited to get a feel for the Old Course.

"I would say half your mind is on this week and half your mind is on next week until Thursday morning and then we are all competitors," he said.

"We all want to play well in the tournament, and obviously the Scottish Open, we have got a great field and it's a tournament everyone wants to do well in, and having won it last year, I feel very much at home this year.

"There's a big reason for playing this week, considering the impact it can have on next week, is it going to be good for you or is it going to be bad for you? I feel very comfortable playing and I think last year it helped the way I felt going into the Open Championship."

As the defending champion at this event he has mixed feelings about the prospect of glory this time around.

"Sometimes winning the week before a major is not always the best thing, but I felt like I really enjoyed the experience," said Rose.

"I enjoyed the flow. I enjoyed playing Houston this year going into Augusta. So I'm kind of changing my mentality a little bit for the majors, but each major you have to look at differently."

McIlroy's likely withdrawal from the Open meanwhile has some implications for Rose since he would then be the most recent of the British participants to have won a major championship, as well as the highest placed of them in the world rankings, currently seventh in the world.

In addressing that he understandably observed that the bulk of the attention is likely to shift to the young American who, after winning both the US Masters and US Open, is on course to become the first player in the history of the sport to win a Grand Slam of all four majors in the same season and whose chances of doing so would obviously be greatly enhanced by the absence of the world's best player. However Rose accepted that it is also likely to mean that more hope and expectation will be directed his way by the home galleries.

"Obviously I think from what everything I've seen in golf magazines and this and that, it's all been about Rory and Jordan [Speith]," he said.

"So I think the focus shifts heavily to Jordan, but yeah, as a home hope, sure, there might be an added inkling of tension but I don't think that really translates into anything to be worried about or even think about."