HE may have been brought up in the Hampshire town of Hook but Justin Rose has not let ropey references to calamitous golfing terms hinder his career.

Perhaps it would have been different had he been raised in Dufftown?

As a straight-down-the middle, erudite and engaging kind of fellow, Rose remains one of the most popular, obliging and polished campaigners in the cut-and-thrust world of professional golf. The Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open has had a very good champion over these past 12 months and in just a few weeks time, the 34-year-old will defend this crown at Gullane.

In some senses, you could say that Rose is coming back to where it all started. His return to East Lothian will not be one overflowing with fond memories, mind you, yet it is a place where decisive decisions were forged. It was 1998 and the teenage Rose had eased his way into the knock-out stages of the Amateur Championship after negotiating his way through two rounds of strokeplay qualifying at Muirfield and Gullane. By the end of the first day of matchplay, though, Rose was oot and was sent home to Hook to think again.

"Not doing well at the Amateur Championship that year was actually the catalyst for me turning professional," said Rose. "I'd done well in the strokeplay qualifying but losing in the first round was frustrating. The dream for every amateur is to win that. It opens up so many doors with the Open and the Masters. So to lose in the first round left me a bit disillusioned. I didn't want to wait around another year to try and win the Amateur and get into those events that way."

A few weeks after that, Rose earned a place in the Open at Royal Birkdale, went on to finish fourth before making the professional plunge the next day. His wretched and well-documented run of 21 successive missed cuts during that torrid transition was a bigger let down than the Hindenburg but Rose refused to wilt. Here in 2015, the world No.6 continues to - yes, you've guessed it - bloom. "I think it is the form of my life," declared Rose, who has won every year on the PGA Tour since 2010 and claimed his first major in the US Open of 2013. "I've kind of improved over the last few years and I think I'm in the middle of the prime of my career. I have four or five very good years behind me and I think I can have four or five great years ahead of me. I believe that I'm going to have many chances to win major championships. I'm going to put myself in contention many times in the next five, possibly 10 years. Obviously whether you convert is the big question but I will use my first major win as my inspiration to win more. It's a gift, if you like, to not put too much pressure on myself if I'm in contention to win again. You become accepting of the fact you're going to lose some majors as well as win. Jack Nicklaus finished second in almost as many majors as he won. But the fact I've won one is a great source of confidence any time I get in the hunt."

Rose was in the hunt for an eighth PGA Tour win the other week only for him to lose in a play-off to David Lingmerth at The Memorial. That particular event generated a dollop of controversy when the Englishman was heckled by certain sections of the crowd.

Those hooting, hollering halfwits were at least given a lesson in sporting decency and decorum by Rose's six-year-old son, Leo, who was captured on camera politely applauding one of Lingmerth's putts in the sudden-death shoot-out.

"I think it was a very important day for Leo actually," noted Rose. "There were a lot of people and a lot energy in that atmosphere and it was a bit of a life lesson to see that although his dad had played well he didn't win, but there's still a way to carry yourself. That's the lesson I would like to have given him but he seems to have done a very good job of it himself."

In these money-soaked theatres of big, bold modern day golf, Rose appreciates that not everybody behind the ropes will peer on gently with nodding, restrained appreciation and ripples of polite applause.

"I think we are being forced to become entertainers more now than we ever used to be," he said. "The ropes have been brought in close because every sponsor is trying to give the fans more access to us to enhance the spectator experience. That means more distractions for the players but we are playing for more money so you can't have it both ways. If you want sponsorship and you want crowds to be there then you have to put up with some of the inevitable stuff that comes along with it."

In the cradle of the game here in Scotland next month, Rose will hopefully revel in a very Scottish atmosphere. "The biggest contrast I've seen is in my three Ryder Cups," he pondered. "I've played two in America and one in Scotland last year. While the crowd were really supportive of us I was actually amazed at how supportive the Scottish crowd were of the American team. There was no negativity towards any player in the US team, which must be a nice environment for them to come and play. That is definitely very different to what the Europeans get when we play in America. It's definitely a much more intense sports crowd instead of the knowledgeable golf crowd you get in Scotland."

Now that he's said that, of course, the first thing Rose will probably hear when he drives off his Scottish Open defence is a bellow of "get in the hole". Surely not in delightful, genteel Gullane though?