Justin Rose is reigning Olympic champion, a major winner and currently the world’s fourth-best golfer but England’s Cricket World Cup triumph means there is only one sport being played in his back garden.
The Englishman’s 10-year-old son Leo has been gripped by recent events so Rose has found himself pressed into action as a bowler away from Royal Portrush ahead of The Open.
“My little boy has suddenly gone cricket mad after the World Cup,” said the Englishman, explaining how he has been spending some downtime in Northern Ireland.
“He’s in the garden until the sun goes down. He says ‘Dad, can you bowl a few at me’? That kind of thing.
“(Sunday) was was a hell of a day of sport. I was running between two different rooms, watching cricket, tennis, cricket, tennis.”
Asked whether the ambition was to play well enough this week to get Leo to pick up a golf club instead of a cricket bat, Rose added: “That would be nice for sure, although it’s proved quite difficult, to be honest.”
The Englishman has taken the whole month off after the US Open in order to prepare for a fourth major in as many months after the schedule was rearranged this year to bring the USPGA forward to May.
The 2013 US Open champion is not a fan of the change, which he thinks gives little time to rest and recover for the next big event.
“This is unchartered territory for me to take time off between majors, for sure,” he added.
“I think we’re all trying to adapt to this new rhythm of the majors.
“One major a month really, in my opinion, they’re too soon.
“For me a major championship should be the things that are protected the most. That’s how all of our careers ultimately are going to be measured.
“If you’re trying to compare one career to another career, Jack versus Tiger, it’s the majors that are the benchmarks.
“For them to be tweaked so much I think is quite interesting at this point.”
He is hoping, however, the break will have recharged the batteries enough for him to be able to play with the same sort of freedom which saw him record his best Open finish 12 months ago at Carnoustie.
Having just made the cut with a 15-foot putt at his final hole on Friday, the 38-year-old progressed over the next two days to finish joint second.
“I wasn’t doing a lot different at that point (on Friday) but I think going out there and free-wheeling a little bit on Saturday and playing more aggressively (helped),” he said.
“Definitely it is more of the intention (this week), for sure, just obviously be focused and be disciplined with the preparation and the game plan but not be reckless.
“I’m not going to go out and hit drivers on day one but you can still play with freedom even though you’re playing with respect to the golf course.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here