Rose’s googly no threat for Lara

US Open winner Justin Rose admits West Indies legend Brian Lara had no problems dispatching his googly during a game of cricket on the 18th hole during yesterday’s Pro-Am at Port Royal.

Rose said he had been “bragging” to his cricketing hero about the deadliness of his googly — a type of delivery bowled by a leg spinner — while getting to grips with Port Royal ahead of the Grand Slam.

Despite bowling ex-England skipper Andrew Strauss in a recent charity match, Rose found Lara a tougher nut to crack with the left-handed batsman playing the deliveries with consummate ease.

“Brian Lara is a guy I grew up admiring for years. I played cricket since I was about ten years old and he was probably in his prime,” said Rose.

“To have the opportunity to mess around with him with a cricket bat and ball was a lot of fun.

“I’d been bragging about my googly earlier in the day, telling about how I bowl a natural googly and that I bowled Andrew Strauss at a golf tournament recently.

“He’s like, ‘okay, okay, cool, cool,’ so I think the first few balls he’s like, ‘all right, I’m going to show you’ and swatted them away with aplomb.”

Somewhat fittingly, Rose and his close friend Adam Scott, who won the Masters in April, are both making their Grand Slam debuts in Bermuda.

Rose claimed the very next major, the US Open in June, and admits both their careers seem to be following a similar path.

“To follow Adam to the very next major is unbelievable. I was at Augusta and my whole family was in the living room of the house that we rented watching the finish to the tournament,” said Rose.

“We are just really pulling for Adam. I thought he got what he deserved at Augusta and I feel like our careers are in some ways similar.

“He’s probably had a little bit more of a consistent journey than myself. But I felt like I’ve often sort of emulated him, moving to America and doing similar things.

“But if he continues to win majors, I don’t mind being one step behind him, so we’ll see.”