Because of who they are and what they've done Justin Rose and Paul Casey are attracting a lot of interest heading into their United States Open debuts today.

Now their task, of course, is not to disappoint.

"I think we both have the belief we can be in the top ten in the world. Pretty soon,'' stated Casey last month. Making an impact in a major is the quickest way.

The 25-year-old from Surrey has already won twice this year - first in the ANZ Championship in Sydney and then five weeks ago in the Benson and Hedges International Open.

After the second of those he was asked about his ultimate ambitions. There was no attempt to keep them private.

Casey replied: "I have a lot of them. And a career Grand Slam would be one of them.''

It is fair to say he is starting from square one this week, though. In his first appearance in the Open last July the former amateur star had rounds of 72 and 78 and finished 129th out of 156 at Muirfield.

A month later he began his first US PGA championship with a nightmare 85 and although he improved 11 strokes the next day he was still only 145th of the 155 starters.

He has clearly made massive strides since, however, and after he had pushed current European number one Padraig Harrington into second place at The Belfry last month the Dubliner commented: "He is a class act and should move on from here. He's a good player, a strong hitter of the ball.''

Partnering Rose in last December's World Cup in Mexico - and finishing third - was Casey's launchpad for this season and he stated: "Justin has been a huge motivation. He had a fantastic year last year and I would love to have the same success this year.''

Rose won four times in 2002 and while he has yet to add to those victories earnings of over £230,000 hardly make it a cause for real concern.

And, unlike Casey, the Hampshire 22-year-old has already laid the foundations of what he hopes will be a glittering major career.

The start, of course, was his staggering fourth place at age 17 in the 1998 Open at Birkdale and then last year he was 22nd at Muirfield and 23rd in the US PGA.

Both times it promised to be even better. He was in the second last group on the final day of the Open and at Hazeltine he was only four shots behind at halfway, but finished 76-74.

Fitness and flexibility were areas Rose decided to had to improve upon and athletics coach Frank Dick has been consulted.

"I think my legs are a lot stronger and the programme I got from Frank is good. He's been grilling me to see how hard I've been working and I'm due to see him again after the US Open. I believe it will pay off in the long term.''

Rose certainly now believes he can win the Open, but until he plays a US Open there is an element of the unknown and, asked what he expects of himself this week, he said: "Another good solid performance.

"I expect to deal well with everything that a US Open brings and see where that takes me, to be honest.

"I like it when par is a good score.'' Lee Janzen won at level par as recently as 1998 and since then Phil Mickelson has twice finished with the same score."