Playing on home turf gives me a chance to kick-start things

TEE TO GREEN:I'm now in the situation where I am playing golf for a living and, if I don't make a cut, then I don't get paid

NOBODY EVER said life on tour would be easy. Certainly, I didn’t expect to have the red carpet thrown down; I always knew my first season as a professional would be a test: of my game, of my character, of how to occupy time away from the course.

We’ve all heard the tales of old, of the likes of Ian Woosnam living in a camper van and living on baked beans as he sought to play on the African satellite tour and in Europe in his early days on the circuit. He would later attest that such a start to his professional life made him all the more determined.

At least we don’t have to endure that kind of hardship. But I’m now in the situation where I am playing golf for a living and, if I don’t make a cut, then I don’t get paid. It’s a simple reality, and a fact of life.

This week, thankfully, I had no 4am alarm call on a Monday morning to get to the airport in time for a flight. Instead, I was able to get into my car and drive up to Galgorm Castle in Ballymena for the Northern Ireland Open – which starts tomorrow – and, next week, we are down in Fota Island for the Audi Cork Irish Masters.

As far as I am concerned, we are now getting into the meat of the season – with a lot of good tournaments on good courses over the coming weeks – and playing Galgorm Castle and Fota Island offers the opportunity to really kick-start things and push up the Order of Merit with a view to contending for one of those four Challenge Tour cards for 2012 that is on offer at the end of the season.

Apart from not having to make the early-morning trip to check in at the airport, there are other advantages to being on home turf – so to speak – this next two weeks: one of the bonuses is that I have a caddie.

My girlfriend’s father, Chris Keegan, will be my bagman in Co Antrim and Co Cork and it will be good to have someone to talk to (instead of pulling the bag yourself) and he has performed the job before, as he was on my bag when I won the East of Ireland Amateur championship at Baltray last year. I know he will keep me nice and calm during the round.

I’m coming into a very important part of the season, with the two tournaments in Ireland followed by a run of events in the English midlands and in the north-west.

Now, if I managed to get an invitation to play in the Irish Open at Killarney over the bank holiday weekend, I would jump at it. That’s the sort of event that I, like everyone, aspires to play . . . who knows?

For now, my focus is on getting the most out of my game at Galgorm Castle this week.

I arrived up yesterday for a first practice round and, having missed the cut in my last two events in England, I’m aware that one area of my game that needs improvement is to ensure that I am in play off the tee.

The last two courses showed the importance on accuracy, and a few loose shots killed me. The big difference from playing in amateur events and as a professional is that you can’t get away with loose shots, where two or three strokes makes the difference between being in the top 15 or 20 to being outside the cut line.

There is no mercy shown.

My stats show me that my iron play is good – hitting 75 per cent of greens – but it is a matter of trying to cut out those destructive shots and of getting more tee-shots on to the fairway and keeping the ball in play off the tee.

I know there is plenty of good golf in me at the moment . . . my confidence remains high, although I’m disappointed with the results, and I head into the Northern Ireland Open and the Cork Masters knowing that this is the right time to peak.

Cian Curley is in his rookie season on the EuroPro Tour, a developmental circuit which offers players a chance to win a Challenge Tour card for the 2012 season.