After a winter on the couch I'm ready for the pro game

GOLF:Having recovered from a back injury and tweaked my swing, I'm excited for the delayed start of my season, writes CIAN CURLEY

THE DREAM? It was always to be a professional golfer, playing out on tour. Growing up, I’d played soccer, hockey, Gaelic football and basketball – all types of sports – but golf was always the real pull. It was what I wanted to do, and the irony wasn’t lost on me that, when I finally got to play for pay in my professional debut on an invitation on the PGA EuroPro Tour last September, I suffered the first real injury I’ve had: ligament damage in my back.

The upshot of that quirk of fate, just as I’d embarked on living the dream, was a winter spent for the most part sitting on my couch or in bed, what is called resting and recuperating. No visits to the European Club for links golf with my friends. Virtually no golf at all, in fact, for months and months.

You get a lot of time to think when you’re confined to lying on a couch, and after going through the MRI scans and such like to determine the extent of the injury – and slowly getting back to fitness under the physical therapy regime given to me by my physio and trainer Orlaith Buckley – I finally returned to the range towards the back-end of January and set about changing some elements of my swing with my coach, Neil Manchip.

The reason for making swing changes after overcoming the back injury was to ensure that I had more consistency in my game. In my amateur days, I’d gotten to final of the Irish Close and contended in the North and the West, before finally making my breakthrough win in the East of Ireland championship at Baltray last year. With so much time on my hands to think of the future as I recuperated over the winter, I became more and more clear of what I needed to do with my game if I was to make an impression on the professional game.

The move into the professional ranks was something I had always dreamed of. I went to the European Tour qualifying school at the end of the 2009 and, if I had won my card then, I would definitely have gone out on tour. In hindsight, it was probably better that I didn’t, as winning the East last year – a strokeplay championship – was an important step in my career development. You have to know how to win, be it in the amateur game or the pro ranks.

I’m making a later start to the professional season than planned, due to that back injury which is now consigned to the past. In a way, though, I’m fresher – physically and mentally – than I would have been and am looking forward to the season that is looming, starting with the European Championship at Wensum Valley near Norwich on May 3rd-5th.

The proof that my work with Neil and Orla is paying off came in the recent EuroPro Tour final qualifying school at Frilford Heath in England, where I finished tied-fifth to secure a full card on one of the biggest development tours in Europe. I had finished second in the first stage of qualifying to make it to the final school, so the omens are looking positive and my game is in good shape.

In fact, those qualifying events for the EuroPro Tour were the first events I played in full fitness since suffering the back injury last September. I’d been laid-up with no golf for five months before playing a few tournaments on the Hi 5 Winter Tour in Spain in February, where I was getting over the rustiness from my lay-off.

But the real season for me starts with next week’s event in England.

Although there are a number of good developmental tours operating throughout Europe, I had set my sights on the EuroPro Tour as my preferred tour: the top-five in the Order of Merit receive full cards on the Challenge Tour, and a number of players have used it as the stepping stone towards graduating to full tour cards on the European Tour.

I think playing on tour is going to suit me. I like the idea of playing wherever I want, to set out my own schedule for the year.

My targets? To keep doing what I am doing . . . working with Neil and working with Orlaith. I’ve looked on the injury as taking the positives out of that situation and I’m coming back from a really long lay-off much fresher and with a new attitude to the game. To be honest, I just want to keep on improving throughout the season and, hopefully, with a bit of luck, the results will take care of themselves. Obviously, by the end of the year, I am looking to get my status on the European Tour.

I’m fortunate to be grant-aided by the Team Ireland Golf Trust. Apart from the financial grant, a lot of other things come as part of that package, as I have the use of the facilities at the GUI national academy at Carton House, along with access to the Institute of Sport and its support structures. I’ve also benefited from a fundraiser last month in my home club, Newlands, and the support I got exceeded all of my expectations.

Now, all I want to do is to get out and play golf.

* Cian Curley is in his debut season as a professional, playing on the PGA EuroPro Tour. A former Irish amateur international and winner of the 2010 East of Ireland Championship, and now a part of the Team Ireland trust which supports fledgling professionals, Cian will be contributing a monthly column.