TEE TO GREEN:With a four-week break before heading to the Far East I have a chance to get back into the gym this week

LIFE ON tour has been a whirlwind for me these past couple of months. I’ve had eight straight weeks on the road, culminating in the Spanish Open near Marbella which finished on Sunday. So, it was with the sense that I really and truly deserved a break from tournament play that I landed back in Dublin airport in the early hours of yesterday morning and then got to put my feet up at home in Carlow.

It’s been a tough but good few weeks, despite catching the flu at the French Open towards the end of that itinerary. That tournament in Paris was the one that disappointed me most, as I went there with great confidence on the back of three top-10s in a row – in Scotland, Finland and Austria – and played well for the first two rounds, only to get the flu.

It knocked the stuffing out of me, I had no energy, and although I knew getting ill was out of my hands, I still felt disappointed. Maybe that’s a sign of how much belief I’m now playing with.

Anyway, a tied-10th finish in Finland – where I played really well – and a tied-sixth in Austria to go on the back of that tied-eighth finish in Scotland last month represented a very decent run of form.

In Finland, I even missed a two-footer for par on the last hole of the final round which would have left me even better placed. It’s amazing how it’s those two-footers rather than the 30-footers you hole that stick in your mind.

I enjoyed Austria, which is always a good week. We’ve been to the same course for the past four years and it’s nice to go to a place which you know. And, of course, it’s where the annual “caddie tournament” is staged, where the players carry the bags for a change. It’s only a five-hole competition but it is great fun which is finished off with their “awards ceremony” – not for the quality of their golf, it must be said, but rather in categories like “best dressed caddie” and “last out of the pub” and such like.

It was good to maintain my run of form in Austria but there was a degree of frustration with my putter in the final round as a birdie on the 14th got me right into contention again. Unfortunately, I missed an eight-foot birdie chance on the 16th and, then, having hit a really good four-iron in to 20 feet on the 17th, was so focused on trying to make the putt that I hit it six feet by the hole and then missed the one back. And I then missed another eight-footer on the 18th. It was just one of those days when I gave myself lots of chances but couldn’t convert them.

After Paris, I travelled on to Spain for last week’s Open and, still feeling the effects of the flu, didn’t play or practice until the pro-am day. Still, I was three-under through seven holes in the first round, only to three-putt the eighth and then I ran up a triple bogey on the ninth and I couldn’t get it going on the back nine.

Thankfully, the second round was rained out on Friday due to storms all day long which gave me a chance to recover and, in the second round, I got into the kind of zone that makes me believe that there are a lot of really good days ahead. I had seven birdies and an eagle in the round – including a run on the back nine, my front nine, that saw me go birdie-par-birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie from the 11th – so there are a lot of good things happening in my game.

With a four-week break before departing for a run of four tournaments in the Far East – two tournaments in China, one in Korea and one in India – I now have an opportunity to get back into the gym this week and then to work on my game for the other three weeks before getting back on the road again.

Like everyone else, I was very impressed with Laura Davies’ win in Spain at the weekend. She’s just phenomenal, to think that was her 76th career win and fourth of the season. Laura’s completely the opposite to everyone else on tour, she’s just got this extreme talent. She likes to hang out with the caddies, likes a flutter and to have a drink and she doesn’t really seem to practise – but she’s so talented and her real strength is off the tee. I mean, she hits it as long as a man and, on the length of courses we play, that’s giving her a huge advantage where she can reach almost every par five in two.

She loves playing on tour and I don’t think she would ever do anything else. A lot of other players would have drifted off into media work or broadcasting, but Laura is still playing fantastic golf and winning regularly.

At least there is one area I have an edge: Laura supports Liverpool, and I’m a big Chelsea fan. I haven’t been able to get to Stamford Bridge since earlier in the year, back in April, but I’m trying to get tickets to the match with Arsenal.

Hopefully, that will give me a good send-off for my travels in the Far East.