Moving house but staying at home

I’VE probably just had my busiest and most stressful month of the year – yet I have barely laid my hands on a golf club!
Since playing in the Solheim Cup and the three tournaments which followed the matches at Halmstad, my time has been dominated by matters of a more domestic nature.

And anyone who has moved house in the recent past will nod their heads readily when I tell them that process was an exhausting one! Part of the issue was that I have purchased a new-build, the complication being it wasn’t finished when I was expecting to move in...

The house is within the Wiltshire Golf Club grounds and makes sense for me in lots of ways. First and foremost it’s a fantastic house and, being a new build, it is a blank canvas on which I can make my own home. That’s something I’m going to look forward to doing when the Ladies European Tour season finally ends in mid-December.

Secondly, being in the grounds of a golf club, it is perfect for maintaining and indeed improving my game while at home. I think my house is about 500 yards from the 1st tee of The Wiltshire’s 27-hole complex while the practice facilities are excellent. There’s a gym and leisure facilities in the clubhouse – again, 500 yards from my house – so there will be no excuse not to top up my fitness after the excesses of the festive period...

Finally, Bristol airport is very convenient for flights to Europe (bearing in mind the start of next season!) while for destinations further afield, Heathrow is going to be perfectly accessible. After the Madrid Masters in October, there was a very welcome window before the Ladies European Tour started up again with an exotic trip to India. That was very helpful to get to grips with house matters.

Once I’d done that, I popped over to Desert Springs to get in some good warm-weather training ahead of the tournament in India and after that the visit to Dubai. These events make a fantastic climax to the season in 2007 and everyone appreciates the efforts the tour has gone to in this way.

By all accounts, the 2008 schedule is going to be even more special and I look forward to singing its praises in the next issue. Many people have asked me whether my Solheim Cup debut has whetted my appetite a little more for the LPGA Tour.

Well, the answer is yes and no. At the start of this year my ambitions were to win an event in Europe and progress to the Solheim Cup side. I’m so glad I have achieved those aims. At that time, the LPGA wasn’t on my agenda. I was happy and satisfied with what Europe had to offer.

Not too much has changed in that regard. I still feel Europe has loads to offer and 2008 for me is going to be about winning multiple tournaments and really trying to make a significant mark on the schedule. The Order of Merit is also going to be a massive target for me and I’ll be disappointed if I don’t mount a real challenge. I feel ready to do so.

The other side of the argument is that my experiences in the Solheim Cup have made me even more anxious to test myself against the very best. Obviously, most of the best players play regularly on the LPGA Tour, so I realise to do that I’m going to have to look towards the other side of the Atlantic.

Playing with Laura Davies and against Paula Creamer, Juli Inkster et al was a real thrill. It was especially enjoyable as I felt I was able to hold my own. Going head to head with those players would be fabulous and without doubt is something I’d hope to do in the future.

I’d always planned to be in Europe in 2008 and have made no attempt to change those plans. My concentration is solely going to be on the LET next year. I want to improve and win more events and, with the circuit getting better with every passing year, it’s great to be a part of something that is making progress.