TEE TO THE GREEN:Under par halfway through a Challenge Tour event in Turkey and then an old injury flares up and it's back to the tedium of rehab and rest, writes NIALL KEARNEY

I WAS recently competing on the Challenge Tour in Turkey but injuring the same shoulder I had surgery on back in January. It flared up again and I’ve had to take another couple of weeks off and rest it.

The shoulder was overloaded after a prolonged period of golf, nothing else. It means more rest, further rehabilitation, plenty of icepacks and some anti-inflammatory tablets, and then, hopefully, away we go again.

It’s called a shoulder decompression and I’m pretty sure it’s because I’ve put in a lot of practice in the last few weeks.

I felt it going at the tail end of the second day in Turkey and it carried through the weekend – the scores obviously reflected that (72, 70, 78, 80). The pain is the most difficult aspect of the injury, plus there is an audible clunk when I swing the club.

It made the week incredibly frustrating more than anything else. I was under par for the tournament at the halfway stage and was well up there.

If there is a positive it’s good to see I have the potential to compete at this level when I eventually get this injury sorted.

I just need to rest, get more physio, rehab and, hopefully, I’ll be back out there competing before I know it.

I was supposed to be starting a three-week run by playing Challenge Tour events in Turkey and France before moving on to Spain to compete in this week’s Mallorca Open on the main European Tour. I missed France and had to withdraw from Mallorca but should be fit enough to play in the next week’s Challenge Tour event in Florence, Italy.

I’m working with a great physio called John Murphy in Blackrock. We’ll hopefully get things back on track quickly as this is coming into a busy period. I’ve had great support from John and also from my parents.

Everyone has pulled together to get this thing sorted once and for all.

Basically I’m in the middle of advanced rehab which is a little bit tricky and tedious but it’s all there to help and I must stick to it for the next couple of weeks. I’m also working hard at a gym in Smithfield and that’s where most of the rehab work takes place.

Unfortunately it knocks any practice plans out of sync but I can work on my short game and putting and will start hitting balls towards the end of this week.

Although it’s frustrating we’re still in the early part of the season and I still plan to compete in 15-17 events which should be more than enough (to keep hold of a tour card).

The venue in Turkey was a phenomenal place. We flew into Antalya and then onto Carya Golf Club where the Turkish Airlines Challenge was played. We stayed in a Rixos Premium Hotel which was first class and the course was a real pleasure to play – for the first two rounds at least!

There were a few of us Irish lads in Turkey; Colm (Moriarty) and Gareth (Shaw) were there and Johnny Caldwell got a last-minute call too. We all made the cut which was a good effort for the Irish section on tour.

Generally at an event we meet up but a lot depends on the next day’s tee times. It would be rare we all get to eat together of an evening. You gather more during practice days as we’re generally all finished at the golf course around the same time and can have dinner together.

The actual event is different as one guy could be teeing off at 7am and the others, say, with afternoon tee-times so you’re operating off different schedules and everybody’s days are different. During the tournament you might not see much of each other at all.

The weather was great, the sun was shining and for the most part it was an enjoyable week. I had been coming into a bit of form and everything felt great. Injury aside, it was a good trip and my first time in Turkey.

The Belek area seems to be a real hotbed for golf in Turkey. They also had the Turkish Airlines Ladies Open on the Ladies European Tour at National Golf Club last week. Turkey is certainly going after plenty of events to boost the profile as a golfing destination.

As a footnote, I know Rory (McIlroy) from amateur days and though I missed his win at Quail Hollow I certainly heard all about it. That was an absolutely phenomenal result. It was a serious return to form as he was struggling coming into the Masters. It shows fantastic mental strength to be able to turn it around the way he did.