TEE TO GREEN:Having overcome a recent illness, I'm now really looking forward to the rest of the season

QUITE A bit has changed since I put the clubs away – however briefly – over the winter and since I’ve returned to life back out on tour. The most obvious one, I suppose, is that my surname has become Codd, instead of Coakley, after tying the knot back in January with Shane. The name change became official, at least as far as the Ladies European Tour was concerned, at the recent tournament in Morocco when I appeared on the timesheet in my new married name.

Anyway, what’s in a name? I’m still the same person who wants to play well on tour and with the same aim of competing, contending and, hopefully, winning.

After the strong end to last season, when I had four top-10s in my last 10 outings, the hope was that I could carry that momentum into the 2011 season which, of course, is an important one for everyone in Europe as the Solheim Cup takes place at Killeen Castle in September. It promises to be great but there is a lot of golf to be played between now and then.

I’ve been out on tour virtually straight from the wedding in January, with a run of tournaments that started in Australia, New Zealand, Morocco and then Spain. Unfortunately, I picked up a virus – maybe I was a little run down with all the excitement and the preparations up to the wedding day – which then developed into bronchitis when I was Down Under and I needed three courses of antibiotics, including one by injection, to finally get over it.

My early results have reflected the fact that I wasn’t where I wanted to be, although I am fully recovered now.

The illness, however, did set me back and I was forced to withdraw from a smaller tournament ahead of playing in the Australian Open: my tied-25th in the Australian Open was followed by missed cuts in the Australian Masters (despite being two-under after two rounds) and in the New Zealand Open, where I was a little unlucky in getting on the wrong side of the draw. I was out on the Thursday afternoon when the extreme winds were blowing.

By the time I got to Morocco earlier this month, I was hopeful that I could finally kick-on. But I had a bad first day with the putter, which is normally a strong part of my game. I had 37 putts and that was really disappointing.

Last week, I played with Martina Gillen for Ireland in the European Nations Cup which was won by Sweden. This event in Alicante is really good. It is well-run and the players are looked after really well, but it was strange in that Martina and myself played better in the harder of the two different formats, one called Valencia foursomes. In this, both players tee off and then you pick the best ball from there on and it is a little confusing.

In theory, the Valencia format should be the more difficult but we were nine-under on that but were one-over in the betterball. If you’d said we’d finish over par for the better ball, we’d have laughed.

But, for some reason, it just didn’t happen. In the end, we finished up in 13th position, but there were a lot of positives and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season.

I’m heading over to Chelmsford in London tomorrow to meet with Lee Porter who is responsible for my equipment. I’ve been struggling a bit to start the ball on line and I just want to check out the shafts on my clubs and the lie angles, all of that stuff, before I get going again in two weeks time for what is a long stretch on the road.

The next two weeks is really about maintenance work on my game, all aspects of it, and trying to get sharp.

Of course, the Solheim Cup is on a lot of players’ minds this year and I am no different. I would love to make that team, but I am not thinking about it all the time. My philosophy is that if you play well enough, you’re going to get into it. But you have to do all the other things first and hopefully that will happen naturally.

At the end of the day, you have to perform. You have to win. You have to have top-fives. That’s being realistic about it. There is no point in getting too wrapped up about it, you’ve got to perform.

SOLHEIM CUP 2011

European standings

1 Laura Davies (Eng) 176.33pts

2 Melissa Reid (Eng) 117.41

3 Virginie Lagoutte-Clement (Fra) 79.25

4 Iben Tinning (Den) 74.58

5 Suzann Pettersen (Nor) 69.25

6 Becky Brewerton (Wal) 65.75

7 Trish Johnson (Eng) 63.17

8 Christel Boeljon (Neth) 59.09

9 Florentyna Parker (Eng) 57.58

10 Marianne Skarpnord (Nor) 56.17

11 Anna Nordqvist (Swe) 55.65

12 Linda Wessberg (Swe) 52.08

13 Gwladys Nocera (Fra) 48.00

14 Anja Monke (Ger) 45.50

15 Vikki Laing (Sco) 38.83

16 Anne-Lise Caudal (Fra) 36.75

17 Caroline Masson (Ger) 35.50

18Maria Hernandez (Spa) 33.83

19 Rebecca Codd (Ire) 31.00

19 Carin Koch (Swe) 31.00

21 Zuzana Kamasova (Svk) 30.00