Martina Gillenlooks to extract the positive after her disappointing early exit on her LET debut

You don't shoot over par in your dreams but the reality of my professional debut on the Ladies European Tour (LET) in Tenerife last week was a little different. Taken just as numbers, 78, 73 doesn't sound too impressive but there's a little more to the story of my opening two rounds that saw me miss the cut by a couple of shots.

At the risk of sounding like some golfers, I actually played well for my 78 on the Thursday. I hit 14 greens in regulation but missed 14 birdie putts so it's not rocket science to work out the main reason behind by six over par round. I had so many birdie putts yet walked off a number of greens having three-putted.

They were careless errors and ones you know are going to cost you dearly. On considering my round afterwards I realised I had compounded my putting woes by leaving myself on the wrong side of pin placements. On quick, heavily-contoured greens it was a recipe for disaster.

The build-up to the tournament had been enjoyable. In the company of Claire Coughlan, I played a couple of practice rounds. As LET rookies we don't get to play in the Wednesday pro-am so we both spent time on the range and practising chipping and putting.

The same day we received our media training, which I found very interesting. It turned out to be a gentle appraisal of dealing with the media: what's expected of the player and an insight into the type of questions that generally arise. We then did a little one-on-one work with the LET's own television crew. That consisted of a few brief interviews. It was instructive and quite fun, to be honest.

I managed to get myself a caddie just before I was due to tee off. He was a lovely Englishman called Mike Anderson, retired from business and who spends nine months of the year in Tenerife. He'd never caddied before in a professional tournament but did a wonderful job and I felt very relaxed in his company.

I certainly benefited from the fact that my two playing partners, JJ from Denmark and Cici from France, couldn't have been nicer. They couldn't have been more forthcoming in terms of advice about life on the tour and that helped me relax immediately.

Their caddies - they both have full-time bag toters with them on tour - also gave Mike a crash course in the rudiments of the job; little things like taking control of the pin if your player is the last to putt out. I thought it would be dog eat dog out here on tour, and I'm sure other individuals will be less forthcoming, but I couldn't have asked for better playing partners.

I knew I was going to have to shoot under par on the Thursday to make the cut but that goal was exacerbated by the fact I was playing in the afternoon. The course itself is very elevated and the post lunch-time starters on the Thursday were greeted by 30 to 40 mile an hour winds. I played extremely well to shoot a one over the card 73.

It was put in context in that mine was the best score of the afternoon and there weren't many that went lower in the morning. It was a consolation of sorts but it was just a pity the way things panned out. I spent the next couple of days practising with Claire who had also missed the cut.

I'm happy that my game is getting better and I honestly don't think I was rusty going into the event.

It was quite quiet at night but that's not to say we didn't bump into many Irish people. Claire has a Tricolour towel on her bag and so the Irish tend to gravitate towards her. We met some lovely people and in general the experience of my first LET was a positive one.

I took time to watch the final two rounds because I was keen to establish what sort of standard of golf was required to be at the business end of affairs. I was struck by the steadiness of the golf and while it was far from a birdie blitz, the girls didn't turn two shots into three with careless mistakes. The winning score in Tenerife was one under par.

As I write this column, myself and Claire are packing to head to the airport and the next tournament in Valencia. We didn't get a chance to practice yesterday so our window of opportunity to see the course will be today when we'll play 18 holes as once again we won't make the pro-am tomorrow.

Tenerife was a positive acclimatisation process for my new life as a professional golfer and now I'm a little better versed with the requirements of life on the LET. I have no great expectations this week other than the desire to play good golf and see where that may take me.