You can't beat chipping in garage and putting on landing

Ladies European Tour: Martina Gillen'sDiary Bad weather has me reflecting on my half-term rookie report and taking stock

It was very much a case of needs must last week when the weather intervened with my best laid plans for some intensive practice. The Ladies European Tour event brought an elite field in Spain so my focus was on trying to fine tune my game in slightly less salubrious surroundings.

The rain meant that I managed only a couple of days of proper work, completed at Slieve Russell, while on the other occasions my imagination kicked into overdrive as I sought any available space to swing a club with the rain teeming down.

This included taking a sand wedge - all my other clubs were too long and would have seen me trash the place - into the garage and try and groove my swing, albeit with a curtailed follow through so as not to break the club or put holes in the roof.

Then it was up to the landing in the house for a little putting practice. As a surface it was a little bit slower than the greens at Oakmont. The week actually went by quite quickly because apart from my quirky practice routines I spent a great deal of time on the internet booking flights for the second half of the season.

Those travel arrangements can be quite time consuming so it was great to get a good run at it, while monitoring the US Open and taking in a couple of movies. I have been second reserve for the tournament that takes place in France, beginning on Thursday, for the past two weeks. Yesterday I decided to go anyway and in the worst case scenario, will get another week with brilliant practice facilities.

In trying to compile something of a half-term report on my rookie season to date, I spent a few hours pouring over statistics amongst other things.

There are obvious aspects of my game that need to improve, something reinforced by the fact my numbers aren't as good as they were during my amateur days.

When I was at college in the United States, I used to hit about 13 greens in regulation per round and was pretty consistent in that respect. I am now managing 10, so it's not a surprise that my scoring has got higher. I'm averaging two more putts per round now than would be the norm from my amateur days so there is a simple conclusion to be drawn: my short game isn't good enough. I am missing greens with six- and seven-irons and that is creating a lot of self-inflicted pressure on my game.

Every aspect of your game is linked and I know that if I can improve my iron play, I won't be putting from 40-feet plus on the wrong side of a green and therefore my putts per round will drop. It'll also alleviate the strain a little on my short game.

My experiences on tour so far have taught me one or two valuable lessons. I will be dispensing with using local caddies. It's not ideal to be introduced for the first time 10 minutes before you start your round in a tournament and trying to make small talk. I end up almost baby-sitting, fretting over whether they're doing the job correctly and trying to make sure they don't get in the way of my playing partners. I enjoyed caddying for myself as an amateur and it's a policy I am going to pursue.

The good news is Claire Coughlan and myself are still friends despite being thrust together pretty much all day, every day when we're away. There have been a few silent dinners but I think that's been down to tiredness.

Given my collegiate experience I don't mind the travelling, although Mondays are not devoted to magical mystery tours of airports, train stations, car hire offices, buses and hours of map reading. The gap between arriving at a tournament and the start of the event is longer for the rookies than the established players who can pitch up a day later and also have the benefit of playing in the pro-am. Living out of a suitcase is not ideal but there are compensations and taken in the context of my new career I would say the experiences thus far have been positive. I know that sometime in the near future my results have to improve and that's what I am working towards. I am trying not to get caught up in simply being results driven.

I have to focus on the bigger picture, which represents not dwelling on trying to make the weekend but rather playing good quality golf that allows me to contend at the business end of tournaments. This is my last column for a few weeks but I'll be back later in the summer, hopefully with something momentous to report.