Matt Wallace is in 35th place in the world. The Players Championship. Game Mode: Players Stadium Course, TPC Sawgrass Date: March 14-17. Coverage: live text commentary and in-play highlights during the third and final round on Saturday and Sunday on the BBC Sport website, plus regular updates of the course on BBC Radio 5 Live

British golfer Matt Wallace made an encouraging start with his debut during the Players Championship, the biggest men's tournament outside the four majors. In the second episode of his exclusive Player's Diary, Wallace tells the story of his first round three-under-par 69.

Every time you leave Sawgrass, even in the benign conditions we had on Thursday morning, 69 is great somewhere around here.

I am very happy with that start.

A lot of hard work has been done this week on my swing and especially on my tee shots and my driver was fantastic. It made a lot of holes and my game plan was good.

It was really an early start and to be honest I felt pretty tired on the way to the course. This is the last of a four-week series in which I worked very hard on my game.

But I have statistics that show that I'm good at the end of sequences like this, so I looked forward to it and, of course, I expected that I would arrive at the short par-three 17th island hole where so much can happen.

My front nine was very solid, went to the turn in two under par but then I had a three putt on the 10th and I think that was the kick-up at the back that I needed.

I said to myself, "What do you think? Are you going through this or are you actually here to play golf? Tournament?"

In the next hole I had completely forgotten what had happened , put a good driver swing on it and set the hole perfectly so I got a birdie.

The following is a short par four and I rode it on the green to get another birdie, so I was really happy with how I got back from that bad mental error on the green e 10th.

Things like that happen in a week like this, people will make such mistakes. I just have to make sure I don't do it again.

Matt Wallace recorded three of his four European Tour victories in 2018

That birdie on the 11th was important but overall I didn't play the par five holes so well despite the quality of my driving style. I was just one of the long holes and I will work on that.

I wonder if we were aggressive enough in the right places and I will talk about that aspect with my caddy Dave McNeilly. It is often difficult to find out where you want it to land.

When we reached the 17th, it looked so short from the front tee that I felt that I could have thrown the ball onto the green.

So I felt fairly comfortable. In practice it was like it was 170 meters and this was only 117 with the wind. But that can create its own problems, such as hitting the ball, so suddenly it was tough.

I ended up on the wrong part of the green that is hard to put but I managed to get it down there and type it in for a par.

I'll see how the players deal with conditions of the flatulence and get all the statistics that will help me prepare for a later start in the second day of Friday around

But if I keep driving the way I was, I have every confidence in that I will give myself enough opportunities. I want to keep the large numbers off my card because that is so important.

And it can be frightening because some of the holes here you actually have to aim in bad areas, such as hitting the water to the fairways when the wind is off.

I will sometimes have to suck it up and hit it along the waterline and drift it off, so that I will start working on that aspect before I begin to cross it off.

Matt Wallace shared a photo of himself in Sawgrass

Matt Wallace spoke with BBC golf correspondent Iain Carter.