After two rounds of the Junior World Golf Championships last week Jarryd Dillas was sitting pretty on top of the leaderboard, halfway to realising his goal of winning the tournament outright.

"I was executing my shots extremely well through 36 holes. I had stayed at home the week preceding the event and made a few adjustments to my swing and I liked the shapes of the shots I was hitting over the first two days," he said after returning to Bermuda from Torrey Pines Golf Club in San Diego, California.

Over the course of the next two rounds, however, the championship agonisingly slipped from his grasp as his driving became erratic and his putting began to let him down. With a four round score of exactly 300, Dillas eventually finished in 17th place - nine places lower than his standing at last year's event. Though to many his position in a tournament as prestigious as this one may seem respectable, the young Bermudian sets extremely high standards for himself and was ultimately disappointed with the final result.

"This year I felt like I had a very legitimate chance of winning the whole thing. I gave myself that chance after two rounds. I am really quite upset with myself that I could not do anything better over the last 36 holes," he said.

Dillas was particularly disgusted with his performance on "In the final round I started off really slowly with a couple of pars and a couple of bogeys and my putter was ice-cold all day," he said. "I did not find many fairways either. I was hacking out of the rough all day long and I was then unable to be aggressive into any of the greens.

"With the pin placements tucked in really tight on the last day, I never really gave myself a chance to get a run going."

Dillas however refused to be overly downcast, taking heart from his impressively strong showing after two rounds amongst what was a top quality field.

Despite the final round, he was also generally pleased with his performances during the week on the long and demanding South Course.

"What the last week proves is that I am good enough to compete with, and often eclipse, the best junior golfers in the world," he said. "With Torrey Pines hosting the US Open in 2008 they are beginning to let the rough grow there and it was very tough all week. With the rough up, there was a premium on accuracy off the tee but you could also not afford to be too conservative because the course is very long.

"It was one of the few courses that I play on when I have to get my driver out of the bag at least eight or nine times a round. I felt I managed very well though until the final day."

In analysing the reasons for his final round lapse, Dillas conceded he had struggled mentally in the latter stages of the tournament and had yet to string four consistent rounds together in competition. Though he pointed out that, at 17, time is on his side, he insisted that there were fundamental problems that he had to address if he wanted to fulfil his long term ambition of a place on the professional tour.

"A bad shot derails me too easily at the moment. I get into a sort of panic mode out there," he said. "I have to learn to be a bit more patient and calm. When you are competing at a high level like that and you want to entertain any realistic chance of winning, you have to be in control of your emotions.

"In terms of ball striking, I think I can be as good as anybody around. Technically, I am close to where I want to be. Mentally, I am nowhere near."

Dillas will now be taking a well-earned rest at home before heading for his freshman year at Columbus State University in Georgia where he has been awarded a golf scholarship. His game will be placed in the care of the new Columbus State coach Mark Immelman, a man with a growing reputation in the US and brother of European Tour professional Trevor Immelman.

Dillas is convinced the partnership will be a fruitful one.

"I cannot stress how much I am looking forward to working with him. I have heard nothing but good things about his coaching and I am sure he can help take me to the next level," he said. "We will be focusing on things I haven't really done before like fitness, which has suddenly become a more important part of the game.

"Being physically fit and improving my endurance can only help me mentally over the course of long tournaments. That is what I need in order to become a complete golfer."