NATCHEZ — The pressure was on at Duncan Park Monday as golfers teed off in the 2015 Norman Puckett Championship.

A returning champion, and many other talented golfers made the field one of the toughest yet.

“I was nervous,” said 12-year-old Lathan Moore from Monterey who was competing in the 12-13 year old division. “I had been nervous for 10 days.”

The nerves soon wore off for all golfers though, especially for Griffin Agent, who took home first prize after shooting a 67 in the boys 14-18-year-old division. Agent pushed way ahead of the competition, finishing 14 strokes ahead of the next competitor.

Local golfers had solid showings, though, with Jace Calcote shooting a 99, Bankston Jordan finishing at 106 and Moore wrapping up his day at 109.

Jordan, who said he wasn’t particularly pleased with his day, was still able to have a positive outlook.

“I had fun, and always have fun playing golf,” he said. I play almost every day.”

Moore was also optimistic about his day.

“I think it went pretty good,” he said. “I did bad on the first nine, but came back up on the second nine. The first nine I was just picking my head up and teeing my ball too high, but I didn’t do that on the second nine.”

Duncan Park course superintendent Greg Brooking said he was pleased with how the tournament turned out.

“I heard some of the kids say it is one of the best tournaments in the state,” Brooking said. “And I’m proud to hear that. We ended up with a little over 20 kids, and that is still a good tournament for a one day event.”

Brooking said that the late Norman Puckett, who the tournament is named after, would have been proud to see youth taking to the sport.

“The smile on his face would be unreal,” Brooking said. “He loved junior golf and kids playing golf. I think that Norman is smiling down from heaven on this tournament.”

In the future, Brooking said he hopes to see the tournament grow.

“This is a state tournament and we set it out to be that,” Brooking said. “Now, we want to make it a really large state championship.”

Other winners were Anne Carrie Swoope of Madison in the girls 12-18 division, David Beard III of Brandon in the boys 12-13 division, Patton Kincaid of Madison in the boys 10-11 division, William Marshall of Madison in the boys nine and under division, and Caton Blackburn of Vicksburg in the girls 10-12 division.