The 2016 Mississippi State Amateur Championship at the Reunion Golf and Country Club in Madison begins June 2 and Vicksburg has a nice sample size of golfers competing over the weekend.

John Halpin Caldwell, Nick Mekus and Channing Curtis qualified and have spent time on the course during their practice rounds. The tournament field has 120 golfers from Mississippi and the top 60 or those tied at 60 or better will advance through the weekend.

Despite being competitors in this weekend, Curtis said the trio wants each other to play well.

“Nick can play pretty well. I’m expecting us all to play pretty well. I’d like to see three guys from Vicksburg make the cut. That’ll be nice.” Curtis said, who is playing in his second state amateur championship.

Mekus and Curtis have practiced together at Clear Creek for the past week pushing each other to play better golf.

Curtis missed the weekend cuts last year by about three shots and this year he hops to make the cuts.

The difference for Curtis between his two years is his maturation as a golfer. He said he’s smarter and plays with more discipline. He also feels like he’s learned from the mistakes younger golfers make.

Curtis has learned to focus a lot more and take the game one shot at a time. He’s now seeks to play the best golf he can instead of playing to the outcome he wants.

“I play the game a different way. I’ve learned so much more. This is the Mississippi state amateur so it’s the toughest tournament in Mississippi I can play in and maturity helps a lot,” Curtis said.

Caldwell said players can qualify through a qualifying tournament or if they finished in the top 25 of last year’s tournament, then they qualified for this year’s tournament.

Last year, Caldwell made the cut into the weekend portion but was outside of the top 25 and played a qualify tournament at Oxford. While Caldwell said he hit well in his practice rounds, the course in Madison is going to force him to make adjustments.

“It’s a longer course than the course here in Vicksburg and that makes it difficult to score well. It sets up differently but that’s typical for a state amateur tournament,” Caldwell said. “It’s played at a length more comparable to a professional course.”

Caldwell, like Curtis, will take the first day one shot at a time as he gets a feel for the course and understands how it’s going to set up and where he needs to play conservatively.

“I try to manage my expectations. I just want to go out there and hit one good shot after another,” Caldwell said.