NATCHEZ — Stephen Shephard of Niceville, Florida, overcame four straight bogeys to force a playoff with Derek Oland of Plano, Texas, and won the All Pro Tour’s 2019 Taco Bell Natchez Classic at Beau Pré Country Club on the first playoff hole last Saturday afternoon.

It didn’t look like a playoff was going to be needed at all after Shephard had five birdies and went out in 4-under-par 32 on the front nine. After a birdie on the par-5 10^th hole, he was at 5-under for the day on his final round and seemed to be in control.

“I had it going on the front and I thought I might have a chance to go for 63,” Shephard said.

That was until he ran into trouble a few holes later. He would have to settle for bogeys on No. 13, No. 14, No. 15, and No. 16 to drop him all the way back to 1-under-par and a playoff appeared to at that point to be unlikely. Then he birdied No. 17 and No. 18 to finish the day at 3-under-par 69 for a four-day total of 15-under-par 273.

“I was just happy to be there with a chance at the end,” Shephard said. “I just didn’t expect to win.”

Oland, on the other hand, didn’t do much on his front nine with one birdie and one bogey to go out in 36. Then his putter came to life on the back nine as he had five birdies to finish at 5-under-par 67 to finish at 273 and would battle with Shephard for the win.

In the playoff, Shephard reached the par-5 18^th hole in two and went on to birdie the hole to defeat Oland, who finished in second place.

“It was very successful. We had 71 players and good weather. We couldn’t have asked for more,” said tournament director Patrick Murphy about the four-day event.

Another contender who just missed joining Shephard and Oland in the playoff was Sebastian Saavedra of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Saavedra carded five birdies in his final round on Saturday, but the last one came on the par-3 13^th hole. Afterwards, he ended up with a crucial bogey on the 14^th hole and parred the final four holes for a round of 4-under-par 68 and a four-day total of 14-under-par 274.

“Fourteen is a very difficult hole. Some people bogeyed it the final day,” Murphy said. But he had a four- or-five-footer for birdie on 18, and it didn’t go in.”

Saavedra would end up in a tie for third place with three other players, including second- and third-round leader Wesley Hunter of Mobile, Ala. Hunter birdied three of the four par-5 holes, but he also had four bogeys for a disappointing round of 1-over-par 73 to finish at 274.

“It’s had to have four superb rounds of golf,” Murphy said. “He played good for most of the week. He just didn’t quite have it on Saturday. It’s very hard to play that kind of golf for four straight days.” It wasn’t in the cards for him this week.

Murphy also said that he wasn’t surprised that Hunter struggled in the final round.

Joining them at 14-under-par 274 were Brandon McIver of Billings, Mont. and Braden Bailey of Groves, Texas, who each had final-round scores of 2-under-par 70.

Jacob Bergeron of Slidell, La. also struggled in the final round as he shot 1-under-par 71 and ended up in seventh place alone with a four-day score of 13-under-par 275.

“We were excited to have so many people (participating). It’s nice to have so many people fighting for the title instead of one player running away with it,” Murphy said.