Five playoff holes not enough, Rapiscan Systems Classic to resume play Monday morning

SAUCIER, MS (WLOX) - Were it not for the already free admission, one could say the fans in attendance for the third round of the Rapiscan Systems classic got their money’s worth.

Tied at -7 through three rounds, Kevin Sutherland and Scott Parel went blow for blow through five playoff holes at Fallen Oak. But with neither able to pull away, and no champion crowned, tournament play was suspended until Monday morning.

“(My) mindset is to go get something to eat and get some rest," Parel laughed. "I’m not too worried about tomorrow. We’re both in a good spot.”

“Come out and make a birdie," Sutherland joked about his mindset entering tomorrow. "It could be one hole, it could go another nine holes, who knows? One of us is gonna need to make a birdie and we just haven’t done that yet.”

One reason why? An unforgiving green on the 18th hole. Outside of one playoff at the tenth, Sutherland and Parel had four shots at winning the tournament on the 18th, coming up even all four times.

They parred the first hole, bogeyed the second, and parred the third (on the 10th), fourth and fifth before losing daylight.

“There’s a very fine line where you can land the ball and get it to not go past or to be short," Parel said of the 18th hole. "You have to land it perfectly.”

“The pin is on a good slope, and unless you’re below the pin, which we never were, there’s a lot of break and it’s pretty quick," Sutherland said. "It’s kind of hard to match it all together.”

Sutherland entered the final round leading by three, the largest 36-hole lead in tournament history, but Parel managed to close the gap by carding five birdies to move four places up the leaderboard.

Sutherland and Parel will tee off their sixth playoff hole - far and away the most in Rapiscan Systems Classic history - Monday (April 1) at 8 a.m.

Copyright 2019 WLOX. All rights reserved.