Monday finish awaits at Cognizant Classic after lengthy delay
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The Cognizant Classic's final round was suspended Sunday due to severe weather that soaked PGA National with heavy rain. (Brennan Asplen/Getty Images)
Severe weather causes 3 hour, 28 minute delay Sunday at PGA National
For the first time since 2015, the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches is headed to a Monday finish.
Sunday's final round of the Cognizant Classic was suspended for 3 hours, 28 minutes, due to dangerous weather in the Palm Beach Gardens, Florida vicinity. Play was halted at 12:49 p.m. ET Sunday at PGA National’s Champion course, and resumed at 4:17 p.m. ET. Play was halted for the evening at 6:23 p.m. due to darkness.
The final round's conclusion will be carried on Golf Channel, simulcast on Peacock, beginning at 8 a.m. ET Monday.
Austin Eckroat holds the overnight lead at 15 under (through seven holes of Round 4), one stroke clear of Erik van Rooyen, who carded a final-round 63 to post 14-under total. After finishing his final round, van Rooyen said he would return Monday if he remained within two strokes of the lead overnight, just in case.
Eckroat's next closest pursuer is Jake Knapp, last week's winner at the Mexico Open at Vidanta, who stands 13-under total with three holes to play.
Three players will return Monday at 12 under: Billy Horschel (through 17), Alex Noren (through 12) and Shane Lowry (through five). Keith Mitchell finished at 12-under total.
At the time of suspension, six pairings had yet to begin the final round. Sunday's final pairing of Lowry and David Skinns, originally scheduled to tee off at 1:40 p.m., eventually teed off at 5:10 p.m.
Players were removed from the golf course while the heavy weather system passed through, with casual water accumulating on some greens. The practice facility reopened at 3 p.m. as the maintenance and agronomy teams worked to prepare PGA National for play's resumption.
Van Rooyen led at the time of suspension, 14-under overall, on the strength of eight birdies in his first 11 holes Sunday. Van Rooyen, who began the day seven back of 54-hole co-leaders Skinns, Lowry and Eckroat, turned in 7-under 28 and added a birdie at No. 10. Van Rooyen previously shot a back-nine 28 in the final round of last fall's World Wide Technology Championship, en route to a two-stroke victory over Camilo Villegas and Matt Kuchar. That marked van Rooyen's second TOUR title.
Ireland's Padraig Harrington won the last Cognizant Classic that required a Monday finish, defeating Daniel Berger in a 2015 playoff.