LUMBERTON — Ryan Bass and Greg Powell didn’t exactly sprint across the finish line.

Tied on the 54th and final hole of the Robeson County Golf Championship Sunday, both missed the green on the par-4 18th; neither got up-and-down for what would have been a championship-winning par, and a sudden-death playoff was required to determine a victor.

Bass won the playoff with par on the first hole, winning the tournament’s Championship Division for the fourth time overall and the third time in the last four years.

“I definitely didn’t have my best this weekend,” said Bass, who previously won the championship in 2013, 2019 and 2020. “I scrambled around pretty well, and today I sort of felt like it was like match play, with me and Greg playing along — and Mike and Landon too, but luckily they didn’t ever make a push.

“Trying to get over that first one was big for me, but the more I win the more they mean to me. And this year with me having a daughter, I kind of want to do it for her.”

Bass and Powell were never separated by more than one stroke all day long Sunday, and tied with a 1-under-par total of 215; Mike Chuchacz was one shot back for a while on the front nine, but ultimately couldn’t make enough birdies to make a charge and finished third at 2 over par, three shots out of the playoff.

Powell’s tee shot on the playoff hole, Pinecrest Country Club’s par-4 first hole, found a fairway bunker and was near the lip, making for a difficult approach.

“I actually thought I’d hit a really good tee shot, and it surprised me when I ended up in the bunker, and I was in the lip and had to try to get it up really fast, and just caught it a little thin,” said Powell, the 2018 tournament champion, who shot a final-round 71 after Saturday’s bogey-free 69. “And then that’s not an easy chip at all.”

Powell left his chip shot, from the rough left of the green, in the fringe; he nearly holed his second chip, attempting par, before tapping in for bogey.

Bass hit his second shot from the right rough to the center of the green, 15 feet from the hole; he hit his birdie putt to tap-in range before completing his par to seal the victory.

“I took a drop (from ground under repair) and I felt like it could jump out of there, because even though it’s not high grass, it had been jumping on me all day,” Bass said. “I was really just trying to hit the middle of the green, and I did, and unfortunately Greg didn’t hit a great chip and all I had to do was two-putt. That’s golf, that’s how it goes.”

Both players failed to par the last hole of regulation, setting the stage for the playoff. Bass missed the fairway right, then missed the green left; his pitch shot went 20 feet past the hole, and the par attempt missed six inches short and left. Powell, from the middle of the fairway, missed short with his approach, left his birdie pitch 20 feet short, and tapped in for bogey after missing his par attempt.

“I don’t know if we got tired or what it was, but we struggled,” Bass said. “We kind of struggled on 17 and 18; luckily (I was) able to par 17. But 18, it was a struggle; that heat definitely played a factor.

“I was dead in between clubs and tried to muscle one a little bit,” Powell said. “I came up short obviously, and had a tough chip on that.”

Powell took a one-stroke lead with birdie at the par-5 15th. Powell three-putted the 17th to leave the players tied on the final tee; Bass narrowly missed mid-range birdie chances at both the 16th and 17th holes.

“I thought I hit a really good shot on 17; that’s the only ball all day that has hit (the green) and stopped, actually backed up a little bit,” Powell said. “Every shot we hit, we played to release. And I’d been leaving every putt short so I put a little extra hit into it, and just hit it too hard, and the next putt I pulled it a little bit.”

Powell, who led Bass by one stroke to start the final round, bogeyed the second hole to fall into a tie for the lead; both birdied the par-5 sixth, Bass birdied the seventh and Powell birdied the eighth, and the pair turned at a 1-under-par total. Powell birdied the par-5 11th to take a one-stroke lead; Bass answered with a chip-in birdie from left of the green at the par-4 13th.

“The chip was huge,” Bass said. “I had struggled on 13 and 14 all weekend, and hit a terrible drive, and actually thought I hit a good second shot but came up short. That chip-in really boosted my momentum, and gave me some confidence — even though I didn’t turn in into anything, I parred out until 18, but it definitely helped. I think it may have put a little pressure on Greg, but it definitely helped.”

While both wanted to win the championship, the pair both enjoyed the battle between the two strong players.

“Ryan’s the best player over here in Robeson County, I’m one of the better players in Columbus County, and it’s just fun when we get together,” Powell said. “We rode together, we had a good time, we laughed and joked, but when it got time to play, we both got serious and did what we had to do.”

“I definitely enjoyed it with Greg; he’s a good guy. I actually made the playoff to him, when we were leaving after the playoff, I said it’s safe to say the golf course won this year. It definitely played tough, that’s for sure.”

Bass joins Kyle Covington, Dyrck Fanning and Scott Benton as players to have won at least four championships; he joins the same trio as players to win three times in four years.

Powell’s runner-up finish comes after he won in his only previous tournament appearance in 2018. The Whiteville resident and Pinecrest member, who turns 53 next week, credited his strong play to a “pep talk” from his wife before the tournament.

“I was complaining about age, and this, that and the other, and she got harder on me than any coach ever had, let me know that the clubs don’t know how old you are,” Powell said. “I really appreciated her telling me that and it made me go out and understand I can still play.”

Chuchacz shot a front-nine 35 after birdies at holes No. 6 and 8, but didn’t make another birdie the rest of the round and fell as far as five strokes behind on the back nine; he shot a final-round 72.

“I played consistent, I guess that’s a positive,” Chuchacz said. “No. 9, it didn’t cost me as bad (as the first two days), but it did cost me a shot today. I hit the hole a couple times for birdie, lipped out a few times, but I really can’t say I didn’t putt good because I made a lot of pars, I scrambled really good. I think it’s just a mental bridge I’ve got to get over; once I get over that I can comfortably go 1, 2, 3, 4 under.”

The day’s drama was confined to the final foursome of Bass, Powell, Chuchacz and Landon Lowry, who shot 75 to finish fifth at 5 over; the best finisher from the group ahead was Jamie Locklear, who stayed around even par for the round all day in a 1-over 73 to finish 4 over overall in fourth.

Cal Hunt finished sixth at 7 over after a final-round 74. Steve Pippin, the 2021 champion, finished seventh at 11 over and Jason Dial eighth at 13 over after each shot 79 Sunday.

Mack Kenney, who was the championship’s first-round leader after a 71 before falling from overall contention with a Saturday 82, shot 74 Sunday to win the first flight at 11-over 227, by one stroke over David Lowery Jr.; Chad Martin and Jeff Slabe, who shot a front-nine 34 Sunday, tied for third in the flight.

Tommy Britt won the second flight after a final-round 77 to finish at 21-over 237; Justin Britt and Jeff Broadwell tied for second one stroke behind Britt.