NORTON — Come Hermine or high water, or perhaps both, officials of the Deutsche Bank Championship are intent on playing the tournament’s full 72 holes, even if that were to mean completing the final round beyond scheduled play on Monday.

Mark Russell, the PGA Tour’s vice president of rules and competition, said Sunday afternoon that Round 4 play will begin at 7 a.m. Monday, nearly an hour earlier than scheduled, and all 72 golfers are slated to tee off by 9:01 a.m., more than four hours prior to the originally scheduled final tee time.

“We’re going to start early and see if we can get as much golf played as we possibly can,’’ said Russell, the original schedule calling for a first tee time of 7:45 a.m. “The best thing to do is start early off two tees [holes 1 and 10], and that way if we do get shut down, we will be in a situation where we can come back out and finish.

“We need basically seven hours . . . two hours of tee times and five hours to play. So if we finish at 2 o’clock [some four hours earlier than expected], that means it gives us about five hours of built-in cushion so we can come back and finish.’’

But as the morning progresses, with Hermine’s winds expected to gust as high as 40 miles per hour, it’s anyone’s guess as to how play will evolve. In the best case, play will be complete by 2 p.m., some four hours ahead of schedule. Worst case: If play is suspended for the day, those with incomplete rounds will have to report back to work on Tuesday.

Russell dismissed the idea that any thought was given to having golfers play 36 holes on Sunday, thus avoiding the advancing poor weather and determining a champion.

“They’ve got a TV show [Monday],’’ said Russell, referring to rights-holder NBC. “If you’ve got bad weather predicted on Sunday, does the NFL say, ‘Let’s play Saturday?’ No, we have a TV show tomorrow, it would be hard to do that. That would be ultra-extreme circumstances.’’

According to Brad Nelson, the tournament’s on-site meteorologist, golfers and spectators should anticipate sustained winds already at near 20 m.p.h. for the 7 a.m. tee times. The winds, he said, should build throughout the morning. Rain also will be a factor, but not as much as earlier forecasts predicted.

“As we get past 10 or 11 a.m., until 3 in the afternoon, that’s going to be our strongest winds,’’ said Nelson. “Hermine will be at its strongest and closest to us then when it swings around to the northwest. And at that time sustained winds at 25 miles per hour and we are probably going to see gusts up to 35 or 40 at times.’’

Nelson dismissed the risk of lightning but cautioned that spectators, because of the high winds, should avoid standing under trees or in the vicinity of large limbs. TPC Boston could be a hard-hat area by late Monday morning.

“You get branches falling with winds over 30 miles per hour,’’ noted Nelson. “So spectators, definitely, be aware of what you are standing under [Monday]. You can get some branches coming down. If we do get a little rain, [there is also the chance of ] tripping and falling.’’

Sunset will be at 7:15 p.m. Monday. Given the 7 a.m. tee starts, that leaves the 72 golfers 12-plus hours to decide who will walk out of here with the $1.53 million winner’s check.

And if they need more time, or a hard hat, so be it.

“We would definitely play Tuesday,’’ said Russell. “We’re going to finish the golf tournament. We’re mandated to play 72 holes. And if half the field finishes [Monday], the round must stand. So if we get halfway through, no matter how long it takes, we’re going to finish that round.’’

Tournament officials, when asked how tickets/admission would be handled in the case of play being continued on Tuesday, said such a decision would not be made until/unless it was necessary.

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.