Senior Tour golfer Dick Mast, who has played in the Sony Open in Hawai'i and the Turtle Bay Championship, must have felt like Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day." You know, Murray as the weatherman in the movie who wakes up and discovers that it's Groundhog Day again, again and again.

Well, Mast had his own Groundhog Day experience. He qualified for the Champions Tour's Cap Cana Championship in the Dominican Republic this week by winning the fourth spot in a playoff with two others — by playing the same hole NINE times.

Mast got to know the par-4, 430-yard 18th hole at the Timacuan Golf and Country Club in Lake Mary, Fla., well. All too well.

"It's their signature hole — dog-leg left, uphill with the pin stuck back right. It was playing long with a 20-mile wind," said Mast by telephone en route to the Caribbean event starting tomorrow. Mast was in a playoff with Jim Chancey and Rod Spittle after shooting 67s. The "Monday" qualifying was held Friday and in Florida to save the qualifying hopefuls travel expenses.

What was Mast thinking when he had to go back and tee it up at 18 again and again and again?

"I tried to keep my focus and not let up because you play the same hole, over and over and over and over, you kind of go through the motions," said Mast, who parred the hole all nine times in the playoff.

Spittle bogeyed the third time around, so it was just Mast and Chancey, two guys trying to make a go of it on the Champions Tour.

"The hole was built for Jim because he draws the ball and he is pretty strong," Mast said. "We were both getting pretty tired. It was hard to play a friend. I felt almost bad when I got done. It was a lot of work. I know how I would have felt if I had missed."

Mast never heard of a playoff using the same hole over that length of time.

"I suggested three times, why don't we tee off on one? The hole was long enough and hard to make birdie. But that's what they decided to do, so they stayed with it. It just kept going on and on. I was thinking, let's make a birdie and end this thing. We both had our chances but it was a difficult pin placement."

As it turned out, par was good enough for Mast, who qualified for the first time in four tries this year on the Champions Tour. And it was a great birthday present for Mast, who turned 58 Monday.

He had to call his friend in Hawai'i of more than 20 years, Ron Tsuruda, telling him the good news. "We pray for each other regularly," said Mast.

In turn, Tsuruda thought the idea of someone playing the same hole nine times in a playoff is a story in itself, no matter if it was Mast or how he does this weekend. So he had to relay the tale of the most unusual of his friend's many qualifying attempts. There was a nine-hole playoff in a U.S. Open sectional last year, but it utilized two different holes.

Although Mast has earned $1.78 million on the senior tour, the Cap Cana Championship will be his first tournament this year. And he hopes to make the most of it.

"I hope so. That's my goal: to get exempt as quick as I can, now that I'm in a tournament," he said.

"I feel like I'm playing well. I've worked hard. If I play normal, I feel I can finish top 10 in every tournament I play. Top 10 gets you into the next tournament. A win will get me a year's exemption."

Mast also qualified for the inaugural Cap Cana Championship last year, finishing tied for 46th.

"I played last year so I know the course pretty well. It's windy and a lot like Hawai'i."

He still has good vibes about Hawai'i, where he Monday-qualified for two Sony Opens and posted one of his two best Champions Tour finishes with a tie for third in the 2002 Turtle Bay Championship. He also was third in the 2006 Senior British Open. And it was in the 2005 Sony Open that Mast matched his career-low PGA round of 64.

Mast, who now resides in Lynchburg, Va., attributes the area's worst winter in five years to his slow start this season. "It had been pretty difficult to practice this winter, hitting balls on the frozen ground with a ski mask."

No wonder, he's just glad to be in a tour event, even if it took playing the same hole nine times to do it.

So, in a terrific week of golf in which Tiger Woods is defending his title in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Michelle Wie is making her second start as an LPGA member in the J Golf Phoenix LPGA International, there's also a senior tour event worth noting. Of course, there will be a Shark Sighting at the Punta Espada Golf Club where Greg Norman hopes to be the next Dominican Dandy. For me, though, I'll be watching to see how Dick Mast does.