It is a rare comparison, but this week Hawaii golfers have a chance to ponder how close the Mid-Pacific Open — celebrating its 60th year — actually comes to its goal of feeling like a tour event.

A week ago, four of the top five female golfers in the world were in the LPGA’s Lotte Championship at Ko Olina. That does not include Brooke Henderson, who blasted her way to a win while rarely needing to watch her prodigious drives, and Hawaii’s Michelle Wie, arguably the most dynamic face in the women’s game.

In January we watched the best of the men’s game, present and past, on three islands. Memories are fresh.

They were all playing for millions of dollars. This week’s purse is $75,000, with $14,000 going to the winner Sunday at Mid-Pacific Country Club. But that is more than half what Jared Sawada plays for in on the PGA Tour’s Canada (MacKenzie) and Latinoamerica tours, and doesn’t include the $6,000 MPCC membership he got for winning last year.

And at ground zero, literally, Sawada says Mid-Pac easily compares to tour courses. “Definitely,” the Mililani/University of Hawaii alum says. “The conditions are amazing.”

Fairways are sweet, rough is tough and greens are “firm, fast and so smooth.” Sawada measured the greens at 10.5 and faster earlier this week. He expects them at about 12.0 by Sunday if the weather holds, same as some U.S. Open speeds. He also knows a few pins will be on the side of slopes and near the edges.

He still thinks the winning score will be around 15 under — two off David Ishii’s tournament record, set in 1986.

The past 16 years at Mid-Pacific, it has been everything from 15 under (TJ Kua after a tournament-record 62 in 2013) to 2 over (Darren Summers in 2007). Lanikai is at the mercy of the weather — like every Hawaii course, as the LPGA saw at Ko Olina last week.

But conditions — wet, windy or whatever, whenever — aren’t all local pros like about Mid-Pacific. Practice areas are good and they get to hit the ball off the grass on the driving range. “That’s a huge one,” Sawada says.

Also, it is well organized, with more than 150 volunteers helping tournament week. This year, there was even more work for volunteers, who cleaned up last weekend after the mess the rain left.

And, absolutely, pros appreciate being “home,” just as Wie and Inbee Park did last week at Lotte. Park spoke warmly about coming to Hawaii every year from the time she was 4 to see her mom’s family.

“What I like about Hawaii events is that everyone is always so welcoming and you really see the true aloha spirit,” says Punahou graduate Cyd Okino. “I also enjoy seeing familiar faces, which helps to calm the nerves a little.”

Okino played in Japan last year, with Moanalua alum Eimi Koga, and will return next month for the LPGA Japan qualifying test. She’s playing Mid-Pac to get ready, in search of “tough competition and something worth fighting for,” to see how she handles the challenge and pressure.

She is not alone.

“It will never be an official tour event, but for some young local kid who is playing in his first real competitive tournament, he will have the same feeling of excitement and nervousness on the first tee,” says Aloha Section PGA Executive Director Wes Wailehua. “He will be paired with some of the best players in the state and even a few past PGA Tour winners from Hawaii.”

PGA pro Jerry Barber won the 1965 Mid-Pacific Open and Ishii, the 1990 Hawaiian Open champion, has won it three times, adding a senior title last year. He is one of 13 Hawaii golf hall of famers with a Mid-Pac Open championship.

Most prolific was Lance Suzuki, who won in Lanikai eight times. Suzuki died last year and this week’s tournament is dedicated to his memory.

Aloha Section has helped longtime tournament chair Michael Kawaharada with management the past few years, making it an official PGA of America event with certain standards.

Links to tour events just keep coming.

“Our goal as a committee is to deliver a Tour-like experience to all players. From the course conditions to operation of the event,” says Wailehua, who grew up at MPCC. “What makes MPO so special truly is the culture of the club; its members, who spend hundreds of hours volunteering during the week. From an operating prospective we (Aloha Section) are on site nine months out working with the club. A lot of the credit really goes to (course superintendent) Jason Amoy and his staff, who exceed our expectations in delivering that Tour-like experience.

“Events like this are extremely important to the game in Hawaii. It creates more players.”

Some 200 pros and amateurs are playing this year, all from the same tees. Cuts will be made in all flights tonight at the halfway point.