Among David Ishii, Dave Eichelberger, Kevin Hayashi and Casey Nakama, Hawaii’s four golfers in the inaugural Pacific Links Hawaii Championship have a combined 480 Champions Tour starts. Throw in Scott Simpson, who lived in Kailua for years, and the total is 638.

Eichelberger has 471 of those starts and Ishii nine. That would leave Hayashi and Nakama with …their Champions Tour debuts today at Kapolei Golf Course.

Hayashi entered the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame last year and turned 50 in June. The eight-time Aloha Section PGA Player of the Year has a sponsor’s exemption into his first senior tour event.

Nakama celebrated his 54th birthday last month, probably with some of the many kids who have gone through his Casey Nakama Golf Development Center at Olomana Golf Links. He qualified Monday.

Nakama shot 72 and came in second to Mark Johnson, who is making his eighth senior start in four years, but played full-time before that and won the 2005 Toshiba Senior Classic. Johnson won the Champions’ qualifying tournament the year before. Prior to that, he drove a Budweiser truck for 18 years before deciding to turn pro in 1998.

All that gives Nakama and Hayashi a little more to think about this weekend.

"When I first turned 50, I thought about playing this tour," Nakama says. "It would be really difficult. I’d have to give up everything I have, the steady income I get from teaching. When you’re younger, you’re broke anyway so you might as well just try. Now I’d be giving up something. It’s got to be a calculated risk."

Nakama is friends with Michael Allen, the tour’s leading money winner, from their days playing together on the Asia Tour in the late 1980s. Allen is encouraging him to join the tour and Nakama’s wife, Geri, is open to the idea. But Nakama admits he considers himself "a teacher now, not a player" and even qualifying here this week was a surprise. His last tournament was the Mid-Pacific Open in April.

Hayashi feels much the same. He says "anybody who is competitive has thought about" playing the senior tour, but he also considers himself more of a teacher now and is "lucky to play once a week." He also played in Asia and on mainland mini tours and found touring "a grind." The no-cut format and $50 million in purses are obvious attractions, but …

"It’s exciting to play, really exciting," Hayashi says. "It’s like you’re reborn, but there are just a lot of factors for me. I have so many students. I would have mixed feelings being away from home a lot.

"I think I can compete physically. Mentally they have a little edge. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve thought long and hard about it. If I tried to qualify and did get in, I’d play like a year. That might change, but I’d play a year and get that feeling that I can play out of my system. Then I’d be fine."

Hayashi and Nakama were not in the Wednesday or Thursday Pro-Ams. They practiced Wednesday afternoon and headed to the range around 5 p.m. They were the only ones there. As competitive as the senior tour has become, they knew then that this was not the Sony Open in Hawaii. Guys are happy to talk story and reminisce. Nobody beats balls into the darkness.

"It’s a lot more relaxed atmosphere," Hayashi says. "The people are a little nicer. It’s kind of fun. … I can see why guys come out and enjoy playing."

The rookies from Hawaii are surrounded by the senior tour’s premier players. World Golf Hall of Famers Isao Aoki, Hale Irwin and Tom Kite are here. All have won in Hawaii — Aoki miraculously in 1983, and Irwin extremely often.

Irwin has collected nearly $4.4 million in Hawaii with 12 wins, which should be enough to comfortably celebrate his 45th anniversary this week with wife Sally. The last of his record 45 Champions Tour victories came at Hualalai five years ago. Irwin, 67, is 226-under par in 28 previous senior starts here.

There are 11 former Hawaiian and Sony Open champions, including Ishii, whose win at Waialae in 1990 qualified him for the PGA Tour. The 1973 state high school champion from Kauai chose to return to Japan, where he won 14 times and was 1987’s leading money winner. Ishii, 57, still plays on Japan’s senior tour. He tied for 13th at the 2007 Turtle Bay Championship.