With the PGA Tour pros having left town and Fred Funk halfway through his island-hopping with $185,000 already in the bank and two Champions Tour events to go, this would be a good time to check out the 2008 schedule of local golf tournaments.

It turns out that it's quite a significant year.

The Mercedes-Benz Championship and Sony Open in Hawai'i just completed their 10th year.

That's nothing compared to the annual Manoa Cup, which will be played for the 100th time in June.

It's the granddaddy of all golf tournaments in Hawai'i and among the oldest in the nation. For a little historical perspective, the Manoa Cup began in 1907 at Oahu Country Club, only 12 years after the first U.S. Open. Like the U.S. Open, it was interrupted by World War II and hence the 100th anniversary observance this year.

Also this year, the Mid-Pacific Open will observe its 50th anniversary and the Hawai'i Pearl Open its 30th year.

So the 2008 winners of these tournaments will take home more than a trophy. They'll also record memorable milestone victories.

And the hosts ? Oahu Country Club, Mid-Pacific Country Club and Pearl Country Club ? are planing to go all out the week of their tournaments.

"There's definitely going to be something big," said Andrew Feldmann, OCC's head golf professional. "We're really excited about the 100th. Hundred years, it's a big deal. We're going to try to get some blurbs in the national golf magazines."

One function the club has already planned is a golf-dinner outing for all past champions. Mid-Pac will also hold a champions dinner to start the week.

"We're proud that this is the 50th anniversary," said tournament chairman Mike Kawaharada. "We've been doing it for 50 years and we look forward to another 50 years."

He finds it significant, too, that the Mid-Pac Open is the only 72-hole tournament for local golfers.

Mid-Pac is celebrating the Big 5-0 this year even though the tournament officially began in 1956, according to club archives. It wasn't held on three different occasions because the golf course underwent renovations.

The first Mid-Pac Open champion was the legendary Guinea Kop, who won the event's precursor, the Campos Trophy, four of the first five years. Interestingly, two of Kop's grandsons, Brandan Kop and Regan Lee, have gone on to win the Mid-Pac Open.

"It's the hardest tournament for an amateur to win because it's four rounds," said Kop, whose victory in 1995 was the last time by an amateur. "And it's pretty special because my grandfather won it."

"It feels more special when you see the names of other family members on the trophy," said Lee, the only three-peat champion in the tournament's history (2002-04).

You won't see Lee's name on the Manoa Cup trophy. Not that he didn't try. He reached the semifinals five straight years, twice losing in the finals, before turning pro. Nor that of the late Guinea Kop, who became a professional early in his career and did not compete in amateur events.

Brandan Kop's name, though, is all over the Manoa Cup trophy, which goes to the state's amateur match-play champion. An OCC member, Kop has won it four times and is trying to win one for the thumb.

Of the three big anniversary tournaments, the Hawai'i Pearl Open is the latecomer. But it's the biggest with 192 players and the most competitive with nearly half the field made up of some of Japan's better pros and amateur players.

Last year's Pearl Open made national news when Tadd Fujikawa became its youngest champion after coming off a headline-making finish in the Sony Open.

Fujikawa won't be defending his title next month because he received an exemption to play in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am the same week.

However, this year's Pearl Open might draw broader attention because it will feature Japan's hottest golf sensation, Ryo Ishikawa, who captured the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup last year to become the youngest, at 15, to win a men's tour event in Japan.

Ishikawa turned pro two weeks ago and will play in Australia the week before coming here. He played in last year's Pearl Open as an amateur, finishing tied for 20th and was the third low amateur behind Fujikawa and Honoka'a High's Sean Maekawa, now a University of Oregon freshman.

"They're getting younger and younger," said David Ishii, Pearl Country Club's director of golf and a 14-time winner on the Japan Tour.

Besides Ishikawa, more than a dozen teenage amateurs are entered, including Hawai'i's 13-year-old Lorens Chan, the youngest so far in the field. So far because Richard Hattori of Honolulu is one of two 12-year-olds trying to qualify.

For Ishii, this year's anniversaries celebrating Manoa Cup, Mid-Pac Open and Pearl Open are also significant in a personal way. He's one of a very select few to have won all three.

Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net