For folks from Hawai'i, it's always like old home week in Las Vegas. The people you meet, especially at the downtown California Hotel, make it feel like you never left home.

Well, this week, it's like old home week at Nevada's other gambling mecca, Reno, which is hosting the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open starting today. Parker McLachlin joins another Punahou School graduate, Michelle Wie, who received a sponsor's exemption to the PGA Tour event.

Kane'ohe's Dean Wilson would have made it a local trifecta but he withdrew, saying he was "really tired" after playing 14 of the past 15 weeks with only a break after the U.S. Open. It forced a change in vacation plans for his parents, Don and Grace Wilson, who were going to spend the weekend watching him play. They'll spend the time instead with him at his Las Vegas home. Where else?

Of course, the Reno-Tahoe open is taking a backseat this week to the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, where the world's best 81 players — minus defending champion Tiger Woods — are gathered. But as the Golf Channel has been promoting all week, the Reno-Tahoe Open "just got a Wie bit more interesting."

It's not only because Michelle's in the 132-player field, teeing it up against the men for the first time this year while her peers are playing in the Women's British Open. If you're like me and into that trivial pursuit called "Kevin Bacon's Six Degrees of Separation," the Reno-Tahoe Open is more than just a wee bit interesting.

That six-degree-of-separation theory refers to the idea that if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is an average of six "steps" away from each person on Earth. Got that?

So let's see how it all works out in this year's Reno-Tahoe Open:

Wie is the second teenage prodigy from Hawai'i to play in the event, following Tadd Fujikawa, who missed the cut last year. (Let's hope that's not an omen of things to come.)

She is paired in the first two rounds with Scott Sterling and Jimmy Walker, who both made the cut in this year's Sony Open in Hawai'i. Walker shot a first-round 65 at Waialae to be a stroke behind K.J. Choi, the PGA Tour's first wire-to-wire winner since Steve Flesch, last year's Reno-Tahoe Open champion.

McLachlin, who also knows Wie and Fujikawa, is playing with Steve Pate and Nathan Green.

Pate played his collegiate golf at UCLA, McLachlin's alma mater, and once held the Plantation Course record with a 10-under 63 in the final Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua International in 1997 before the Maui venue hosted the Mercedes-Benz Championship. Duval tied Pate's record in winning the inaugural 1999 Mercedes Championship there and it stood until Choi shot a career-low 62 in 2003.

The No. 1 player in the world in 1999, Duval is struggling to find his game and is playing in the Reno-Tahoe Open this week after making the cut in the British Open. There's another footnote in Duval's history with Pate: Duval's final-round 59 in the 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic deprived Pate of his seventh PGA Tour victory.

Trying to find a connection between Pate and Wie? It's not a reach. Both received sponsor's exemptions to the Reno-Tahoe Open, but Pate didn't have to use his, getting in on the past champion's category.

How about Green's six degrees of separation? Well, Green played with Fujikawa the day after the youngster made the history-making cut in the 2007 Sony Open and even advised him at the par-5 ninth hole to call a rules official over for a ruling that led to an open shot to the green.

Also in the field are Notah Begay III, the tournament's first champion and brother of Clinton Begay, who played golf for University of Hawai'i-Hilo, and past United Airlines Hawaiian Open champions John Huston and Paul Stankowski.

Imagine how many more people connections they would be if Wilson had decided to play. "But I'm kind of bushed, really tired," said Wilson, who made the decision right after missing the cut in last week's CN Canadian Open. "I need a break. I've still got a lot of golf left and wanted to rest up for the PGA Championship next week and the FedEx Cup series."

Wilson is 61st on the 2008 money list with $1.2 million after a solid showing in July with T3 finishes in the AT&T National and the U.S. Bank Championship.

Still, there's a Wilson degree of separation. By his not playing, it opened up a spot for an alternate and that's how senior tour pro Dick Mast got in. "I'm shocked," said Mast, when he found out back home in Virginia that he's in the field. He immediately made plane reservations.

Mast is no stranger to Hawai'i. One of his best friends, Ron Tsuruda, caddies for him whenever he can find time to take a vacation from his job as a civilian aircraft maintenance mechanic at Hickam Air Force Base. Three years ago, Mast, then 53, stunned the golf world by making the Sony Open, surviving the cut with a second-round 64, and the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines in San Diego as a Monday qualifier with Tsuruda on the bag.

Mast didn't know that Wie was in the tournament. "It's awesome," he said. "Now if she would only sign her scorecard and make the cut."

Bill Kwon can be reached at billkwonrhs@aol.com