Peter Lonard is one of four former NSW Open champions who will take on the challenging Greg Norman designed Stonecutters Ridge this week and the chance to snare victory for a second time.

In Lonard’s early years as a Professional the NSW Open Championship was a marquee event on the NSW circuit and the PGA TOUR winner is always happy to come back and play at a tournament he holds close to his heart.

"It’s always good to come back and play the NSW Open. It was a staple event when I started playing so it’s always good to support it," said Lonard, who is also using this week as preparation for the upcoming summer and the Australian PGA Championship.

"It’s a great warm up for the rest of this year’s tournaments."

"I’ve made a couple of cuts in a row the last couple of weeks so that’s good. I hadn’t played since New Zealand, six, seven months ago."

"I always play the PGA Championship and I’m looking forward to playing there and seeing what the back nine rebuild is going to be like."

"It’s a great week up there and I’m really looking forward to it."

Lonard joins former NSW Open winners Leigh McKechnie, Aaron Townsend and defending champion Anthony Brown in the field this week.

The NSW Open gets underway tomorrow at 6:45am, with Lonard teeing off at 7:15am.