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Australian Brad Kennedy will be chasing a third New Zealand Open crown at Millbrook this week.

Such is Australian golfer Brad Kennedy's long love affair with the New Zealand Open that skipping the 2024 tournament at Millbrook was never an option.

Never mind that a lingering knee injury and illness limited the 49-year-old to just eight events on the Japanese tour last year.

Or that he hasn't played competitively in three months.

Despite the long-running knee complaint, Kennedy still did enough to retain his card in Japan last year and qualify for the season-ending JT Cup.

With the aim of playing a much bigger schedule in Japan in 2024, Kennedy spent the summer working on his rehab and fitness, to the extent that he joked he felt "more like a cyclist than a golfer at the moment".

That all changes when the $NZ2 million ($A1.885 million) New Zealand Open begins on Thursday.

"I only picked up the clubs again two weeks ago and you can tell a little bit," said Kennedy.

"There are some little bits of brilliance there, but at the moment I'm going through a bit of a change to get myself prepared for this year and the years ahead."

Kennedy's two biggest career wins on his home tour were in the 2011 and 2020 New Zealand Opens - the latter triumph coming at Millbrook - and he boasts several other top-three finishes.

"This week is going to be all about memories and trying to reboot and understand the type of golf that needs to be played around Millbrook," Kennedy told reporters on Tuesday.

"If conditions are the way we hope they're going to be, it's going to be a big scoring opportunity.

"Hopefully on the first tee on Thursday the competitive juices will set in and I'll be able to get into that mindset and know what needs to be achieved to perform in this sort of environment.

"... I don't know what it is about New Zealand that gives me that feeling but it's definitely a comfort level I feel when I come over here.

"Having the success, the memories come back, you feel like you belong and you run off those emotions."

The New Zealand Open is co-sanctioned by the Australasian and Asian Tours, while organisers also set aside 20 slots for Japanese Tour players.

Last year's Australasian Order of Merit winner David Micheluzzi, defending champion Brendan Jones, Brett Coletta, Travis Smyth and Jed Morgan are among the other prominent Australians in the field.

Among the best local hopes is 22-year-old tyro Kazuma Kobori, who has already won three times on the Australasian Tour in 2024.