Payne has an innate love and a connection for the nine-hole course in terms of his success there and the fact friend and former Duntryleague greenkeeper Michael Campbell is now looking after the track, and he's hoping the familiar surroundings will lift him out of his funk.

"I'm really out of form at the moment," he said

"When you're not playing your form goes by the wayside so I'm not going out there expecting to win. I will be working my guts out though."

Payne last tasted success at Blayney in 2016 amid a stunning run of success, in which he claimed a handful of the region's Open titles along with the City of Orange Golf Championship.

He'll have stiff competition though with reigning champion Andy Campbell, a perennial contender in all of the Central West's Open events, among the field this weekend too.

Payne said the 27-hole Blayney Open - the nine-hole layout is played three times in one day - is one of his favourites and provides the field a unique challenge compared to the more-regular 18-hole layouts, he was also encouraging as many golfers as he possibly could to enter.

"It's always a good day and it's a well run tournament that just makes it a day that I always really enjoy," he said.

"You can get a look at where the pins are the first time around and then you can refine your game. It's a course where if you're playing well, you'll score well."

Naturally with the region being plagued by drought the dry conditions haven't made preparing the course easy, but Blayney president Mick Miskell lauded Campbell's work amid restrictions.

"We're pumping 40,000 litres of water every day into two tanks which is connected to the irrigation system which the new greenkeeper is doing a great job of utilising," he said.

With 14 minutes of watering on each green per day keeping them looking fantastic, it's on the fairway where conditions will test the competitors.

"There's a fair bit of run out there because of the dry and the lies won't be as good as they are at other towns because the fairways aren't watered,' Miskell said.