Local knowledge provides Geoff Ogilvy with a huge advantage going into this week's JBWere Masters at Victoria Golf Club.
But it's an advantage, he said, that's double edged and could be dangerous if not used effectively.
Addressing the media after a practice round at Victoria Tuesday, the tournament third-favourite said he's not about to assume that everything will simply fall into place over the next five days.
"I've been a member here since I was 15, played a bit of pennant golf and it's probably the golf course that I've played more than any golf course in the world," Ogilvy said.
"I don't need to be out there really studying the course."
"I should know what most of the putts do and I know the right way to play the hole without having to think about it too much."
"But also it can work the other way, you can put too much pressure on yourself and try a bit too hard because you get the pats on the back from the members on the way from the range every morning."
"It's definitely an advantage if you use it the right way."
Ogilvy said the 6297-metre par-71 layout situated in the heart of Melbourne's world-renowned sandbelt has never looked better and will test every aspect of every player's game this week.
"It's a subtle kind of golf course to play," he said.
"There's nothing obvious about any hole and the way to attack it."
"It's not like - this guy's the longest hitter this week so he's got a massive advantage or this guy's a great putter, he's got a massive advantage."
"It's a very complete-game golf course."
"You have to do everything pretty well to do well around here so that's why I think it's a really good test."
The 33-year-old said he's feeling fit and refreshed coming off a six-week break that put some distance between himself and an otherwise indifferent 2010.
Ogilvy said that, to a certain extent, life conspired against him.
"It was a perfect storm," Ogilvy said.
"I was a bit tired from playing too much at this time last year, we had our third baby in four years in February ... I didn't hole as many putts and confidence, it works both ways."
"You can build on confidence but ... if you have multiple bad tournaments on top of each other, it just eroded my confidence a little bit."
"(The 2010 Open at) St Andrews wasn't rock bottom but I left thinking 'we've got to start playing better than this'."
"So I went home and assessed how I was practicing and going about it and worked out why I wasn't playing well."
"I had to step outside Geoff Ogilvy and come up with a few suggestions, and it's been good since then."