The state’s best golfers will try their hand this week at the Club at Olde Stone.

And the Alvaton course, widely considered among the state’s finest, is ready to give players all their hands can handle.

When the 2009 Powerbilt Kentucky Open tees off Tuesday morning, nearly 150 of Kentucky’s top amateurs and professionals will face a difficult Olde Stone course set up to reward precision. Olde Stone isn’t packed with hazards, but beefed-up rough will swallow wayward shots and brisk greens will demand exacting putts.

By the time the 54-hole event wraps up Thursday evening, tournament officials hope the winner really feels he’s earned the biggest prize in Kentucky golf.

Ryan Price, Olde Stone’s director of golf, says the course has, for certain events, been set up easier than it plays for members. But not this week. While Olde Stone won’t quite be at maximum difficulty, organizers aren’t letting off the gas too much.

“When we hosted the (2007 Kentucky Senior Open) out here, we had almost a quarter of the field not even turning in their scorecard after the first day,” says Ryan Price, Olde Stone’s director of golf. “You had guys withdrawing, and it was just a brutal week for those guys. … The way we’re going to approach this is, we’ve backed off before, but we’re not backing down this week.”

The field should consider itself warned, but this group figures to be good enough to hold its own. Bill Coomer, who is overseeing tournament operations for the Kentucky Golf Association, said the field – which features nine past Kentucky Open champions, including Bowling Green’s Steve Rogers – is among the strongest in years.

Toss in plenty of other notables – among them 16-year-old phenom Justin Thomas of Goshen, the father-and-son tandem of Eddie and Jesse Mudd, former Bowling Green High School standout Jordan Blann, defending champion Trey Bowling and former Western Kentucky golfer Brent Long – and the tournament certainly seems up for grabs.

Well, sort of. Recent history offers a couple of suggestions for trying to predict a winner: Favor young players, and favor amateurs.

The past six Kentucky Open champions have all been amateurs at the time of their victories, and all were either in or very near their college golf days. The last professional to win the Open was former Barren County High School and University of Louisville golfer Grant Sturgeon in 2002.

Rogers, the 1982 Kentucky Open champion who enters the tournament on the heels of his first trip to the U.S. Senior Open two weeks ago, is an Olde Stone member. Intimate knowledge of the difficult course certainly will aid Rogers’ bid for a second Kentucky Open title, but the 53-year-old amateur is realistic about his chances.

“I would say if I were 23 instead of 53 … (familiarity with Olde Stone) would probably be a decided advantage,” Rogers says. “There’s a lot of local knowledge, I think, on this particular golf course. But as far as being able to compete and win, that would be a far stretch.

“The kids that are probably going to win are out chipping and putting and working on their golf game at 11 o’clock during the day, and I’m working. It will help me knowing the course, but if I were younger (it would be more) of an advantage.”

By that logic, younger players such as Long and Blann – who are plenty familiar with Olde Stone – might be solid picks.

Blann, a rising senior at the University of Kentucky, is trying to become just the fourth player to win the Kentucky Open and the Kentucky State Amateur in the same summer (Jodie Mudd did it twice, winning both tournaments in both 1979 and 1980).

But Blann – who is grouped with Rogers for the tournament’s first 36 holes – says he won’t be thinking about his previous successes next week. There will be plenty of other things demanding his attention.

“It was great to win the Amateur, but I’ve just got to take it one shot at a time,” Blann says. “What I did in the past is over and done with, and I can’t really think about that. …

“This is a tournament and a golf course that’s going to require a lot of patience. And being in the hometown, obviously, is probably going to create a lot of distractions.”

Players can’t afford too many distractions, though. Coomer said officials didn’t request any “trickery” from Olde Stone’s grounds staff, because the course is tough enough without chicanery.

“There’s probably half of the holes out there I would certainly call ‘target holes,’ ” Coomer says. “You’ve got to be in the right place, especially to approach those greens. You might not be the longest hitter off the tee, but position’s going to be very vital for scoring well this year.”

Equally vital will be keeping balls on the short grass.

“We cut the rough for the last time (Wednesday), so it’s going to have a week’s worth of growth …” Price says. “On a daily basis our rough is 2 1/2 and 3 inches, and I’d say by Thursday’s round we’ll be looking at 4 1/2 to 5 inches.

“Thank goodness I have some ball spotters available. It may be one of those days.”

Meanwhile, once players reach the greens, they’ll find speedy surfaces. Price said Olde Stone’s greens typically run at about 11 or 11 1/2 on the Stimpmeter – a device used to determine green speed – but they’ll be pushed up to as high as 12 1/2 this week, depending on weather conditions.

Still, Olde Stone won’t bare all its teeth, Rogers says. The KGA wants a fair setup, he says, and players will get a break in regard to the course’s potential length.

“The Kentucky Golf Association will not play the golf course as hard as it can play,” Rogers says. “They won’t be using the back tee boxes – the course can play 7,400 yards, but they’ll play it at 6,900 or 7,000.

“So we won’t get the full wrath of what that golf course can play.”

2009 Kentucky Open

Where: The Club at Olde Stone, Alvaton

What: Nearly 150 of Kentucky’s best professional and amateur golfers will battle for the biggest prize in state golf. Past winners include famed players such as Byron Nelson and Gay Brewer, PGA Tour pros Steve Flesch and J.B. Holmes and Bowling Green’s Steve Rogers.

When: Tuesday-Thursday. Tee times are scheduled between 7:30 a.m. and 1:50 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday. A cut will be made after 36 holes; the low 70 players and ties will play Thursday’s final round.

Admission: There is no charge for spectators. However, spectators may not use golf carts to travel around the course.