Four-time defending Lawrence Amateur Golf Association city champion Conrad Roberts will have quite a few people wanting to take away his title this year. The two-day tournament starts today at Eagle Bend.

He’s back and this time he’s expecting a challenge.

For the last half decade, the road to the Lawrence Amateur Golf Association’s city championship has been a path reserved for Conrad Roberts and his golf bag.

Roberts, 35, has won the last four LAGA titles, and his run has resembled the job of a postal worker. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor shortened tourneys have been able to slow him down.

The most recent title came last July, when Roberts shot a 71 at Eagle Bend to win title No. 4, which was shortened to one day because of heavy rains. That was the closest margin of victory during the streak. In 2008, he shot a two-day 150 to win by nine strokes, and in 2007, which also was shortened to one round because of rain, his 68 at Alvamar left him clear of the field by seven strokes.

As he looks to push his streak to five in a row, Roberts enters the weekend supremely confident but armed with the knowledge that people are gunning for him this time around. For some players, that might add pressure. For Roberts, it adds excitement.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Knowing the guys that are playing in it this time, if I let them win, I will never hear the end of it. So going into this I’m going to try to play my butt off to see if I can come away with a fifth, simply because I don’t want a whole year of waiting and listening to these guys just go on and on and on about how they took me down.”

If Roberts has proven anything during his golfing days — which date back to his time on the Kansas University golf team in the late 1990s — it’s that he’s at his best when the pressure is on. Roberts credits former KU golf coach Ross Randall for his cool temperament, something he expects to need a lot of with so many “friends” hunting him down this time around. This year’s tournament, which opens today at Eagle Bend, will feature several different flights for both men and women. Roberts and his chasers will play in the championship flight. For the four-time defending champ, opening his title defense at Eagle Bend is the perfect scenario. That’s largely because that means he may have the opportunity to close it out at the more familiar Alvamar Public course on Sunday.

“For me this works out better because I know Alvamar a lot better than I know Eagle Bend,” he said. “With it being at Alvamar on Sunday, if I happen to be a shot or two down, course knowledge and experience may help out a little bit.”

Roberts openly admits that, because he plays just once a week and, as a husband and father of a four-year-old daughter, does not have the luxury of playing competitive golf year-round, he could easily see the streak coming to an end some day soon.

He just hopes that day does not come this weekend.

“I play competitive golf so seldom anymore that any chance I get to play in a competition makes me want to play my hardest,” Roberts said. “You miss it. Going out with your mates on a Sunday morning, that’s fun, but it doesn’t really get your juices flowing. Playing against the best of the best, whether it’s the best in the state, the best in the city or whatever, that really gets me excited.”

When asked what title No. 5 would mean to him, beyond the obvious impact of avoiding a year’s worth of ribbing from his buddies, Roberts flashed a dash of the one thing that’s helped him win the previous four.

“To me, it means a lot,” he said. “This one is no less important than trying to win it for the first time.”

As for any words or advice he might have for those golfers — friends or otherwise — who will try to knock him from the mountain top this weekend?

“Bring it,” he said. “It should be a good time and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Roberts will tee off at 8:08 a.m. today.

Carol Rau and Mike Grosdidier, two players who have plenty of experience in the winner’s circle of the city tournament, also will look to defend their titles beginning today. Rau will tee off at 8 a.m. in the women’s flight, and Grosdidier will tee off at 9:44 a.m. in the senior championship flight.