Kelly (21), an engineering trade assistant, is one of six promising young bowlers who have been invited to the event, which is acknowledged as the best singles event held annually in New Zealand.
The other promising youngsters in the field are current internationals Chris Le Lievre (Auckland), Richard Collett (Counties-Manukau), Shannon McIlroy (Nelson) and Mark Watt (North East Valley).
The other youngster is Nick Buttar (North East Valley), who is the son of the late Stewart Buttar, a former international.
Kelly first came into the national spotlight four years ago when he skipped his teenage team to the final of the New Zealand championship fours.
He has been a member of the Professional Bowls Association for four years and won a trip to the Welsh Masters singles last year.
Kelly started playing bowls in Oamaru nine years ago and is a New Zealand senior representative.
Collett won the New Zealand singles title last season and Le Lievre the national fours two years ago.
Watt is in the 10-man New Zealand squad preparing for next year's Commonwealth Games and McIlroy will be attempting to win his third Speight's North East Valley invitation singles.
Kelly, Watt and Collett are now playing for New Zealand in Malaysia.
There are nine current internationals in the field.
The others are the Canterbury pair of Gary Lawson and Shayne Sincock, Tony Grantham (North Harbour) and Jamie Hill (Auckland).
There are also nine former internationals included in the field - Terry and Jim Scott (North East Valley), Sean O'Neill (South Canterbury), Glen McDonald (Canterbury), Justin Goodwin (North Harbour), Steve Posa (Waikato), Paul Girdler (Dunedin), Andrew Curtain (Canterbury) and Philip Skoglund (Manawatu).
The total prize money has increased by $1000 to $15,000 and the winners purse is $5000.
Tournament organiser Terry Scott said this year's field was slightly weaker than previous years with the Australian based New Zealand players competing in the Australian State finals.
This affects Ali Forsyth, Richard Girvan, Andrew Todd, three-time winner Rowan Brassey and Canadian international Ryan Bester.
Newcomers this year are Lance Pascoe (West Coast), who was a member of the winning national club fours team last season, and Dan Delany (Auckland).
