Players will put away the scorecard and pencil this week when the Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Matchplay takes centre stage on the European Tour with four Australians taking part.

Andrew Dodt (image: GettyImages)

Scott Hend, Andrew Dodt, Marcus Fraser and Wade Ormsby all take their place in the field at the Murcar Links Golf Club in Scotland for a format not always popular with Professionals.

This week’s event is a straight knockout tournament meaning the pressure is on from the very first tee shot; lose your match and you’re on your way home.

With 18 hole matches being notoriously difficult to predict all four Australians have as much chance as any of the players in the field with the first round draw offering few clues to who might advance.

Scott Hend goes head to head with India’s Jeev Milkha Singh, owner of perhaps the most unorthodox swing in the Professional game.

Singh is a hugely experienced and internationally successful player and while Hend has had his struggles of late the lack of a scorecard in hand may free up the big hitting Queenslander to play his naturally aggressive game.

Andrew Dodt will play England’s Oliver Fisher in what is likely to be a close tussle. On paper Dodt is having the superior year with a win to his name in February but his form has been less than stellar since.

Fisher, too, has had his battles of late with missed cuts in each of his last four starts after retiring from the Austrian Open last month.

Marcus Fraser might have the most difficult match of the Australians as he comes up against experienced Swede and former Ryder Cup player Robert Karlsson.

While Karlsson hasn’t been in anything like his best form this year he will be dangerous in a format where a disaster hole punishes the player only for that hole.

Fraser, though, won’t be easy to beat with his consistent style of golf ideally suited to matchplay. The Victorian won’t be likely to give away any cheap holes and will make Karlsson pay for any mis-steps.

The last Australian in the field, Wade Ormsby, comes up against one of the game’s most colourful characters in a match that is impossible to predict.

Ormsby plays Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat, a mercurial talent who is prone to periods of poor play interrupted by flashes of brilliance.

Both players have been in indifferent from of late, Aphibarnrat missing six cuts in nine starts and Ormsby his last seven straight.

Both are due for a turnaround in form and the match could go either way and by any margin.