PAUL Lawrie will have to overcome both a foot injury and his former Ryder Cup partner Peter Hanson to reach the second round of his own event in Germany.

Now in its third year, the Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Play was initially staged at Murcar Golf Links in Lawrie’s home city of Aberdeen before moving to Archerfield Links in 2016.

Despite providing a welcome break from the regular diet of 72-hole strokeplay, the event failed to draw large crowds and this year’s event is taking place at Bad Griesbach Golf Resort, which hosted the Porsche European Open for the last two years.

“I played with Peter in the Ryder Cup in 2012, he and I were partners on the Friday afternoon against Bubba and Webb Simpson,” said Lawrie, who lost that match at Medinah but beat Brandt Snedeker in the singles as Europe staged a stunning fightback.

“His game is in a little bit better shape than mine at the moment, but once you’re competitive and you get over that line, you can always turn up and hopefully play well and do a job.”

Lawrie, 48, had missed the cut in three straight events before finishing in a tie for 60th in the 76-man field in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, for which he qualified by winning the Dimension Data Pro-Am in February.

“I had a week off and went over to South Africa with my son as my partner and played really nicely that week,” the former Open champion said.

“Ever since then I’ve got a problem with my left foot. I’ve got a bit of arthritis in both feet but my left foot is worse than the right, so I’m struggling a wee bit over four days.

“First day I’m OK because it’s not too bad and then it gets worse as the week goes on. But if my feet are OK I still feel as though I can compete and still feel as though I can do well, but we’ll see what we get this week.”

England’s Anthony Wall was forced to withdraw from his last event with a neck injury, but will defend the title he won last year, a record 16 years and 204 days after his previous victory in South Africa.

“I’m happy with how I’m playing and more importantly my body feels pretty good,” said Wall, who beat Sweden’s Alex Noren in last year’s final.

“Often you start to creak and crack at this time of year – ‘end-of-seasonitis’ does tend to creep in – but I tend to be a good player at this time of year.

“The best part of the win last year was the fact that my family were watching at home. My kids are now old enough and my wife can sit there with them.

“Having my family seeing what I’m doing, including my in-laws in Australia, and beating someone with a real reputation and real style and class as well just proves to me and to everyone that follows me that I’ve still got it. That was fantastic.”

Wall takes on Sam Walker in the first round after the Englishman was a late replacement for the injured Kristoffer Broberg.

Meanwhile, Snedeker is taking an “indefinite” break from golf to recover from the rib injury which has kept him out of action since June.

Snedeker, who won the European Tour’s Fiji International last October, withdrew from the Open Championship the day before the first round and has not played since.

The 36-year-old wrote on Twitter: “I would first like to thank everyone for their well wishes over the last few weeks, it has meant a lot to me.

“Unfortunately, I have not progressed in my rehab like we would have hoped and therefore will be shutting it down for an indefinite period of time until I get back to 100 per cent healthy.

“My sternum joint has become unstable and does not allow me to hit a golf ball without pain. My medical team and I are looking into every option to get me back to playing as soon as possible.”