Arjun Atwal, who become the first Indian golfer to win a European Tour event with his victory last week in Singapore, is also competing at Royal Selangor Golf Club in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, and is rewarded by playing alongside a resurgent Faldo in the first two rounds.

Harrington and Campbell have both flown to Malaysia after losing in the first round of the World Matchplay Championship in California, Harrington to American left-hander Steve Flesch and Campbell to Ryder Cup player Niclas Fasth.

The Irishman was quick to rubbish suggestions of a change in format of the contest however, which pits the world’s top 64 players against each other over 18 holes of matchplay the final being contested over 36 holes.

That final was contested by relative unknowns Kevin Sutherland and Scott McCarron, while eight of the world’s top 10 players failed to survive the first two days, three of them exiting on the first day.

World number one Tiger Woods was a first-round casualty, losing to bottom seed Peter O’Malley of Australia two and one, and television ratings apparently plummeted for the rest of the week.

Critics of the current system have suggested seeding the top players and giving them a bye into the second or third round, but Harrington said: ‘‘I think that’s silly.

‘‘Just because they didn’t get the winner they wanted doesn’t meant they should change the format. In that format, even playing well you can get beaten.

‘‘That’s the great thing about matchplay. It throws up surprises and it’s a different game of golf. If you ask all the top 64 players they would say it’s nice to play but we would probably like to play it later in the season, it’s a bit awkward at the start of the year.’’

Campbell added: ‘‘It was a bit disappointing losing in the first round because I knew I was playing well enough to win the matchplay, but it was one of those things.

‘‘I shot four under and still lost, Niclas played great. Matchplay is a cut-throat format. In strokeplay four-under would have been a good start to the week.’’

Campbell was joint leader after two rounds of this event last year but faded to a share of seventh place, a result he felt reflected a poor season by his standards.

‘‘Last year was quite disappointing although I won once and finished 12th on the order of merit and 26th on the world rankings,’’ Campbell said.

‘‘Compared to 2000 when I won four times and finished 14th in the world it was disappointing and this year my goal is to reach the top 10 in the world.’’