Reasons to be cheerful? There haven't been many. With the exception of the upwardly mobile Russell Knox, the PGA Tour player who is making impressive strides on the global stage and sits in 26th place on the world rankings, Scotland’s male golfers on the European circuit have hardly been setting the heather ablaze in 2016. Maybe a stop off at Castle Stuart for the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open this week will get those home fires burning.

Given the general hum-drum state of affairs, some cynics might say you have got more chance of seeing Elvis hurtling down the first fairway on Evel Knievel’s motorbike while whistling Highland Cathedral as you have of seeing a Scotsman other than Knox vying for the title next weekend.

For Paul Lawrie, the 1999 Open champion, the current campaign has not been a vintage one and he is well aware that the rest of his countrymen are underperforming too.

“We are all trying but right now, apart from Russell, there’s nothing going on as far as Scotland is concerned,” said Lawrie, who is part of a sizeable and varied tartan army competing at Castle Stuart in a field headlined by former champion Phil Mickelson, world No 5 Henrik Stenson and Majors winners like Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer. “We all seem to be struggling at the same time. I can assure you everybody out there is working hard and they certainly don’t want it to be this way but right now, it’s not very good. I’m like everybody else too and I’m in that boat. It’s just not happening.”

It’s certainly been happening for Knox. Since winning the WGC HSBC Champions last November, the saltire has been thrust into his grasp and he has taken over as the standard bearer for the men’s game on the global battlefronts.

The 31-year-old is the returning hero this week as he makes the trip back to his home city of Inverness. He didn’t play in the Scottish Open when it was last held at Castle Stuart in 2013 and he is relishing the prospect. Knox has already stated that victory in his own back yard would be the “biggest win” of his career but there’s a lot of golfing water to pass under the Kessock Brig' before that happens. There is no doubt, however, that Knox is a genuine contender and his share of second behind Rory McIlroy in May’s rain-lashed Irish Open during a brief stint back on this side of the pond showed he is a man for all seasons.

Lawrie knows all about the weight of expectation, of course. Two years ago in his own city, he was the one the locals all came out to see when the Scottish Open was staged at Royal Aberdeen and the newly-appointed European Ryder Cup vice-captain is convinced Knox will thrive under the spotlight.

“I loved it when the Scottish Open was at Aberdeen and to have so many people there, who you know are watching you as opposed to the others, is great,” he said. “Russell, as a local lad, will have that too and it should be all about him. I’ve been hugely impressed by him both as a person and as a golfer over the past couple of years. You see him on the television coverage of the PGA Tour and you know he’s a good player but when you play with him you realise just how good he is.

"Being the local man in the field does bring up its own problems, of course. The expectations for you as well as those of everybody else go up. But as golfers, our own expectations couldn’t be any higher anyway. You expect big things from yourself, no matter what shape you’re game is in. You expect and want to win or else there’s no point in playing. Russell will have all that stuff going on but he’ll enjoy it and thrive on it I’m sure. It’s a great experience playing in your own town. It doesn’t get any better.”

Lawrie is hoping things get better for him on the playing front. A long-standing and niggling foot injury, which will require surgery at the end of the season, has not helped the Aberdonian’s mood.

“You know the way I am, I was absolutely raging with my result at the BMW International the other week even with my bad foot,” he said of his fifth missed cut in nine tour events this season. “My foot was louping but even though it was sore I was thinking that I can’t stand playing golf that badly.

"I’m still looking forward to the Scottish Open, I still feel I’m competitive and I still feel I can do well. I know there’s less chance of it happening now than say four or five years ago but when you’re not 100 per cent fit and you’re still competitive and want to do well it’s just a horrible situation.

"When you don’t play well you get even more upset because you can’t produce it. When you’re fully fit and you don’t play well, it’s annoying. When you’re not 100 per cent and you don’t play well it’s even worse. I’m finding it very frustrating.”

Perhaps Lawrie, and the rest of the struggling Scots, will take those frustrations out on Castle Stuart this week.