Former British Open champion, and also fellow Scot, Paul Lawrie is urging his fellow European Tour players not to keep punishing Elliott Saltman when he returns to competition after a three-month ban for cheating.

Lawrie is a member of the Tournament Players Committee that met during this year’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship to endorse the ban.

Saltman had been called before the Tour in Abu Dhabi after his two Russian Open playing partners from last September’s event in Moscow took the matter further by complaining formally to the Tour even though Saltman had been disqualified from the event.

Saltman was banned from both the main European Tour and second tier Challenge Tour but not from other forms of competitions including a pro event where he teed-up in late January.

However there was talk of his Spanish playing partners pulling out in protest over the Scots actions in Russia for incorrectly marking his ball.

This is precisely what Lawrie is seeking to discourage when Saltman is eligible to return in April’s Volvo China Open.

For starters, Lawrie doesn’t want to have to experience a meeting like that again and admitted the Committee, all of who are current Tour players, are taking steps to ensure they’re not put in position where they are forced to be judge and jury over their colleagues.

And Lawrie believes there’s no need for members of the committee to volunteer to play with him on his first day back because the way he sees it, Saltman will have served his sentence and should be treated like anyone else.

“I don’t think there is a duty of care for the committee to help Elliot on his return, that’s not our role,” said Lawrie.

“Whenever his ban is up and he plays his first event, whoever plays with him does so as a fellow professional and it shouldn’t matter whether you are on the committee and what position you hold.

“In short, just get on with it. He will have served his ban and if I’m drawn with him I will play as usual.

“I’m there to play in a tournament for myself and my aim is to get my ball in the hole in the fewest amount of shots I can. Whoever I play with is not a concern.”

However the 1999 British Open winner believes there must be changes to the self-policing system among players.

The 42-year-old Scot believes there is too great a conflict of interests when fellow competitors are asked to impose bans on their rival players and expects to see a new disciplinary system introduced.

“It was difficult, no matter the nationality of the guy standing in front of you. It wasn’t an easy situation and I don’t think players should be doing that,” he said.

“Everyone on the committee felt that way and they are going to try to change it in the near future.

“I don’t think it’s right and we all knew it had to change. It should be a smaller panel of players who are not on tour.

“You are telling somebody they can’t play then you find yourself competing against that player a few months later.

“It was a difficult decision for everybody, circumstances were poor but that’s the situation we were asked to deal with so we did it as best we could.”