Europe Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke will return to the greens this month after a period away from playing the game.

The 48-year-old who won the Open Championship in 2011 put aside his clubs to focus on preparing Team Europe in the best possible way for September’s Ryder Cup.

“I have my life back again to go towards my own golf and now I have time to put the work into my game,” Clarke told Sport360.

The Ulsterman played the Gary Player Invitational in South Africa this week and will play at Alfred Dunhill and Leopard Creek soon.

On the potential change of the Ryder Cup qualification process, he said: “The process has been very successful. This time the Americans played a little bit better, holed more putts than we did. I don’t think there is any necessity for a knee jerk reaction to change.”

“They need to think long and hard about what they are going to change. Certainly, the team were one unit whenever we were there and we unfortunately got beaten by a better team.”

Darren Clarke is an ambassador for Audemars Piguet and the interview was conducted during their golf invitational in Dubai last week.