Darren Clarke has lavished praise on the Doha course

The Ulsterman, whose wife Heather died in August, has seen his world ranking slip to 42nd after playing in only five tournaments over the past six months.

"I'm keen to get back to work again - I've put a lot of work in at home in the wet and windy weather," he said.

"I am competitively rusty and the only way to get through that is to play in tournaments again."

He added: "I'm looking forward to the challenge this week. It's a great field, there's lots of ranking points on offer so hopefully I will do okay.

"At this stage of the year here the weather is so good and the courses are so good - it's alway a pleasure to be here.

"It is better to be trying to compete against some of the best players in the world than being stuck at home."

Clarke played in Europe's Royal Trophy win over Asia earlier this month but his last strokeplay tournament appearance came in the Taiheiyo Masters in Japan in November.

I intend to use all the facilities here to work on my game, work on my swing and see where it leaves me at the end of the week Darren Clarke

A high quality field in Doha also includes Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Sergio Garcia.

Clarke tees off alongside Garcia and Jaidee Thongchai on Thursday on a course which is highly rated by the Ryder Cup hero.

"It is a fantastic course, it's in great shape and the rough's up," said Clarke.

"The greens are as difficult as they've always been to hole putts on and read properly so it is going to be a big challenge.

"I intend to use all the facilities here to work on my game, work on my swing and see where it leaves me at the end of the week.

"If it is not as good as I hope then I'll keep on working it, move on to next week and try to go from there, but sooner or later I will start playing the way I can again."