Darren Clarke has been handed a Ryder Cup lifeline - by the US PGA.

The Ulsterman, a stalwart of Europe's amazing run of success in the past three Ryder Cups, has been invited to the year's final major, next month's PGA at Oakland Hills, ironically the venue for the last European victory on American soil four years ago.

Clarke is currently lying 33rd on the points table but if he can play well in the next fortnight at two of the biggest money events on the schedule, he can radically improve that position.

He's playing at this week's WGC Bridgestone Invitational by virtue of being a current Ryder Cup player and will then stay on for the PGA the following week.

The Bridgestone at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio provided Clarke with his last win in 2003 before this season's success at the Maybank Malaysian Open in March.

Clarke has been frustrated at his inability to kick on from that success. He did manage to tie for fourth in the Wales Open in May but since then he finished tied for 19th in Austria, tied for 69th in France, 154th at the European Open at the London Club and 105th at the Scottish Open.

hat run has seen him slip back out of the top hundred in the world rankings - he is currently down to 105.

Oakland Hills will be his first major of the year as he failed to qualify for the Open at Royal Birkdale, was not invited to the Masters and opted not to go to qualifying for the US Open because he wanted to concentrate on trying to make sure of his place on the Ryder cup team.

Clarke now accepts that he is unlikely to get a wild card place from captain Nick Faldo. The European captain has only two selections as compared to his American counterpart Paul Azinger who changed the system to allow him four picks.

There is strong support for one of those places to go to Colin Montgomerie should he fail to qualify with Open champion Padraig Harrington, for one supporting the talismanic Scot.

And there are plenty of other potential candidates for Faldo to consider including the injured Luke Donald, now almost certain to miss out on automatic selection, Paul Casey and Ian Poulter among others

There is no cut at Bridgestone with its limited field so Clarke is guaranteed prize-money, but needs at least a top ten finish to really make a difference to his standing in the Ryder cup places.

With an $8,000,000 prize fund, a good placing will make a world of difference.

The same goes for next week's US PGA and Clarke obviously knows and has great memories of both courses.

Clarke is one of only four players to have won the Bridgestone, yet another WGC event which has been dominated by Tiger Woods. He has won it six times in total and was successful in each of the past three years.

His knee injury will prevent him defending the title this time around which will leave the entire elite field, including Graeme McDowell, feel they are in with a chance of victory.