He describes himself like a bottle of Rioja wine – just gets better with age!

However Miguel Angel Jimenez tees up in this week’s KLM Open determined to extend his record as the European Tour’s oldest-ever champion in winning a second Dutch title and nine years after a first.

“Next January I will be 50 but then I don’t find it a difficult thing still to be competitive out here,” he said.

Look – one hand! Miguel Angel Jimenez with the 2012 UBS Hong Kong Open trophy. (Photo – www.golffile.ie)

“I finished fifth last week in Switzerland and thought I had a good chance of winning but I have always believed that the period from my middle age to now would be my best years.

“I played with Thomas Bjorn the last round last week and he’s 42, so I don’t see it as a problem for me being competitive at 49 years of age.”

Jimenez, who was aged 48 years and 318 days old when he captured last year’s UBS Hong Kong Open, also has not ruled out qualifying automatically for next year’s European Ryder Cup side.

“With my age I don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow but I like the game and I love to compete on the Tour,” he said.

“Of course, it is still a long time to we play the Ryder Cup and what I have to do is to enjoy every single week from now to then.

“I would love to play again on the Ryder Cup team, of course I could.

“I look like qualifying for the Seve Trophy team next month and that will mean I will be the only player to have played in every Seve Trophy so that’s nice.”

If successful, it would be Jimenez’s first appearance in the side since 2010 while foe the past two Ryder Cup’s he’s acted as a vice-captain.

And returning to competition for a first time since last month’s PGA Championship is Belguim’s Nicolas Colsaerts who first played the Kennemer course as a 15-year old.