Jamie Donaldson came into the year’s final Major Championship knowing a good performance at Valhalla would go a long way to sealing his first appearance in a Ryder Cup.
Judging by the way the Welshman has performed in Kentucky over the first three days of the US PGA Championship, where he has posted rounds of 69-70-66, you wouldn’t know the likes of Luke Donald and Ian Poulter were breathing down his neck on the World Points list.
Donaldson entered the week as the last man into Paul McGinley’s team, but a couple of missed cuts in his last two starts have allowed him some downtime, and he travelled to Kentucky fresh as a result.
The two-time European Tour winner is no stranger to finishing right up there in big events this side of the pond, having finished in a tie for second at the WGC - Cadillac Championship earlier this year, and one more low round on Sunday will go a long way to consolidating his place in Scotland next month.
“It's there for me to play well and take control of the Ryder Cup situation and sort it out this week” said Donaldson. “I'm just trying to go out there and play as well I can and shoot as low a score as I can. I’m going to just take it one shot at a time and that's all I can do really. I just want to let everything take care of itself.”
Like Donaldson, Graeme McDowell is just on the right side of the qualification line, however the Northern Irishman has struggled to find his best form on the fairways and greens of Valhalla.
The Northern Irishman did make the cut though, as did Donald and Poulter, who are at three and one under respectively, but it is Donaldson who has shone with just four weeks left of Ryder Cup qualifying.
His five under par round today included no fewer than seven birdies, and while a couple of dropped shots took some of the shine off his day, his five under par score moved him to eight under par and into a tie for tenth.
“Today was almost perfect,” said Donaldson. “It warmed up and the ball was travelling further. The greens are pretty good here as well, although it was very wet out there. The fairways are soaked, but the greens are very dry, which made for ideal scoring.”
With Donaldson up there in contention for his first Major title among some world-class players in Kentucky, and his main challengers some way back or not here for the weekend this week could still turn out to be very significant indeed.
