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Ryder Cup Shot Quality: Jamie Donaldson’s match-winning wedge | Josh Coles

Written by Josh Coles | Sep 14, 2023 10:56:00 AM

Coming into the 2014 Ryder Cup, Welshman Jamie Donaldson was playing some of the best golf of his life. With the European team needing one more point to secure a comfortable victory, Donaldson knew he had a chance of immortality if he could just close out his opponent Keegan Bradley.

 

At dormie 4 up, he found himself 146 yards away on the par 4 15th. Donaldson flushed his wedge, gave the club a twirl before watching his ball land on the putting surface before coming to rest just a foot away from the hole. Donaldson put his finger in the air in acknowledgement, knowing he’d secured the trophy-winning point.

How good was that laser-like wedge shot? A Shot Quality score of 0 denotes the worst possible outcome, 100 represents the expected score of the average tour player, and 200 represents statistical perfection, such as a hole in one or holing out from long distance. See below for what Donaldson scored for his career-defining shot.