Donaldson puts injury woes behind him

How life has changed for Jamie Donaldson, the golfer who was advised to stop playing the sport after suffering serious back trouble.

For the second time in just over six months, the 37-year-old Welshman has beaten a field which included Rory McIlroy - and the latest one had Tiger Woods there, too. While the world's top two missed the cut at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Donaldson added the title to his Irish Open victory last July and then spoke about his "years in the wilderness".

"The low point, probably in '04, was when I would be scared of stepping off a curb just in case my back was going to go," he said.

When one doctor advised him to call a halt to his career, though, Donaldson was having none of it.

"I couldn't hear that - that wasn't what I wanted to hear," he told Press Association Sport last night, after collecting the £278,172 first prize. "To be honest, as soon as somebody says that, you just go and see somebody else."

That person was London-based spinal rehabilitation specialist Jon Bowskill, and he gave Donaldson a programme of core stability exercises that enabled him to resume playing.

"It's a bit like riding a bike really. Once you've done them for so long you're training balance muscles that you never had before.

"I haven't done any for quite a while now, but I think there will become a point where I actually need to.

"At the moment it's not broke, so I'm not trying to fix it."

Donaldson's triumph at Royal Portrush last summer came in his 255th European Tour start and six years after he had had to return to the qualifying school.