If Jamie Donaldson ever gets scunnered with golf, he could probably get a job at Madame Tussauds.

The Welshman seems to be a dab hand at creating uncanny likenesses, after all. Instead of wax it's a wedge that he uses for his inspiring imitations.

Yesterday at Gleneagles, Donaldson was back at the scene of his finest moment; the 15th hole of the PGA Centenary course where, last September, he thumped that wonderful wedge from 146 yards to within 18 inches against Keegan Bradley in the final day singles which sealed the Ryder Cup for Europe.

A once in a lifetime shot? Well, not quite. Donaldson had another go at it yesterday as he unveiled a commemorative plaque named 'The Winning Shot' that has been plopped into the turf at the point where the 39-year-old struck that decisive blow. "Let's see if I can hit the green," said Donaldson with a chuckle as he shuffled and shoogled himself into position to replicate the stroke that changed his life. His first crack towered up and dropped down just six feet to the left of the flag. The second effort was deliciously flighted too and came to rest barely four-feet from the hole on the right. As re-enactments go, it was as good as one of those you get down the road at Bannockburn. "I did pretty well eh?," he said with a large grin. "It was quite a surprise. I've not warmed up and I've hit one to four feet. It shows it wasn't a fluke anyway. The Ryder Cup was the best moment of my career and it will be something that will live with me for the rest of my life."

This was Donaldson's first trip back to Perthshire since that momentous Sunday in September that led to the kind of lavish, drink-fuelled festivities that would have made Caligula look like a member of the Temperance Movement. The marking of the occasion didn't get off to the best of starts, mind you. "I was jet-lagged from coming back from America so I left my flight up here a bit late-ish as I'm only ten minutes from the airport," explained Donaldson, who had just returned from a top-10 finish in The Players' Championship in Florida. "There just happened to be a hell of a lot of traffic and when I got there they said 'sorry, we're done' and I missed it. I actually nearly missed the second one too as they didn't put a gate number up and the next thing I heard was 'final call for Donaldson'. For someone who flies regularly to nearly miss two flights in a day is ridiculous."

Donaldson's career has taken flight, of course. Now a consistent, global campaigner in the upper echelons of the world, the triple European Tour winner, who is juggling competition on both sides of the Atlantic, has come a long way since those times of toil when he lost his tour card in 2006 and found himself back on the second-tier Challenge Tour the following season. Lowly results in Colombia and Costa Rica at the start of 2007 did little for morale or money matters but a win in Guatemala galvanised his stuttering career. Seven years later, he was a hero in Gleneagles. "I went to South America on a three-week run of events and finished 31st in each of the first two," recalled the current world No 28. "I looked at my pay cheques and I had won about 1200 quid. Basically I had lost money, because of how much it cost me in travelling and the like. I remember thinking 'I've actually played all right here but I've lost money so if I don't pull my finger out, I'm done'. I wasn't done yet but it was the way I was heading. I was heading towards packing it in. The following week I won the tournament and played unbelievably well. Those moments are big eye openers; seeing that the place you were wasn't the place you wanted to be. It was a real kick in the a***."

Donaldson and Europe certainly kicked the USA's you know what with that 16 ½ - 11 ½ triumph. The Welshman's magical moment was very real yet remains almost surreal. "It's weird," he reflected. "I was at the Honda Classic in the US this year and there were pictures all down a corridor of all these different Ryder Cup teams. I'm looking at all these thinking 'hang on, I've played in that'. It's bizarre. Obviously, I get recognised more and people mention it to me a lot, especially in Britain. I've been playing in American for four months, so it doesn't get mentioned a lot there, funnily enough. It's as if it never happened."

It did happen, though, and Donaldson will never forget it.