Education
He finished his first year on tour ranked world number 89.
He finished his first year on tour ranked world number 89.
Donaldson turned professional in 2012 after winning the 2012 EBSA European Snooker Championships and gained a two year tour card for the 2012/13 and 2013/14 snooker seasons. Debut season
Donaldson did not participate on 2012 Wuxi Classic and 2012 Australian Goldfields Open, which both were held before the EBSA European Snooker Championships. The tournament formed part of the Players Tour Championship events, with Donaldson playing in all ten tournaments, with his best result coming in European Tour Event 1, where he beat Ricky Norris and Chris Norbury, before losing 3–4 to Michael Wild in the last 32.
His best run of results for the ranking event came in Shanghai Masters Qualifying, where he defeated Chen Zhe and Yu Delu, but then lost 1–5 to Nigel Bond.
Donaldson"s season ended when he was beaten 6–10 by Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in the first round of World Championship Qualifying. 2013/2014 season
In his opening match, Donaldson defeated Tom Ford 5–1 to qualify for the 2013 Wuxi Classic in China.
In his first appearance in the first round of a ranking event he defeated Gareth Green 5–3 and then beat Jimmy Robertson 5–4, before losing 5–1 to Robert Milkins in the last 16. He was knocked out by Barry Hawkins in the quarter-finals of the minor-ranking Bulgarian Open and in the semi-finals of the Asian Tour event, the Yixing Open.
He did not have to qualify for the United Kingdom Championship or the Welsh Open as all players on the tour began the events at the venue stage this season and Donaldson took advantage.
He lost a high quality encounter 6–3 to Joe Perry in the last 32. At the Welsh Donaldson saw off a trio of established players in Robert Milkins, David Gilbert and Andrew Higginson to reach the last 16 of a ranking event for the second time this season, where he was whitewashed 4–0 by Ding Junhui. Donaldson"s campaign ended with him at 65th in the world rankings, agonosingly short of reaching the top 64 who stay on tour.
2014/2015 season
Donaldson began the season by qualifying for the 2014 Wuxi Classic, where he was beaten 5–3 by Chen Zifan in the wildcard round.
However, after a 6–4 loss to Marcus Campbell in the first round of the United Kingdom Championship, Donaldson lost a further eight matches in a row to end the season.
His first match as a professional was a 4-2 win over Liam Highfield in the minor-ranking PTC Event 1. He was placed 70th on the Order of Merit. In the United Kingdom he saw off Matthew Selt 6–4 and then secured what he called the best victory of his career to date by taking the last two frames against world number 13 Mark Davis in a 6–5 win. Donaldson"s play in Asian Tour events this year helped him to finish eighth on the Order of Merit to qualify for the Finals for the first time. He met reigning world champion Ronnie O"Sullivan and was comfortably defeated 4–0. However, his standing of 38th on the European Order of Merit earned him the third of eight spots on offer to non-qualified players to earn a two-year main tour card for the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 seasons. He won four matches to qualify for the Australian Goldfields Open, which concluded with a 5–2 success over Kurt Maflin, before being whitewashed 5–0 by Stuart Bingham in the first round. At the minor-ranking Yixing Open, Donaldson won four matches to reach the quarter-finals, but lost 4–1 against Robert Milkins.
