In May, Jenkins won his first tournament for three years at the seventh UK Open Qualifier of the season. He defeated Andy Hamilton 6–3 in the final. At the UK Open itself he reached the quarter-finals, where he lost 5–10 to Phil Taylor. Jenkins played in his third World Matchplay semi-final in July, following wins over Kim Huybrechts (11–9), Raymond van Barneveld (13–10) and Adrian Lewis (16–12). He faced James Wade and missed six darts at 15–15 to move a leg away from the final and instead he was beaten 15–17. Back to back first round defeats in major tournaments followed at the World Grand Prix and European Championship and Jenkins failed to qualify from his group at the Grand Slam of Darts as he only won one of his three games. After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played, Jenkins was 13th on the Order of Merit, which qualified him for the Players Championship Finals where he faced Mervyn King in the first round. Jenkins missed three darts for the match in the deciding leg, as he lost 5–6.