20-year-old Roelofs conquers Tour Card: "Worked extremely hard for four years and finally did it"

Owen Roelofs was one of seven Dutchmen who managed to secure a Tour Card at Q-School last week.

"Great, I worked extremely hard for this for four years and finally it worked out," Roelofs opened to Darts Actueel. "After obtaining my Tour Card, I received messages from Glen Durrant, Tony O'Shea and Jelle Klaasen, among others, which is obviously particularly nice."

Roelofs eventually captured his Tour Card in tenth and also last via the Q-School rankings. "The first two days I conquered three points each time and therefore I was almost sure of a Tour Card. Still, it was quite exciting that final day, I conquered another point and then I waited in my hotel room for several hours for the result. The relief was obviously particularly great when I got the good news."

The Tour Card did not entirely come as a surprise to Roelofs either. "I went to Q-School this year with a lot more confidence than in previous years. I had also trained a lot more and really believed it was possible this year."

How did the 20-year-old Roelofs actually get into darts? "My father played darts and my brother (Colin) had also started playing darts after a knee injury in football. He was very successful in youth and won the Winmau World Masters and the youth World Cup at the BDO, among others. I trained a lot with him and got better and better myself."

Roelofs is still studying. "I am in my final year in the account manager course. But now I want to focus completely on darts for a while anyway, hopefully my school will be a bit flexible about that."