ANALYSIS: Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton on a lonely high, trouble for other Welsh PDC Tour Card holders

Wales has six players with a PDC Tour Card this year, which is one less than last year. A little over halfway through the year, it is time to take stock of their performance and see whose PDC Tour Card, if any, is in jeopardy.

With six PDC Tour Card holders, Wales is doing as well as Belgium and is in a shared fifth place. Only England (43), the Netherlands (21), Germany (12) and Scotland (8) are doing better.

The highest ranked Welshman in the world rankings is, once again, Gerwyn Price. 'The Iceman' had a difficult 2024, but is currently regaining his best level. Price has already won three Players Championships this year, no player on the PDC Pro Tour did better.

In addition, Price was the best at the Poland Darts Masters, part of the World Series of Darts, in early July. Price defeated Stephen Bunting 8-7 in the final. A week later, he was also the best at the Baltic Sea Darts Open, where he beat Gary Anderson 8-3 in the final.

In June, Price had also reached the final at the World Cup of Darts alongside Jonny Clayton. The duo went for a third final victory, but ultimately foundered against Northern Ireland.

Price once again exudes fun and he believes that is the key to performing so well again. At the past World Matchplay, he was one of the top favorites for the overall victory, but ultimately fell short against Josh Rock in the quarterfinals. Price, however, has once again nestled himself among the ranks of candidates for a major victory and no one will be keen to meet him in the coming months.

Jonny Clayton has long been the highest-ranked Welshman in the world rankings. 'The Ferret' is camped in eighth place and is having a particularly good year. That already started at the end of January at the Winmau World Masters, where Clayton managed to reach the final. There he came back from a 5-2 deficit in sets to 5-5, but eventually lost in the deciding leg of the deciding set to Luke Humphries.

In early March, Clayton defeated the likes of Gary Anderson and Michael Smith on his way to the semifinals of the UK Open. There he eventually lost 11-6 to eventual winner Luke Littler. In mid-April, Clayton won the fourteenth Players Championship of the year by defeating German Dominik Grüllich 8-2 in the final. He added another European Tour title a month later. Clayton defeated German Niko Springer 8-6 in the final of the Dutch Darts Championship.

A month later, Clayton reached the final of the World Cup of Darts alongside Gerwyn Price, but both Welshmen lost to Northern Ireland's Daryl Gurney and Josh Rock. At 50, Clayton is back to the level of his best days and appears poised to take another shot at major wins later this year.

For the next Welshman in the world rankings, we have to descend quite a bit, to 57th place to be exact. That's where we find Jim Williams. The former World Cup finalist with the BDO captured his PDC Tour Card in 2022 and immediately won a Players Championship that same year.

'The Quiff,' who has a busy job in addition to darts, has been barely performing in recent months. Thus, on the virtual world rankings - which take into account the money to be defended until the World Championship - he even slipped to 77th place. Williams therefore has a lot of work ahead of him in the coming months to still secure his PDC Tour Card for 2026. He took a step in the right direction last week by qualifying for Euro Tour 12. Williams has shown in the past that he has a lot of talent, but the question is how much time he wants to invest in his darts career.

Just behind Williams, we find Robert Owen in 58th place in the world rankings. 'Stack Attack' started the year strongly with a place in the last sixteen at the World Darts Championship. Owen could not push through after that, however, and that ensures that he is currently in the danger zone for retaining his PDC Tour Card. In the virtual world rankings, he is still two places lower and there are many players breathing down his neck. Owen therefore needs some strong performances in the coming months if he wants to keep the coveted PDC Tour Card.

The penultimate Welsh PDC Tour Card holder is Nick Kenny. The 32-year-old darter captured his PDC Tour Card in early 2023 and was threatened to lose it at the end of last year. Thanks to a strong World Championship, where he beat Raymond van Barneveld in the second round, he retained it after all.

Kenny is in danger again, however, he is currently 60th in the world rankings. Virtually the situation does look a little better, for example, he is ranked 51st on that list, so things seem to be looking up. If Kenny does what he has been doing all season, regularly winning some matches at the Players Championship, he will retain his PDC Tour Card again.

The last PDC Tour Card holder from Wales is Rhys Griffin, he can currently be found in 82nd place. Griffin captured his PDC Tour Card early last year, but has failed to achieve any appealing results since then. On the virtual world ranking list, things look even worse for the 28-year-old Welshman, as he is only ranked 90th there. Griffin is not qualified for any major this fall, and he is also missing out on the World Darts Championship;

Conclusion: for three of the six current PDC Tour Card holders from Wales, it looks benighted to retain that status at the end of this year. On the other hand, with Price and Clayton, Wales has two absolute top players in its ranks who can still go major hunting this fall.