Concern for Barney: Raymond van Barneveld posts his worst-ever Pro Tour average at Players Championship 2

Van Barneveld has not started his 2026 Pro Tour season the way he likely hoped. Across two days, the Dutchman managed to win only one match and also recorded his lowest average on the PDC Pro Tour ever.

The Dutch darting icon opened his season at the first Players Championship events of the year in Hildesheim, Germany. He had earlier decided to skip the qualifiers for the Winmau World Masters, held on the last weekend of January.

The 58-year-old already had two exhibitions scheduled with the football club FC Twente.

He could then fully focus on his first two floor events of the year, but unfortunately for “Barney” things did not go well. On Monday afternoon, the Dutchman lost his opening match 6-2 to newly minted Tour Card holder Tom Sykes, making for a poor start to his week.

Although he did win his first match on Tuesday at Players Championship 2 by 6-3 against 18-year-old German talent Yorick Hofkens, his second outing was disastrous. Van Barneveld was beaten 6-1 by England’s Owen Bates, posting a paltry average of just 69.39.

Beyond being a dreadful start to his Pro Tour season, this match also went down as the worst average he has ever thrown on the PDC Pro Tour.

Last month it emerged that Van Barneveld is going for coffee with former professional footballer Rafael van der Vaart, who has offered to help the Dutchman give his career a boost. The question is whether that will pay off, or whether we will see Van Barneveld slowly fade from the scene over the coming year.

“Barney” is back in action twice today at the European Tour Tour Card Holder Qualifiers, where he hopes to qualify for the first two Euro Tour events of the year. These are the Poland Darts Masters and the European Darts Trophy. To achieve that, however, he will need to play far better than averaging just 69.