The field of participants for the 2023 UK Open is confirmed. From 3-5 March, Butlins in Minehead plays host to the FA Cup of Darts with Danny Noppert as defending champion.
The UK Open is a unique tournament on the PDC calendar. Not only is it the event with the largest field of participants. After the third round, there is a new draw after each round. This can lead to clashes between world class players early in the tournament.
The entry field consists of all current PDC Tour Card holders, the best players from the Challenge Tour and Development Tour in 2022 and 16 Rileys Amateur Qualifiers.
Numbers 97-128 in the world rankings, all Challenge Tour and Development Tour Qualifiers and the sixteen Rileys Amateur Qualifiers will start the tournament from the first round. This includes the likes of Thibault Tricole, Luke Littler, Karel Sedlacek, Ronny Huybrechts, Gian van Veen, Arron Monk and Jeffrey de Zwaan. Corey Cadby and Christian Perez have withdrawn meaning two players will receive byes with David Pallett also out meaning Lukas Wenig takes his spot.
Players ranked from spot 65 to 96 on the PDC Order of Merit will enter from the second round. This showed the importance of the last tournament before the cutoff as Richard Veenstra and Keegan Brown now start in the second round.
Alongside the likes of Richie Burnett, Scott Waites, Nathan Rafferty, Cameron Menzies and Matt Campbell.
One round later, it is also the turn of the numbers 33 to 64 on the Order of Merit. Simon Whitlock, Adrian Lewis, Josh Rock are among those on this list.
The top-32 of the Order of Merit are automatically qualified for the fourth round. These include Michael van Gerwen, Danny Noppert, Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright and Luke Humphries.
Field of participants 2023 UK Open
Numbers 1-32 on PDC Order of Merit (start in round four)
Michael Smith
Peter Wright
Michael van Gerwen
Gerwyn Price
Luke Humphries
Rob Cross
Danny Noppert
Nathan Aspinall
Dirk van Duijvenbode
Joe Cullen
Ryan Searl
Jose de Sousa
Dave Chisnall
Damon Heta
Ross Smith
Gabriel Clemens
Krzysztof Ratajski
Chris Dobey
Stephen Bunting
Gary Anderson
Callan Rydz
Brendan Dolan
Daryl Gurney
Martin Schindler
Kim Huybrechts
Mervyn King
Vincent van der Voort
Raymond van Barneveld
Alan Soutar
Numbers 33-64 on PDC Order of Merit (start in third round)
Mensur Suljovic
Madars Razma
Adrian Lewis
Josh Rock
Simon Whitlock
William O'Connor
Martin Lukeman
Martijn Kleermaker
Andrew Gilding
Keane Barry
Ryan Joyce
Ian White
Ritchie Edhouse
Ryan Meikle
Jermaine Wattimena
Luke Woodhouse
Ricky Evans
Jamie Hughes
Florian Hempel
Steve Beaton
Rowby John Rodriguez
Mike De Decker
Boris Krcmar
Darius Labanauskas
Jim Williams
Scott Williams
Lewy Williams
Steve Lennon
Devon Petersen
Adam Gawlas
Joe Murnan
Jeff Smith
Numbers 65-96 on PDC Order of Merit (start in round two)
Matt Campbell
Danny Jansen
Cameron Menzies
Nathan Rafferty
Mickey Mansell
John O'Shea
Scott Waites
Mario Vandenbogaerde
Kevin Doets
Ted Evetts
Jimmy Hendriks
Ricardo Pietreczko
Jose Justice
Richie Burnett
Krzysztof Kciuk
Connor Scutt
Brian Raman
Bradley Brooks
James Wilson
Radek Szaganski
Rusty Jake Rodriguez
Shaun Wilkinson
George Killington
Luke Peters
Tony Martinez
Ross Montgomery
Damian Mol
Jamie Clark
Jules van Dongen
Kevin Burness
Richard Veenstra
Keegan Brown
Numbers 97-128 on PDC Order of Merit (first round start)
Darren Webster
Nick Fullwell
Dylan Slevin
Niels Zonneveld
Vladimir Andersen
Mike Kuivenhoven
Aaron Monk
Graham Usher
Jeffrey Sparidan
Gian van Veen
Stephen Burton
Robbie Knops
Jeffrey De Zwaan
Josh Payne
Geert Nentjes
Pascal Rupprecht
Robert Owen
Adam Warner
Nick Kenny
Jürgen van der Velde
Daniel Close
Graham Hall
Adam Smith-Neale
Ronny Huybrechts
Karel Sedlacek
Lee Evans
Owen Roelofs
Danny van Tripp
Callum Goffin
Jacques Labre
PDC Development Tour qualifiers (first round start)
Nathan Girvan
Sebastian Bialecki
Conor Heneghan
Jarred Cole
Jitse van der Wal
Joshua Richardson
Christopher Holt
Dom Taylor
PDC Challenge Tour qualifiers (first round start)
Thibault Tricole
Lukas Wenig
Christian Kist
Kenny Neyens
Jim McEwan
Andy Jenkins
Michael Flynn
Jelle Klaasen
Amateur qualifiers (first round start)
Thomas Banks
Brett Claydon
Gary Davey
Noel Grant
Lewis Gurney
Harry Lane
Danny Lauby
Daniel Lee
Luke Littler
Callum Loose
Jim Moston
Darryl Pilgrim
Dan Read
James Richardson
Stuart White
Jonathan Wynn