“I didn’t realise I’d been picked” – Behind-the-scenes mix-up nearly costs Ross Smith New Zealand Darts Masters debut

Ross Smith needed an unexpected phone call from the PDC to discover that he had been selected for this weekend’s New Zealand Darts Masters. An email confirming his place had gone unnoticed following a recent change of management, leaving the world No. 16 unaware that a first appearance at a regular World Series event was waiting for him.

Smith had already arranged a family holiday to Greece during August. Once the invitation reached him, the trip was brought forward and his long-awaited journey to New Zealand was rescued.

“My manager didn’t actually pick the email up, so I didn’t realise I’d been picked,” Smith told the New Zealand Herald.

Smith was standing in his kitchen when the PDC telephoned and asked him to respond to the invitation. Accepting was an immediate decision, particularly with New Zealand having occupied a place on his bucket list since his father visited the country in his younger years.

The call-up follows the most productive opening seven months of Smith’s PDC career. He has won three ranking titles in 2026, leaving only Wessel Nijman above him on the current ProTour Order of Merit.

His first trophy came with an 8-2 victory over Chris Dobey at Players Championship 5. Smith then ended his long wait for a European Tour title at May’s International Darts Open, defeating Michael van Gerwen in a deciding leg and whitewashing Cameron Menzies before beating Ryan Searle 8-3 in the final.

Another Players Championship title followed in June, while Smith also reached the European Darts Grand Prix final, the Slovak Darts Open semi-finals and the World Matchplay quarter-finals. Auckland will be his first appearance at one of the PDC’s invitational World Series tournaments, having previously qualified for the end-of-season World Series Finals.

Smith could begin his New Zealand debut against an opponent he already knows from one of the most unusual periods of his career.

With the established darts calendar suspended during the Covid-19 lockdowns, he regularly entered online competitions based in Australia and New Zealand. The time difference meant getting up during the early hours to play opponents throwing on the other side of the world.

Those tournaments brought several meetings with leading New Zealand players Ben Robb and Haupai Puha. The matches were staged remotely from their respective homes, with cameras trained on each dartboard and separate devices used to follow the scoring and the opponent’s throw.

“I remember playing Haupai quite a few times and Ben as well,” Smith said. “It was quite strange playing these guys on the other side of the world live. It was all through Covid when darts sort of stopped. We were lucky to continue, have some fun and play online.”

Despite facing both men repeatedly, Smith has never met either in person. He now hopes the New Zealand Darts Masters draw will pair him with Robb or Puha at the first opportunity. “They’re good lads and great players,” he added. “It’ll be good to meet up with them and have a game when I come over.”

Robb has won five DartPlayers New Zealand titles during 2026 and is closing in on another World Championship appearance. Puha has competed regularly on the PDC stage and faced Luke Humphries in Auckland at last year’s event.

Smith and world No. 2 Gian van Veen are the only PDC representatives making their New Zealand Darts Masters debuts. Gerwyn Price, Stephen Bunting, James Wade, Jonny Clayton, Josh Rock and Damon Heta complete the invited group, with Luke Littler, Humphries and Michael van Gerwen all sitting out the Down Under double-header.

Each PDC player will face an Oceanic representative in Friday’s first round at Spark Arena. The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final follow on Saturday, with Smith still capable of being drawn against either of the two former online rivals he stayed up through the night to face during lockdown.