A former world champion and world number one, Gerwyn Price has made an incredible success of his darts career since swapping his rugby boots for a set of arrows. How much longer will the Welshman be around though? According to recent comments from Price, perhaps not that long.
With priorities away from the oche, Price's full focus hasn't been on darts for a while and perhaps in part because of this, 'The Iceman' is yet to qualify for the tournament that gave him his big breakthrough, the Grand Slam of Darts. "I'm sort of in the mindset now that, I'll turn up and play in whatever events I'm in and if I'm not in them, I don't really care," says Price in conversation with Online Darts from a recent exhibition.
"I've built a platform so to speak, for me to just do what I want to do," continues Price. "If I fall outside the top 64 and finish darts tomorrow, I really don't care. I'm just going to start enjoying darts now, turn up when I want to turn up and when I have to turn up."
As mentioned, a big reason for Price's blasé attitude towards darts is his busy life away from the oche. "I think, in previous years, it's been darts first and family life after but that's going to change now. It's going to be family life first, darts after," he explains. "My main priority is back at home."
"It eases the pressure on you, but sometimes those pressures are a good thing for you. When I first started, I was eager, I wanted to win, I wanted to be in everything and now, I've sort of done everything I've wanted to do and I don't have that urgency anymore," Price continues. "Hopefully it'll come back. I'll keep trying as long as I can you know, but yeah, now the chippy is doing well you never know, retirement could be sooner rather than later."
Having been smart with the vast amount of money earned in his darts career, Price has no need to keep turning up solely for the money either. "I've invested well. I've invested in property and I've built myself a good platform so I don't have to rely on darts for the income. I turn up purely just to play," the Welshman concludes. "I want to keep trying to invest, get more properties, but at the end of the day, you do lose a bit of drive because you don't need the money... I said at the beginning, when I'm probably 45 years of age, so another six or seven years to go, that's me done."