Maik Kuivenhoven falls just £500 short on World Darts Championship qualification and narrowly misses out for third year in a row

Maik Kuivenhoven will miss the PDC World Darts Championship for the third year in a row. During the last Players Championship tournament in Wigan, the Dutchman managed to reach the last 32, but that was ultimately not enough. He finished in 41st place on the Pro Tour Order of Merit, just one place and £500 behind the required 40th place.

On the final day, the 37-year-old dart player made it to the last 32, as mentioned above, and needed only one more win to move over Connor Scutt, who was in 40th place. However, he lost 6-3 to his compatriot Wessel Nijman, who would later win the tournament as well, leaving him in 41st place.

That day before during the penultimate tournament, however, he may have already lost a crucial match that could have been the deciding factor. In the last 64 he was leading 5-2 against his other compatriot Patrick Geeraets, and up to that point he was also throwing an average of over 117. Miraculously, however, he still lost this match 6-5, which would eventually cost him his head.

Indeed, this meant for Kuivenhoven that he finished on the final day at £25,000, just £500 behind Scutt. This meant he missed out on direct qualification for the World Darts Championship for the third year in a row on one win. Indeed, on the overall PDC Order of Merit, his 104th place made him ineligible to qualify.

Fortunately for Kuivenhoven, his chances are not completely gone yet. First of all, he still has a chance to qualify during the Belgian/Dutch qualifier on Saturday, 15th November. On that day one starting spot will be given to the winner. Should this fail for the Dutchman that day, he will get one last chance on Monday, 24th November. Then the general PDC World Darts Championship Tour Card Holder Qualifier is scheduled and there are still about 4 to 5 starting spots to be distributed.

The last time Kuivenhoven was active at the PDC World Darts Championship was in 2022, having made his debut at Alexandra Palace the year before. The Dutchman then managed to win 3-1 in sets over Australian Ky Smith in the first round, but then went down in the second round with those same figures against 'The Machine' James Wade. Kuivenhoven will hope to qualify for the most important tournament of the year through one of the last two qualifiers and make his third appearance at the World Darts Championship.