By winning the Winmau World Masters, Luke Humphries further cemented his position as the world's number one. Winning the title in Milton Keynes earned him the top prize of 100,000 pounds, an amount he could add to his total on the PDC Order of Merit.
In a nerve-wracking final, Humphries settled with Jonny Clayton (6-5) after a decisive leg, having previously defeated Joe Cullen (3-1), Josh Rock (4-0), Damon Heta (4-1) and Danny Noppert (5-2).
Humphries' lead over close pursuer Luke Littler has now risen to nearly eight thousand, although Littler still enjoys the advantage of not having to defend any prize money in the world rankings until the PDC World Darts Championship in December. In turn, Littler is almost three thousnand ahead of Michael van Gerwen. Another unique feat may soon await Humphries, as he could become the first player ever to have more than two million pounds on his ranking. The first chance for "Cool Hand Luke" to reach this milestone is at the UK Open, which takes place from Feb. 28 to March 2.
Losing finalist Clayton, who was responsible for eliminating Littler in the quarterfinals, also made progress on the PDC Order of Merit. 'The Ferret' swapped places with Dave Chisnall and is now ranked No. 6 in the world. Nathan Aspinall returns to the top-10 of the world rankings, at the expense of Chris Dobey.
Danny Noppert passed Peter Wright and is now 12th, while James Wade moved up to 14th at the expense of Gary Anderson. Dimitri van den Bergh reached the semifinals in Milton Keynes, returning to the global top-16. He overtook Josh Rock and Michael Smith, who has now dropped to eighteenth place in the world rankings.
The Winmau World Masters was the first ranking tournament of the new season. Through the preliminary round, the new Tour Card holders also got to make their first minutes. The best newcomer was Bradley Brooks, who qualified for the main tournament via the preliminary round. In doing so, he earned 5,000 pounds, entering the PDC Order of Merit in 95th place.
Position | Name | Prize money |
1 | Luke Humphries | £1,904,250 |
2 | Luke Littler | £1,136,000 |
3 | Michael van Gerwen | £825,500 |
4 | Rob Cross | £556,750 |
5 | Stephen Bunting | £553,500 |
6 | Jonny Clayton | £544,000 |
7 | Dave Chisnall | £533,500 |
8 | Damon Heta | £501,500 |
9 | Gerwyn Price | £490,500 |
10 | Nathan Aspinall | £488,000 |
11 | Chris Dobey | £485,250 |
12 | Danny Noppert | £461,750 |
13 | Peter Wright | £452,500 |
14 | James Wade | £436,750 |
15 | Gary Anderson | £435,500 |
16 | Dimitri Van den Bergh | £429,250 |
17 | Josh Rock | £415,000 |
18 | Michael Smith | £410,000 |
19 | Ryan Searle | £408,250 |
20 | Andrew Gilding | £400,500 |
21 | Ross Smith | £400,000 |
22 | Martin Schindler | £370,000 |
23 | Joe Cullen | £362,250 |
24 | Mike De Decker | £361,000 |
25 | Daryl Gurney | £335,250 |
26 | Dirk van Duijvenbode | £326,500 |
27 | Gian van Veen | £301,500 |
28 | Ritchie Edhouse | £290,000 |
29 | Ryan Joyce | £283,000 |
30 | Ricardo Pietreczko | £281,500 |
31 | Brendan Dolan | £272,250 |
32 | Krzysztof Ratajski | £270,250 |
33 | Luke Woodhouse | £263,500 |
34 | Raymond van Barneveld | £252,750 |
35 | Jermaine Wattimena | £245,250 |
36 | Gabriel Clemens | £222,250 |
37 | Scott Williams | £221,500 |
38 | Martin Lukeman | £203,500 |
39 | Cameron Menzies | £188,000 |
40 | Callan Rydz | £177,750 |
41 | Kevin Doets | £151,500 |
42 | Mickey Mansell | £145,750 |
43 | Madars Razma | £145,500 |
44 | Ricky Evans | £143,250 |
45 | Jose De Sousa | £139,750 |
46 | Kim Huybrechts | £137,000 |
47 | Richard Veenstra | £125,250 |
48 | Niels Zonneveld | £122,250 |
49 | Ian White | £117,000 |
49 | William O'Connor | £117,000 |
51 | Keane Barry | £116,250 |
52 | Jim Williams | £112,250 |
53 | Florian Hempel | £108,000 |
54 | Matt Campbell | £104,000 |
55 | Wessel Nijman | £101,000 |
56 | Alan Soutar | £86,500 |
57 | Dylan Slevin | £83,000 |
58 | Rob Owen | £80,250 |
59 | Ryan Meikle | £79,500 |
60 | Stephen Burton | £78,000 |
61 | Connor Scutt | £77,000 |
62 | Jeffrey De Graaf | £76,000 |
62 | Mensur Suljovic | £76,000 |
64 | Nick Kenny | £74,250 |
65 | Thibault Tricole | £58,000 |
66 | James Hurrell | £45,750 |
67 | Dom Taylor | £39,500 |
68 | Chris Landman | £39,250 |
69 | Mario Vandenbogaerde | £31,000 |
70 | Andy Baetens | £29,500 |
71 | Rhys Griffin | £28,000 |
72 | Berry van Peer | £24,250 |
73 | Radek Szaganski | £22,750 |
74 | Nathan Rafferty | £22,250 |
75 | Steve Lennon | £22,000 |
76 | Lukas Wenig | £21,500 |
77 | Jitse Van der Wal | £19,000 |
77 | Patrick Geeraets | £19,000 |
77 | Matthew Dennant | £19,000 |
80 | Darren Beveridge | £18,750 |
81 | Benjamin Reus | £18,000 |
82 | Danny Lauby | £17,750 |
83 | William Borland | £16,500 |
83 | Robert Grundy | £16,500 |
85 | Owen Bates | £14,750 |
86 | Brett Claydon | £14,500 |
86 | George Killington | £14,500 |
88 | Adam Hunt | £14,250 |
89 | Martijn Dragt | £13,500 |
90 | Haupai Puha | £12,500 |
91 | Jelle Klaasen | £11,750 |
92 | Joshua Richardson | £8,250 |
93 | Tim Wolters | £7,500 |
94 | Michele Turetta | £6,000 |
95 | Bradley Brooks | £5,000 |
96 | Jules van Dongen | £4,000 |
97 | Darius Labanauskas | £2,500 |
98 | Jimmy van Schie | £1,000 |
98 | Cam Crabtree | £1,000 |
100 | Henry Coates | £750 |
100 | Marvin van Velzen | £750 |
100 | Andy Boulton | £750 |
100 | Ryan Branley | £750 |
100 | Thomas Lovely | £750 |
100 | Karel Sedlacek | £750 |
100 | Nathan Girvan | £750 |
100 | Tom Bissell | £750 |
100 | Adam Lipscombe | £750 |
100 | Pero Ljubic | £750 |
100 | Andreas Harrysson | £750 |
100 | Oskar Lukasiak | £750 |
100 | Aden Kirk | £750 |