PDC Order of Merit Update: Gerwyn Price rises two spots after successful Players Championship double, no rise for Van Gerwen despite major win

There were few shifts on the PDC Order of Merit after last week. Since the World Series of Darts Finals is not a ranking tournament the prize money won did not count toward the Order of Merit, so only last week's two Players Championship tournaments caused some differences.

At those two tournaments in Hildesheim, it was Gerwyn Price who asserted himself the most of the top players. The Welshman won Players Championship 26 by beating Gian van Veen 8-5 in the final. A day later 'The Iceman' managed to reach the final again, but had to concede a decisive leg to Joe Cullen. With these two strong results Price climbed from position 9 to 7 on the ranking.

Luke Humphries continues to lead the Order of Merit by far with 1,809,750 pounds. 'Cool Hand Luke' failed to convince during the two-round tournament in Germany, where he went down in the second round on Tuesday, and even fell in the first round a day later. However, Luke Littler was not present at all at both tournaments, so the 18-year-old could not catch up with his competitor for the No. 1 position and remained stuck at 1,537,000.

Michael van Gerwen remains in third place by a wide margin. The Dutchman stands on 746,500 earned British pounds. 'Mighty Mike' played only one of the two Players Championship tournaments and was eliminated there immediately in the first round. Nothing else changed at the top of the rankings, where only Chris Dobey and Rob Cross dropped one spot due to Price's results in Hildesheim.

Looking a little further down, we see that Joe Cullen's victory at Players Championship 27 moved up three places from spot 29 to spot 26. As a result Daryl Gurney, Andrew Gilding and Ritchie Edhouse all drop 1 position. Perhaps even more importantly for Cullen, this result also immediately makes him almost certain to participate in the World Grand Prix later in October, where he may be able to collect more prize money and move up even further.

William O'Connor surprisingly made it to the semifinals at PC 26, where he lost narrowly 7-6 to eventual winner Gerwyn Price. The Irishman climbed two places and is now 45th. Bradley Brooks also did good business by reaching the quarterfinals at one of the two tournaments, moving up four positions from spot 74 to spot 70. However, moving up to spot 64, where Thibault Tricole currently stands with £82,750, still amounts to £33,500.

If we look even further down the rankings, there are three names that really made a big jump after their performance in Germany last week. German Michael Unterbuchner made the biggest jump by moving up 18 places from 151 to 133. 'T-Rex' mainly owes this to his good run at PC 27, where he made it to the quarterfinals.

Someone else who made it to the quarterfinals that same day was Alexander Merkx. Thanks to this result he moved up from place 132 to 120. Another Dutchman who climbed eleven places was Danny van Trijp. The 28-year-old dart player reached the last 64 on Tuesday afternoon and did even better on Wednesday by reaching the last 32. He moved up from place 137 to 126.

However, there was one name that really took the crown in terms of most ascended places on the Order of Merit, and that is Joe Hunt. The Englishman managed to reach the last 32 on both days, earning £3,000. Hunt had accumulated just 1,000 pounds prior to both tournaments, quadrupling his total after this dual. This moved him up a whopping 47 spots and he is now in place 151.