"That can make you implode": Danny Lauby opens up on 'brutal' culture shock behind PDC ProTour life

Danny Lauby finally sealed a Tour Card in 2024 after basing himself in the UK in a bid to join the PDC ProTour full time and make a living from it.

Lauby admitted in a recent interview with Tungsten Tales that despite knowing what it would entail that the brutal culture shock behind the PDC Tour, nothing can prepare players for it.

By his own admission, the American has struggled for results sitting just inside the top 80 during a pivotal year but he says that is also down to knowing what is perhaps wrong and trying too hard to change it.

"You're playing at a high level and trying to find a way to level up and be more consistent. It's always been my thinking. I can be brilliant or I can just be inconsistent. At that point when you get back to the office and get back home, you think to yourself what can I do. Maybe a little change in your throw or what is it that I can do to be more consistent. I've learned it's all mental game and rhythm. I think every player has got every sort of story in some capacity trying to perfect something," said Lauby to Tungsten Tales.
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"I think I went through a phase last year where I was kind of trying too hard to find something. You know you've got the goods if you're on the tour so it's just a mental game."

But while he is very much a glass half full kind of person, Lauby said that it has gone from being sky's the limit to just hoping he wins some games and that players have suffered as a result of not being able to win on the biggest stage.

"I'm always a sky's the limit kind of guy but realistically I just want to win some games. I don't want to over complicate it. That just promotes more winning. You get some wins, you start earning spots and gets better from there."

"it's brutal but that's just what it is. It's the best players in the world. It's what you've signed up for. It's frustrating. It's nice to walk away from a game with your head held high even if you lost knowing you played well and just got beat. It's another thing walking away knowing you didn't do yourself justice. So that's when it's tough. That's what causes mental issues in the game. It's people that know how good they are and when they play bad they're like what went wrong, what happened, how do I fix it."

Danny Lauby has found wins hard to come by on the tour.

"That can make you implode, that's where you get bad mental issues. You start overdoing it in your head, it crushes you as it can be a brutal room to be in."

"I knew I was walking into the best players in the world. It's a simple game and it's just so complex at the same time the nuances. You can throw 100 average and get crushed then you can see another player hit a 81 average and win. I knew exactly what it was going to be. I thought it's exclusively like 95 averages on the tour but I didn't realise it's just normal blokes too. They can have bad days at the office too."

But Lauby also is a trailblazer of sorts with the US not really being a haven of darting stars but with the Littler effect, Lauby hopes the new attention that is thrust upon him worldwide can cultivate a new found vein of success.

"You can't even get into a pub unless you're 21 back home. You have to be a man to walk into a pub and have your first pint. Darts isn't cool like it is back home yet. We do other physical sports. It's starting to I think but it's just different, it's a bar game. Pool and bowling are bigger back home. It's just different, they take it more seriously here. It's changing, Littler is a big reason why. Once it becomes cool in the US, that's when you'll get a new wave of culture shock in the US."

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