Which 10 Tour Card holders are in danger of losing their PDC Tour Card?

As the PDC Pro Tour season is set to begin with a round of two Players Championships and two Euro Tour Qualifiers at the salubrious Robin Park Tennis Centre in Wigan, dartsnews.com continues its preview of the 2025 edition of the Tour, looking at ten players whose tour cards, and thus their professional status, are at risk and who could have to face the agony of a trip to Q School in January next year to save their cards.

For the uninitiated, a Tour Card is essentially the key to professional status within the sport of darts, with Cards going to the top 128 players in the world, having traditionally qualified through Q-School, but sometimes by other means, giving them free access to all 30 Players Championship events, as well as various qualifiers for all 14 European Tours, and some majors like the Grand Slam, World Darts Championships and the recent World Masters. Tour Card holders are also guaranteed a spot at the UK Open, another large opportunity to earn ranking money. Essentially, if you want to create a name for yourself in the sport, a Tour Card is vital to cement the foundations of a legacy in darts.

However, keeping your Tour Card is a challenge in itself. When you win your card, you get two years to accrue as much ranking money as possible, with the aim of landing in the top 64 in the world to extend your professional stint by another year, with money being gradually taken off of your ranking based on performance from 2 years ago. A lot of these players are in one of two situations, either they have not made enough money in their first year as a professional and risk not making the top 64 by the end of the year, or they are currently in the top 64 but are defending a lot of money from 2023 and risk being overtaken and falling out of the 64.

Go back 5 years, and Portuguese Number 1. Jose de Sousa was one of the best players in the world, winning a major title in the Grand Slam, and being selected for consecutive Premier League stints, reaching the final of the 2021 edition. However, he is now at serious risk of losing his Card, and thus ending Portuguese representation on the Pro Tour. Since the start of 2023, he has had a sharp downfall in ranking, and the 50 year old currently ranks 45th in the world, a shadow of his former self. He is now entering a crucial time in his professional career as he is defending a mammoth £113.25k with a Pro Tour final, as well as appearances at the World Matchplay and Round 2 runs at the European and World Championships to boot in 2023.

His 2024 season was nothing short of woeful however, with ‘The Special One’ not winning a single game on the European Tour and failing to qualify for any ranking majors other than the UK Open all year. His best Pro Tour run all year were quarter finals at Players Championships 1 and 28, and thus he has only earned £11.75k all of 2024, meaning he faces a massive uphill battle to remain in the top 64 at the end of this year, in which qualification for more major events is a must. He failed to achieve this at the World Masters, losing out in the last 64 of the preliminary round last Wednesday with an underwhelming 83.70 average to Andy Baetens. He will have ample opportunities to rectify this later in the year, but realistically needs to get back to the form he showed in the early 2020s otherwise we could see de Sousa back at Q-School come 2026.

Ask anybody Austrian about darts, and one of the first names they will mention is that of Mensur Suljovic, who has sat atop the Austrian darting tree for the last 10 years, reaching as high up as world number 5 in 2017, as well as winning a major title, albeit non-ranking, with the 2017 Champions League. Nowadays though, ‘The Gentle’ is languishing perilously close to the outside of the top 64, ranking 62nd in the world. Had it not been for a last gasp qualification for the World Championship through the Pro Tour Order of Merit, the Austrian number one might even have been dropped from the Pro Tour last year. However, 2024 was a decent year for him, reaching the last 64 of the UK Open, including a massive televised scalp over Michael van Gerwen, and reaching a second World Cup final with Austrian teammate Rowby-John Rodriguez, and qualifying for the World Championship.

Combine this with a poor 2023 season, only making £21.75k, and whilst there is a chance we see Suljovic drop off the Tour for 2025, there is undoubtedly a greater argument for him to grow from strength to strength and move up the rankings, similar to Ian White last year. Although 2024 showed promise, with Suljovic showing flashes of his old form, his 2025 season began with a setback at the World Masters, also losing in the last 64 of the preliminary round, but with a highly respectable 96.82 average against a phenomenal Florian Hempel, averaging in excess of 110 in return.

Once considered one of the best young prospects in the world, van Peer is now languishing in the depths of the Order of Merit, far from what was expected of him when he reached the 2016 World Youth Championship Final. Whilst ‘Bionic’ has experienced some setbacks, as demonstrated by his infamous dartitis attack during the 2017 Grand Slam, he has managed to successfully rebound, for the 3rd time, on the Pro Tour, winning his spot via the Challenge Tour Order of Merit in 2023. His first year back on the professional circuit has been mixed, with only one Euro Tour qualification all year, and a failure to qualify for any majors other than the guaranteed UK Open, seeing him sit 72nd in the world. His performances on the Pro Tour have been consistent, if slightly underwhelming, with regular runs to the third round but nothing more, but he has shown signs of form in the early stages of this year at the World Masters. Whilst he failed to make it to the main draw, he topped his group in the preliminary round, including an astonishing 117.88 average against Christian Kist, before falling just short in the last 64 to Cameron Menzies. These solid performances could create a springboard for van Peer to build on for the rest of the year, meaning the Dutchman could see a breakthrough in 2025 and it could not be beyond the realms of possibility to see him retain his card for 2026 and sneak into the top 64 at the end of the year.

Once on top of the world at the Lakeside, Jelle Klaasen now has it all to do in 2025 to remain on the PDC Pro Tour for another year. Klaasen seemed poised for a resurgence in 2024 following his strong 2022 performance, but his first year back on the Pro Tour has been far more challenging than expected. Whilst he has no prize money to defend this year by virtue of this being his second year back on the tour, with his ranking currently at 90th, Klaasen faces a steep climb to break into the top 64, and unless he can make significant improvements this year, he could be forced to return to Q-School at the end of 2025. He only managed one Euro Tour qualification through all of 2024 and, paired with only three third round runs at Players Championships, it is clear that he needs a significant improvement on last year to save his card.

When Andy Baetens became the first ever Belgian to win at the Lakeside, he was predicted to have a very bright future in the PDC circuit, with some punters even suggesting that he could surpass the likes of Dimitri van den Bergh and Mike de Decker and become the best Belgian on the tour. Immediately after his WDF world title, he went on to pick up a tour card at EU Q-School in 2024 and, despite a bright start to his time on the Tour, the ‘Beast from the East’ has been on a slow decline. After strong runs at Players Championships 2 and 12 and reaching the second round at two European Tour events, Baetens’ form began to decline from around September. Despite early promise, he failed to qualify for any further Euro Tour events, and his only remaining third-round appearance came at the last Players Championship of the year. He finds himself 70th in the world heading into 2025, and with a fantastic run to the main draw of the World Masters, including a 100.87 average straight set win over Darius Labanauskas to qualify through the prelims, Baetens should be in a comfortable position to save his tour card and break into the top 64 for the first time, especially with no prize money to defend this year. 

The leading light in North American darts for the last 5 years, Matt Campbell has become somewhat of a Pro Tour staple since he won his Tour Card for the first time in 2022. Despite being ranked 54th in the world, ‘The Ginja Ninja’ is at risk of losing his Tour Card by the end of the year. This is because he is defending a significant amount of money from his impressive 2023 season. £25k will come off his ranking from his third-round run at the World Championship, while he also loses £6.5k from the Players Championship Finals—an event he didn’t qualify for this year. It was a disappointing year for the Canadian on the Tour in 2024, with no Euro Tour qualifications, and a near anonymous year on the Pro Tours, besides a surprise final appearance at Players Championship 12. Whilst he did lift the North American title in June, this event was non-ranking and he couldn't take advantage of the direct qualification for the World Championship as he was into his 2nd year as a tour card holder. He did manage to qualify for the Worlds though, thanks largely to that final in Hildesheim, beating Mensur Suljovic in a nervy last leg decider before a straight sets loss to Ryan Searle in Round 2. His form on the board events has been poor in the past year, as shown by a last 32 loss to an admittedly fantastic Darius Labanauskas at last week's World Masters prelims. Whilst Campbells form has been fine on the stage, he needs to improve his board game severely to get more chances on the TV and, more importantly, remain on the Pro Tour for 2026.

To understand the true story of Steve Lennon, we need to go back to 2019. Lennon, alongside teammate William O’Connor, had just put in the performance of their careers in Hamburg to get the Republic of Ireland to their first ever World Cup final, eventually losing to the dynamic Scottish duo of Peter Wright and Gary Anderson. Nonetheless, the Irish team, and especially ‘Scuba Steve’ had drawn praise for their performance, knocking out the number 1 seeded English team, as well as the Dutch contingent in the semi finals. After that World Cup final in 2019, preceded by a European Tour final a year before, Lennon was seen as a real rising star in the sport, but the past few years have not gone his way. Since 2019, the man from Carlow has dropped further and further away from a former spot in the top 32, so much so he had to go back to Q-School in 2024 to retain his Tour Card. Whilst he did manage to win his Card back on the first day possible in Milton Keynes, he failed to make an impact on the Tour last year, only qualifying for one European Tour event, and only making it past the 4th round once in the Players Championship series all year. Currently finding himself 75th in the world, after failing to win a set at the World Masters preliminary round, there is scope for Lennon to break into the top half of the Order of Merit, but the Irishman needs to be more consistent in the board events, especially with Euro Tour qualifiers, in order to make more money on the stage, with the goal of World Championship qualification and the top 64 a realistic one.

Since reaching the Lakeside final in 2020, Jim Williams has established himself as a stalwart on the PDC tour, currently 52nd in the world, and 3rd amongst the Welshmen, albeit someway behind the top 2 of Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton. Consistency has been key for ‘The Quiff’ with his only major highlight of his time on Tour so far being a title at Players Championship 6 in 2022, beating the ever popular Ricky Evans. However, despite a low number of titles, the man from Cardiff has asserted himself as a perennial overachiever in the sport, often taking account for some of the big names in both board and stage events. However, the past year has been a struggle for him, especially the first half of 2024. He had failed to qualify for a single European Tour event until September, and only reached the quarter finals in the Pro Tour once. This is in stark contrast to 2023, where he reached at least the quarterfinals three times in Players Championship events, including a final at the last event of the year. As well as this, Williams’ run at the 2024 World Championship, beating Peter Wright on his run to the 3rd round, means he has £69.5k to defend this year, which is 62% of his current ranking money. As a result, Williams is at risk of going back to Q-School next year and dropping out the top 64, and his 2025 season hasn’t got off to the best start, with a shocking loss in Round 1 of the Worlds to Asian Qualifier Paolo Nebrida, followed up with a preliminary round last 32 loss at the World Masters last week to countryman Nick Kenny. It is imperative that Williams avoids the slow start to the Pro Tour year that he suffered last year, and will be looking for an immediate impact on the 2025 season, especially on the board events, trying to qualify for more Euro Tours and having deeper runs at the Players Championship.

It’s certainly been an eventful first year on the Pro Tour for Dom Taylor, with the highs of Pro Tour quarter finals, and the impressive statistic of winning his opening game on all four of his European Tour appearances last year, but the massive low of a suspension in November due to failing a drugs test. This caused ‘The Tower’ to miss both the Players Championship Finals and the World Championship, which would have been a large amount of guaranteed money to add to his ranking, almost certainly pushing him into the top 64 heading into his second year on the Tour. However, his ban caused him to miss these key events, and he therefore finds himself 67th in the world, meaning his main focus for this year will be keeping his impressive Pro Tour form and trying to break into the top 64. This is boosted by the fact that the Darts Regulation Authority (DRA) only handed the Englishman a 1 month ban, which he has now served, so he is free to play in Pro Tour events once again, and continue his charge on the top 64. His withdrawal from the World Masters last week is a slight blow, but he will have more than enough time this year to build up the money he requires to reach the top 64 and keep his professional privileges for another year, starting on Monday in Wigan.

Towards the end of 2023, Jules van Dongen was playing world class darts, culminating in a run to the third round of the German Darts Championship. If it wasn't for a shocking first round exit at the 2024 World Championship to DPA Qualifier Darren Penhall, he would have been able to preserve his Tour card, but he instead had to head back to Kalkar for 2024 EU Q-School, where he managed to top a stacked Order of Merit and win his card back in resounding fashion. However, his first year back on the professional circuit has been extremely disappointing, with the Dutch-American only winning three games all year, and not making it past the second round of a Players Championship in all 30 of his attempts. Add on no Euro Tour qualifications or major wins and it is clear to see that van Dongen’s 2024 was one of the worst Pro Tour seasons in recent memory, with his efforts only garnering £4000 in prize money, less than a good few of the Challenge Tour players come year's end. Simply put, if ‘The Dutch Dragon’ wants any chance of avoiding a trip back to Q-School, he needs to improve vastly, and towards the end of last year, we saw him skipping some Pro Tour events, and averaging less than 70 in others. These both need to be completely eradicated this season, but we have already seen van Dongen withdraw from the World Masters last week, suggesting that he may have resigned to his fate that, in all likelihood, we will see the man from Missouri lose his professional status come the end of the year.