WDF Ranking Men's Update: Gates, Lawrie and Walker lead as World Champion Van Schie, McGuirk, Pratnemer and Rosney leave for PDC

The WDF Ranking has been updated with a bit of a different complexion than usual and is more of a battle than any time before in the previous years after Jimmy van Schie left after joining the PDC ranks following Q-School.

Van Schie sealed his Tour Card on points at Q-School in what was a bit of a glut when it came to top WDF names leaving to join the PDC. The last two World Champions in Van Schie and McGuirk as well as the former multi-time Women's World Champion Beau Greaves have now left the system.

Van Schie in his time with the organisation won 14 WDF ranking titles and had multiple spells as World No.1 as well as winning both the WDF World Masters and World Championship both in 2025. His reign at the top of the WDF Rankings has only been unseated a few times with Danny Porter famously doing so prior to the 2024 Lakeside. But otherwise he has mainly held the top spot.

Shane McGuirk who won his first WDF title in 2022 before becoming Irish Open champion in 2023 and WDF World Champion in 2024 has always harboured ambitions to hit the PDC big time but he finally has the opportunity to do so after claiming his Tour Card. He also sealed his at Q-School so drops off the rankings. He appeared at Lakeside like Van Schie, Rosney and Pratnemer this past December.

Pratnemer was also highly ranked having been the player with the joint number of wins on the WDF tour in 2025 and has been a dominant force on the circuit in particular in Eastern Europe. He saw off Florian Preis in the final WDF Ranking event of the year and 'The Star' now gets his chance to adorn the PDC circuit.

But who remains and how does that shape up? Leonard Gates who has long been a top player on the WDF Circuit himself mainly through winning titles in North America marginally flies the flag when it comes to being World No.1.

But unlike previous years where Van Schie and others have held pretty large leads, this cannot be said this time with Mitchell Lawrie potentially becoming one of the youngest World No.1's if not the youngest ever if he manages to unseat Gates. 'Soulger' stands on 601 points with Lawrie just back on 591 points and given his perchance for winning senior events in 2025, we could yet see the 15-year-old top the tree at some point in 2026.

Jenson Walker also known as The Interceptor is one of the players to follow and is one of only two in the top ten who attempted to get their Tour Card. Both Walker and James Beeton played in the Final Stage of Q-School but did not secure passage and they now sit in 3rd and 5th in the WDF Ranking.

Raymond Smith is sandwiched in between having fulfilled his ambition to play at Lakeside. It will be interesting to see now if 'The Guru' puts all his stock into the PDC affiliated events in Australia or if he has another go. The ranking no doubt will reflect that in the coming months. Neil Duff, Jeff Smith, David Fatum, Jason Brandon and Alex Spellman all complete the top 10.

Corne Groeneveld, Ben Robb and Liam Maendl-Lawrance all sit just outside. This weekend sees a double header in Las Vegas which holds Platinum status which means two spots at Lakeside are up for grabs. So in theory someone like Gates could book his spot now and not have to return to any WDF events for the rest of the year with the race to Lakeside being different to the rankings.

But while the WDF closes its door on a few of their leading lights in particular to Van Schie and Pratnemer, it is good news in terms of a more even rankings and a fight for a World No.1 spot as well as the WDF being used as a breeding ground when it comes to the top names making it through to the PDC after a stint in the organisation.