Who qualifies automatically for WDF World Masters Open category including Phil Taylor, John Lowe, Martin Adams, John Part and Glen Durrant

The WDF introduced the open category to replace the men's in the past year and ahead of the World Masters, which will take place between Tuesday, July 14, and Sunday, July 19, 2026, in Las Vegas. It is time to look at who pre-qualifies.

As ever with this tournament, it carries a multitude of qualification criteria with players who aren't Tour Card holders but previous winners of tournaments automatically qualifying.

This means that Phil Taylor, for instance, as a former World Champion and World Master, qualifies automatically each year. The same can be said, for instance, for John Part, Steve Beaton, as well as Glen Durrant, even in recent years. John Lowe for instance, is another former big name who could have played to win the title all the way back in 1976.

Scott Mitchell, who recently confirmed he would be heading to Vegas, will use his former win at Lakeside in order to qualify by right, so he is an example of a player who will use that route. Albeit, of course for most of these players, they won't be involved.

Mitchell Lawrie who is perhaps the biggest name in the system right now won't be playing in Las Vegas, he won't take a spot as he is on a family holiday but most of the big names from the system have been confirmed already.

Ben Robb and James Beeton are the latest two to have been confirmed this past week, with Neil Duff also involved after a year that has seen him add Bucharest and Northern Ireland Opens to his collection. Moreno Blom, Marcus Maier, Aaron Turner, Jason Brandon, among others, have either self-confirmed or are confirmed in the main via the WDF socials as playing.

It moves from Budapest, where it has been held in recent years, but it has been noted that for Brandon, who wants to play in both, the CDC weekend is on at the same time.

So while some who are big names might not want to return, they still have their route back in to play this event if they would like, and in the past, some have used this route. John Part, for instance, if at home could feasibly play despite not playing WDF Darts for a long time, and others could pitch up based solely on past achievement.