Darts world champion Gary Anderson has insisted that prize money won at European Tour events shouldn’t count towards the overall PDC order of merit. The Flying Scotsman cruised into the European Championship quarter-finals on Saturday as he dispatched Michael van Gerwen 10-4 in Dortmund after the Dutchman had called him a “part-timer”.
Currently, the order of merit reflects prize money won at all ranking events across a 104-week period.
But Anderson, who only returned to the European Tour last year following a seven-year sabbatical, is desperate for that to change.
“Well Europeans, ever since they started putting the European money on the overall merit [in 2016], the main ranking, yeah it’s hard,” the 53-year-old explained after seeing off Van Gerwen.
“You know, I’ve not done Europeans for eight years and you’ve got to remember I stayed in the top 10 for about six of the eight years missing all the Europeans. So [the way] I look at it, I’ve done well to do that.
“You know the Europeans, the money goes onto your overall rankings and then the only way you can play in the finals of this is to play in the Europeans. But I don’t think it should go onto the overall rankings. I think that’s a no-no.
“Nah, there are enough tournaments and Pro Tours abroad that the Europeans… If you play the Europeans, it should go to the European finals and that’s it. It shouldn’t go to your overall ranking.”
Anderson stepped away from the European Tour for a combination of reasons. And in 2017, he admitted he struggled being away from his family as he told Sports Gazette: “Beforehand, I used to love going away but now, as soon as I go away I want to get home. With having a young family, darts is completely different for me now.
“When I’m away, I want to go home so it makes it a little bit harder to concentrate on the actual game. I guess it is a bit harder nowadays.
“Come the start of the year, in three and a half years, I’ll have had about 97 days at home. It is really hard with all the travelling. But I’m cutting down on all the European events. I’m not doing them.”
Anderson, who is ranked 23rd on the order of merit after bagging £364,000 over the last two years, clinched his first European Tour success in a decade back in April as he defeated Ross Smith in the European Darts Grand Prix.
And after that showdown, he admitted the sport is appealing to more and more people as he exclaimed: “Many years ago when I played on the European Tour, the crowd was starting to grow – and it’s just got bigger and bigger.”
