DESPITE its relative youth, the PDC annual curtain raiser, The Masters, became more and more important and thus exciting, since its debut in 2013, before morphing into the fully ranked and brand new iteration of the legendary Winmau World Masters.
Luke Humphries clamed the inaugural hosting of the newly revamped event, in Jan/February 2025, with a dramatic last set victory over a resurgent Jonny Clayton.
During the Covid period, and for a time afterward, The Masters was seen as both a high-quality event in itself and as the final fence or opportunity for those wishing to gain a precious Premier League invitation.
2021,’22 and ’23 witnessed a lower-ranked player come through the draw to claim their first TV titles and be offered the final berth in the PDC’s flagship traveling event.
The same happened with Stephen Bunting who claimed his first TV PDC event at the 2024 hosting. Sadly for The Bullet the Premier League field had already been competed and no place was on offer.
Not surprisingly though, the first name on the Masters is was that of Phil Taylor. The Stoke-On-Trent legend had a habit of bagging the first staging of events. The Power is immediately followed by James Wade who edged out a resurgent Merv King. Then begins a period of total dominance by Michael Van Gerwen. The Green Machine won a remarkable 5 titles back-to-back between 2015 and 2019.
Since MVG relinquished his hold in 2019, when Peter Wright claimed the crown, we have witnessed three different champions two of whom, Jonny Clayton and Joe Cullen have been able to use the title as a rocket booster for their career.
August 2024 saw The Masters elevated to a ranking event for the first time and the field expanded to 32 players from 2025 it will be the season’s first ‘major’ event.
One thing we are yet to see is a Masters 9-darter, perhaps that too can be witnessed in 2025?
Roll of Honour
2013 Phil Taylor def Adrian Lewis 10-1
2014 James Wade def Mervyn King 11-10
2015 Michael van Gerwen def Raymond van Barneveld 11-6
2016 Michael van Gerwen def Dave Chisnall 11-6
2017 Michael van Gerwen def Gary Anderson 11-7
2018 Michael van Gerwen def Raymond van Barneveld 11-9
2019 Michael van Gerwen def James Wade 11-5
2020 Peter Wright def Michael Smith 11-10
2021 Jonny Clayton def Mervyn King 11-8
2022 Joe Cullen def Dave Chisnall 11-9
2023 Chris Dobey def Rob Cross 11-7
2024 Stephen Bunting def Michael Van Gerwen 11-8
Nine-Darters
No nine-dart finishes were achieved in the The Masters.
Winmau World Masters:
2025 Michael Van Gerwen (vs
Sponsors
The Masters: Cazoo, Ladbrokes
World Masters: Winmau
—–ENDS—–
Images: PDC
