Wessel Nijman joined an exclusive club over the weekend and if the careers of its existing members are anything to go by this is just the beginning. Unusually there is no current place for darts’ teenage superstar Luke Littler.
According to the PDC themselves the young Dutchman’s victory in the Slovak Darts Open sees Nijman join Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen and Peter Wright in becoming just the fourth player to have claimed eight or more ProTour titles in a single season. DW takes a closer look at the club:
Power Play:
Given the ever evolving nature of the PDC’s tiers there can be some debate upon the exact definition of a ‘Pro Tour title’, especially in the tour’s earlier days. Safe to say however that Phil Taylor smashes that doubt into irrelevance in 2008. The Stoke legend bagged at least 13 titles that would today be described as Pro Tour events.
Taylor won two UK Open qualifiers and nine events officially badged PDPA Player Championships. He also won several events that bore other names, for a variety of political/commercial/memorial reasons, such as the Antwerp Darts Trophy that are almost indistinguishable.
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The Booby Bourn was another that was effectively a Pro Tour for a number of years. Incredibly, and by any definition, The Power did the same the following year claiming a minimum of 13 Pro Tour titles and perhaps more.
MVG’s Majesty
As Michael Van Gerwen took over Taylor’s mantle and eased into his pomp the Green Machine also began to wrack up Pro Tour title. 2023 saw him collect 9 across all of that year’s European Tour, Players Championship and UK Open Qualifier events.
In 2015 he claimed at least 11 and in 2016 – arguably his best overall – he collected a remarkable 14 such titles. MVG also ensured a hattrick of eight or more in 2017!
The Wright Stuff
That year of 2017 was rather unusual – to say the least – as two players collected more than 8 Pro Tour titles. Peter Wright had a superb year overall and especially on the tier tours. He bagged 3 UK Open Qualifiers, 5 European Tours and a Players Championship to total 9.
Wesselmania Darts
Nijman is on 8 title already in 2026 and has mixed and matched between European Tour (2) and Players Championships (6). The more salient point might be that there is fully half the season to go!
Can the Dutchman pick up more than Snakebite and will he challenge the totals of two players widely considered as the best to play the game?
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Images: PDC
