The 2016

Coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

UK Open The Cazoo UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in England. Often referred to as the "FA Cup of darts", the UK Open replicates the abolition of seedin ...

was a

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...

tournament staged by the

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the World ...

. It was the fourteenth year of the tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competing in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tournament was held for the third time at the Butlin's Resort in

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and in proximity of the Exmoor National P ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, between 4–6 March 2016, and has the nickname, "the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

of darts" as a random draw will be staged after each round until the final. In a repeat of last year's final,

Michael van Gerwen Michael van Gerwen (; born 25 April 1989) is a Dutch professional darts player. He is currently ranked number 3 in the world, having been number 1 from 2014 to 2021. He is also a three-time PDC World Champion, having won the title in 2014, 2 ...

beat Peter Wright to retain his title. During the tournament, he also hit a

nine-dart finish A nine-dart finish, also known as a nine-darter, is a perfect leg or single game in the sport of darts. The object of the game is to score a set number of points, most commonly 501; in order to win, a player must reach the target total exactly an ...

against the then-unknown Rob Cross in the fourth round. Either side of that leg, he hit a 170 checkout, which also included a run of 19 perfect darts (treble 19, 2x treble 20, treble 19, 170 checkout (2x treble 20, bull), 9-dart leg (7x treble 20, treble 19, double 12), 2x treble 20, treble 19).

Format and qualifiers

UK Open Qualifiers

There were six qualifying events staged in February 2016 to determine the UK Open Order of Merit Table. The tournament winners were: The tournament featured 128 players. The results of the six qualifiers shown above were collated into the UK Open Order Of Merit. The top 32 players in the Order of Merit received a place at the final tournament. In addition, the next 64 players (without ties in this year's edition) in the Order of Merit list qualified for the tournament, but started in the earlier rounds played on the Friday. A further 32 players qualify via regional qualifying tournaments.

Top 32 in Order of Merit (receiving byes into Third Round)

Number 33-64 of the Order of Merit (receiving byes into Second Round)

Number 65-96 of the Order of Merit qualifiers (starting in First Round)

Riley qualifiers (starting in First Round)

32 amateur players qualified from Riley qualifiers held across the UK.

Prize money

The prize fund remained like last year's edition prize fund at £300,000.

Draw

Friday 4 March

First round (best of eleven legs)

Second round (best of eleven legs)

Third round (best of seventeen legs)

Saturday 5 March

Fourth round (best of seventeen legs)

Fifth round (best of seventeen legs)

Sunday 6 March

Quarter-finals (best of nineteen legs)

Semi-finals and Final

Media coverage

Like the 2015 tournament, the 2016 tournament was broadcast live in the UK on

ITV4 ITV4 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV (TV network), ITV network. The channel h ...

and ITV4 HD.

References

{{2016 in PDC darts UK Open