PDC Stats Analyst Christopher Kempf assesses the top ten non-Tour Card Holders - based on their last 200 legs played - following the conclusion of 2025 Q School and the opening weekend of Winmau Challenge Tour action...
Failing to claim a Tour Card at Qualifying School is not the setback it once was for aspiring professional darts players.
The world's top amateurs and aspiring professionals can now earn places at the World Masters, UK Open, Grand Slam and World Championship, earn thousands of pounds in the 24 Challenge Tour events held each year, and fill in for Tour Card Holders who don’t appear in certain Players Championship events.
Former World Champions Rob Cross and Luke Humphries began their road to the pinnacle of darts stardom as Challenge Tour champions.
Christian Kist - the top-ranked Challenge Tour qualifier not already qualified for the 2025 World Championship - hit a nine-darter in the event and went home with an additional £60,000 as a result.
In order to thrive on the highly competitive Challenge Tour circuit, and in preparation for future success as ProTour regulars, the leading players on the tour perform at a level which blurs the distinction between Tour Card Holders and Non-Tour Card Holders.
Many seeded players on the ProTour, moreover, would rather face a Tour Card Holder who has declined in form and no longer has a reasonable expectation of maintaining his professional status than a player currently dominating their Challenge Tour colleagues.
With tens of thousands of legs already having been logged between Q-School and the first Challenge Tour weekend, the pros are beginning to get a sense of which of these players will be the most formidable potential opponents when the 2025 ProTour commences in February.
At the top of the list is two-time Challenge Tour champion Beau Greaves, who has the strongest case to have earned the title "best player in the world without a tour card".
Across 271 legs, the 21-year-old leads the way for all Challenge Tour players with a 92.38 average, 18 legs won in 12 darts or fewer, and more 180s per leg in her recent matches than Jonny Clayton or Gerwyn Price.
Having won two Challenge Tour titles already after narrowly missing out on a Tour Card at Q School, Greaves is on track to qualify for most of the PDC's upcoming ranking TV events and secure a Tour Card before 2026 Q School even begins.
When Greaves does make her debut on the ProTour, she will do so with an OChE rating of 53.77, which would make her the #23 player in the world on recent form.
Two other Challenge Tour players emerged from the weekend's action in Milton Keynes with performances that would have won them more than 50% of their legs on the ProTour.
One has never before held a Tour Card, and the other has, until this month, never not held a Tour Card.
The former is Stefan Bellmont, the first Swiss player to appear in a PDC World Championship and, as of this past Sunday, a three-time Challenge Tour champion.
Bellmont won that third title thanks to his outstanding finishing: a 14% checkout rate on ton-plus checkouts, and a 79% conversion rate with three darts at double, both of which lead the way for all non-Tour Card Holders.
Only the missed championship darts to secure the Challenge Tour #1 title against Greaves spoiled his weekend.
Bellmont is clearing 75% of his legs in 18 darts or fewer, giving him an OChE rating on par with those of Rob Cross and Scott Williams.
If Mervyn King was discouraged by losing the Tour Card which he had held continuously since 2011, his results in his first-ever Challenge Tour events did not suggest it.
His first Challenge Tour campaign featured a 110 average; across 227 legs he never failed to win a leg in 24 darts (both Bellmont and Greaves both did twice), and more than 75% of his scoring visits featured at least one treble (approximating the 2024 trebleless-visit rate of Nathan Aspinall or Ross Smith).
King's 92.23 average puts him barely behind Greaves and well ahead of all other Challenge Tour rivals - it works out to be almost exactly the same average put forward by Peter Wright in his last 200 legs.
King, currently ranked seventh on the Challenge Tour Order of Merit, will have a difficult time matching his previous income earned as a Tour Card Holder, but on current form he looks likely to make future appearances in the TV tournaments for which he has qualified dozens of times.
It was once possible to win Players Championship and ProTour events while maintaining an average in the mid-80s (assuming another player had done the dirty work of eliminating Phil Taylor!)
Now such a standard is barely adequate for competition on the Challenge Tour, and there are dozens of other players on the same level with a similar claim to the title.
To be the top 'amateur' or 'aspiring professional' in the PDC in 2025, one now needs to play as well as, or better than, most of the professionals who have earned Tour Cards - otherwise players like Bellmont, Greaves and King will keep taking home the trophies and prize money.
Follow Christopher on Twitter @ochepedia