FOLLOWING consultation with the PDPA, the PDC has decided to award an additional five ProTour cards for the 2011 calendar year.
Originally, the cut-off date for Tour Card qualification had been set as after the 2011 Ladbrokes.com World Championship, but this was changed last month to the day after the final ProTour weekend in Derby.
However, it has been agreed that the five players disadvantaged by this decision, namely Matt Padgett, Ian White, Dave Ladley, Jason Clark and Kevin Dowling will also be awarded ProTour cards for 2011.
The five players who have benefited from this change, namely Bill Davis, Nandor Bezzeg, Mark Stephenson, Marko Kantele and David Fatum will still receive their one year ProTour cards, making the total number awarded to players through the PDC ProTour 101 instead of the planned 96.
In the event of fewer than five of the 101 automatic qualifiers not taking up their ProTour cards, the PDC will invite players who have competed in a minimum of ten events in order of the non-qualifiers on the official Order of Merit as of January 4 2011 until 101 spots have been accepted.
The following players are also awarded ProTour cards for two-years:
4 x 2011 Lakeside Championship semi-finalists
2 x 2010 PDC Unicorn Women's World Championship finalists (Stacy Bromberg, Tricia Wright)
As both the 2010 PDC Unicorn Under-21 World Championship finalists (Michael van Gerwen, Aaron Monk) have already achieved ProTour cards, two extra places will be allocated to the Q School ranking list.
This means that Q School will have 21 places available for potential qualifiers, with the four semi-finalists each day still receiving two-year ProTour cards, along with the five top players from the Q School ranking list, comprised from the four days of Q School play in Wigan (January 13-16).
In the event of any of the Lakeside or Women qualifiers not taking up their ProTour cards, extra places will be allocated to the Q School ranking list to complete the 128 players awarded ProTour cards for 2011.
The deadline for qualified players to inform the PDC whether they will be taking up their ProTour cards is Friday January 7 2011.
Players must inform the PDC in writing by this date or they will be deemed to have rejected their ProTour card.
Click here to read the 2011 PDC ProTour Guidelines