DANNY BAGGISH made a dream come true by winning the Dafabet North American Championship and securing his Alexandra Palace debut in Las Vegas on Thursday,
A relative unknown on the world scene heading into the Mandalay Bay event, Baggish stormed through to the final where he survived a match dart in a dramatic 6-5 win over 2018 champion Jeff Smith to land the $10,000 title and a place in the 2019/20 World Championship.
The Guam-born 35-year-old who now resides in Florida made his televised debut in the Dafabet US Darts Masters earlier in the day, and is already looking forward to his next TV appearance in London in December.
"It's a dream come true," said a tearful Baggish after lifting the trophy.
"It's the best feeling, just great. Every player dreams of playing at Alexandra Palace and I can't wait for that, I'm going to go there and have fun and I'm excited for the opportunity.
"I was playing well coming into this event, so I knew I could compete but to get through that field is overwhelming.
"It's my first time on the stage and you don't know what you have in you until you're in that situation.
"The 140 in the semi-final was the biggest shot of my life. I did tighten up in the final and Jeff came back strongly to make it five-all.
"I look up to Jeff - he's a class act and a great player and it's an honour to be on the same stage as him. I was hanging in there and that moment came, and I had to take it."
The Dafabet US Darts Masters concludes on Friday, staring at 1200 local time, 2000 BST and will be shown on ITV4 in the UK, on DAZN in the USA, Canada and Brazil, through the PDC's broadcast partners worldwide and through video.pdc.tv for PDCTV-HD Worldwide Subscribers.
2019 Dafabet North American Championship
Thursday July 4
Quarter-Finals
Danny Baggish 6-2 Elliot Milk
Leonard Gates 6-3 Shawn Brenneman
Darin Young 6-4 Jim Long
Jeff Smith 6-2 Gary Mawson
Semi-Finals
Danny Baggish 6-5 Leonard Gates
Jeff Smith 6-4 Darin Young
Final
Danny Baggish 6-5 Jeff Smith