The 2012 PDC Pro Tour was a series of non-televised darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). They were the Professional Dart Players Association (PDPA) Players Championships, the UK Open Qualifiers, and the new European Tour events. This year there were 33 PDC Pro Tour events – 20 Players Championships, 8 UK Open Qualifiers, and 5 European Tour events.
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Prize money
Prize money for each Players Championship and UK Open Qualifier is £34,600, unchanged from 2011. Prize money for each European Tour event was £82,100.
In addition, the 32 players who failed to qualify for a European Tour event at the final qualifying stage receive £100. A further £400 per Pro Tour event (£800 per European Tour event) was reserved for a nine-dart finish. If this was not won in an event, it was carried over to the next event, and so on until a nine-dart finish was achieved. Once the prize fund was won, it reverted to the starting value for the next event.
PDC Pro Tour Card
128 players were granted Tour Cards, which enabled them to participate in all Players Championships, UK Open Qualifiers and European Tour events.
Tour cards
The 2012 Tour Cards were awarded to:
Q School
The PDC Pro Tour Qualifying School took place at the Metrodome in Barnsley from January 19–22.
A Q School Order of Merit was also created by using the following points system:
To complete the field of 128 Tour Card Holders, places were allocated down the final Qualifying School Order of Merit. The following players picked up Tour Cards as a result:
Players Championships
(All matches – best of 11 legs)Youth Tour
The PDC Youth Tour consisted of 18 events held across seven weekends, where two events were played on the Saturday and one event on the Sunday with the exception of the final weekend. Events were open to players aged between 14 and 21 at the beginning of the year. The top 32 players from the Youth Tour Order of Merit qualified for the 2013 PDC World Youth Championship.
Australian Grand Prix Pro Tour
The Australian Grand Prix rankings are calculated from events across Australia. The top player in the rankings automatically qualifies for the 2013 World Championship.
Other PDC tournaments
The PDC also held a number of other tournaments during 2012. These were mainly smaller events with low prize money, and some had eligibility restrictions. All of these tournaments were non-ranking.