Official 2010 BEN Pro Rankings • Jan/Feb 2011
Official 2010 BEN Pro Rankings
The Bull’s-Eye News Pro Steel-tip Ranking System has been and still is the best proven system to identify and rank the top steel-tip players on the North American dart circuit. The final 2010 BEN Pro Steel-tip Rankings reported here is the 17th annual calculation of these statistics. It should be understood that there are many players who shoot top caliber darts, but for the purpose of these rankings, a professional darts player in North America is defined as someone who attends the major tournaments in North America and consistently performs well in those competitions.
The number of tournaments qualifying for the BEN Pro Ranking ($20,000 or more in prize money) has increased in recent years, but after 5 consecutive years of growth, 2010 saw a decrease of 4 major tournaments on the circuit.
2002 – 13 tournaments qualified
2003 – 10 tournaments qualified
2004 – 11 tournaments qualified
2005 – 8 tournaments qualified
2006 – 11 tournaments qualified
2007 – 15 tournaments qualified
2008 – 18 tournaments qualified
2009 – 19 tournaments qualified
2010 – 15 tournaments qualified
For 2010, players were able to rack up ranking points at 4 less tournaments then in 2009, meaning there were less opportunities to earn ranking points in 2010. The major tournaments included the Pennsylvania Rae Chesney Memorial Open (Jan), Las Vegas Open (Jan), Syracuse Open (Feb), Shoot the Moon (Feb), Port City Open (Feb), Virginia Beach Classic (Mar), White Mountain Shootout (Apr), North American Darts Championship (Jun), Las Vegas Players Championship 1 (Jun), Vegas Players Championship 2 (Jun), The US Open (Jun), Music City Classic (Jul), USA Dart Classic (Aug), London Ontario Players Championship (Aug), Canadian Masters Players Championship (Aug).
Congratulations to Larry Butler who secured both number 1 spots in the Men’s 501 and cricket rankings respectfully for the first time. Butler was a top ranked player back in the 1980’s and now has shown he is still at the top of his game!
Stacy Bromberg returned to the top spot in both the Women’s rankings taking both the Women’s 501 and Cricket top spots.
For the Men, recognition goes to Tim Bagley who moved up to the number 3 and number 9 spots on the 501 and Cricket Men’s rankings respectively and to Ryan Barnette taking the number 13 and 7 spots on the 501 and Cricket rankings respectively. Another blast from the past making a mark in the rankings is Bob Sinnaeve.
Congratula-tions go to Robin Curry and Cali West, as they maintained their ranking status on the Women’s side at number 2 and 3 on both rankings respectively. Notable mention goes out to Kim LaDuc, Brenda Roush and CJ Slater as they improved in the 501 and cricket rankings.
The 2010 PDC Pro Tour brought a number of overseas pros to North America and several competed in enough majors to earn ranking positions. Remember, the BEN Pro Rankings are based on $20,000 and greater steel tournaments held in North America. Therefore, many of the European Pros that rank higher in the PDC Order of Merit World Ranking will not rank high in the BEN Pro Rankings because they do not travel to North America for many tournaments. Otherwise, their BEN Pro Rankings would be much higher. The fact they are even ranked with so few tournaments played, is an indication of their skill. With 7 PDC tournaments making up the PDC North American Pro Tour in 2010, the North American players had a great opportunity to attend several professional events and earn a position in the North American Order of Merit ranking.
The PDC North American Order of Merit ranking was important to the North American players since the top 3 at the end of the 2010 North American Pro Tour in August earn invitations to the PDC Ladbrokes.com World Championship. In addition, the top 2 players from both the US and Canada earned spots on their PDC World Cup Teams to competein the inaugural PDC World Cup in December. Making the US Team were Darin Young and Bill Davis and making the Canadian Team were John Part and Ken MacNiel.
The disappointing news for North American players is that there has been only 2 PDC events announced for 2011 meaning the number of number of major tournaments of $20,000 or more in 2011 will drop significantly for the second year in a row.
2010 BULL’S-EYE NEWS PRO RANKINGS
MEN ’01 (’09 RANK) ◊ FINISHES ◊ POINTS
1 Larry Butler OH (21) 8 87
2 Darin Young PA (1) 8 58
3 Tim Bagley (44) 7 55
4 Bob Sinnaeve CAN (143) 8 53
5 Colin Lloyd ENG (31) 5 39
6 Bill Davis PA (10) 6 39
Jim Widmayer NY (5) 6 39
8 Jerry Van Loan NY (15) 3 36
9 Jamie Caven ENG (48) 5 35
Stephen Panuncialman IL (35) 5 35
11 Jeff Smith CAN (nr) 3 30
12 Joe Chaney TN (2) 5 30
13 Ryan Barnette TN (18) 7 30
14 Phil Taylor ENG (26) 3 29
15 John Part CAN (24) 4 29
16 Roger Carter AL (9) 4 28
17 Tom Sawyer MA (19) 6 28
18 Bruce Davey CAN (103) 3 26
19 Wesley Newton ENG (11) 4 26
20 Chuck Pankow TN (12) 6 26
21 Jelle Klaasen NETH (61) 5 25
22 Sean Moran MA (143) 5 24
23 Denis Ovens ENG (86) 4 23
24 Alan Tabern ENG (20) 5 23
25 Gary Anderson SCO (46) 2 22
26 David Thibault VA (nr) 4 22
27 Dieter Schutsch NV (188) 5 22
28 Co Stompe NETH (47) 3 21
Simon Whitlock AUS (nr) 3 21
30 Shawn Brenneman CAN (2) 4 21
Ross Snook CAN (nr) 4 21
MEN Cricket (’09 RANK) ◊ FINISHES ◊ POINTS
1 Larry Butler OH (14) 5 55
2 Steve Brown IL (6) 4 42
3 Darin Young PA (1) 5 40
4 Bob Sinnaeve CAN (31) 6 31
5 Stephen Panuncialman IL (17) 3 30
6 Bill Davis PA (7) 4 27
7 Ryan Barnette TN (38) 5 23
Dieter Schutsch NV (nr) 5 23
9 Tim Bagley (96) 3 20
Shawn Brenneman CAN (2) 3 20
11 Tom Sawyer MA (19) 4 20
12 Nico DePaynos FL (12) 2 19
Jeff Smith CAN (nr) 2 19
14 Can Olson CAN (27) 2 17
15 Bruce Davey CAN (31) 3 17
16 John Part CAN (nr) 1 16
17 Robbie Phillips NC (16) 2 16
18 Joe Swick NY (4) 3 16
19 Phil Taylor ENG (nr) 1 15
20 Frederick Krueger CT (63) 2 15
21 Ray Carver IL (20) 1 14
22 Johnny Kuczynski PA (nr) 2 14
David Thibault VA (nr) 2 14
24 Tim Grossman NY (49) 1 12
Terry Hayhurst CAN (nr) 1 12
26 Mark Walsh ENG (nr) 1 11
27 David Switzer CAN (54) 2 11
28 Jim Widmayer PA (8) 3 11
29 Gordon Dixon OH (69) 2 10
Davis Snider TX (38) 2 10
31 Mark Dudbridge ENG (nr) 2 9
1 Stacy Bromberg NV (3) 8 76
2 Robin Curry CAN (2) 7 62
3 Cali West NY (4) 7 52
4 Marilyn Popp DE (6) 6 36
5 Kim LeDuc NY (nr) 6 30
6 Brenda Roush CO (9) 7 28
7 Pam Briggs MA (7) 4 22
8 Karen Clancy (14) 5 22
9 Vera Emons AL (31) 3 20
10 Donna Lemieux MA (12) 2 16
11 CJ Slater MI (39 ) 3 16
12 Debbie Burch CAN (58) 4 16
13 Marlise Kiel OH (nr) 2 14
14 Andrea Taylor TX (1) 4 14
WOMEN Cricket ['09 RANK) ◊ FINISHES ◊ POINTS
1 Stacy Bromberg NV (4) 5 56
2 Robin Curry CAN (5) 7 50
3 Cali West NY (2) 7 32
4 Marilyn Popp DE (3) 4 24
5 Kim Whaley-Hilts CAN (9) 2 22
6 CJ Slater MI (13) 2 20
7 Andrea Taylor TX (1) 3 20
8 Brenda Roush CO (19 ) 4 20
9 Paula Murphy FL (6) 2 18
10 Tina Proctor (nr) 2 14
11 Pam Briggs MA (14) 3 14
Marcia Loche NY (8) 3 14
13 Kim LeDuc NY (10) 4 13
14 Tricia Wright ENG (11) 2 12
Men ◊ Open ◊ Women Singles
No. of BEN PRO POINTS EARNED
Entries 1st 2nd 3-4 5-8 9-16 17-32
1-32 10 6 4 2 1 0
33-64 12 8 6 4 2 1
65-128 14 10 8 6 4 2
129-192 15 11 9 7 5 3
193-256 16 12 10 8 6 4
257-384 17 13 11 9 7 5
385-512 18 14 12 11 8 6
513-768 19 15 13 11 9 7
These guidelines were established for ranking.
1. Only unrestricted steel-tip tournaments held in North America
offering a total purse of $20,000 or more (US or Canadian dollars) are
included. All players participating are eligible to earn ranking points,
regardless of nationality.
2. Only the best eight finishes during the past 12 month period in ’01
and Cricket singles are counted toward the player’s rank. Separate
rankings are tracked for ’01 and Cricket. A tournament may have more
than one ’01 or Cricket singles event qualifying for points. Points are
awarded to the top 32 in each singles event or to the last money round
position, whichever comes first.
