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Chris White can throw darts.
If there is a tournament on the West coast, White has probably carried home the hardware from his victories there. In fact, h e has so many titles and championships, he can’t begin to count them
all. So, he only keeps track of National titles. A four time National Champion, in two different countries we might add, White holds records many just
dream about. His National titles include the Canadian Youth Nationals, the ADO 501 National Championship in 2001, and back to back titles as the ADO
National Cricket Champion in 2004 and 2005.
White is originally from Toronto, Canada, which may be the reason his is such a good player
now. He was introduced to the game as a youngster. His grandfather was a very good player and had a lot to do with introducing White to the game and helping him
improve early on. He has been playing darts for 23 years and throws a 23 gram custom dart made by Jeff Pickup.
Back in Toronto, White was a plant supervisor for a woodworking company
that manufactured office panels. Seven years ago, his wife, Kelly, received an important transfer with VISA International and they moved to Foster City,
California, where they make their home now. Kelly is a working mom while Chris is a ‘stay at home dad.’ Together, they have twin girls, 5 years old,
Kaitlin and Paige. The girls keep them pretty busy most of the time.
Being a ‘stay at home dad’ might seem like White has all the time in the
world to put in practice and improve his game. There's really not as much free time as one might think with two 5 year old girls running the program.
Before the twins came along, White put in 2 to 3 hours each day of practice. Now, he doesn’t practice near as much as he thinks he should. He throws in
two leagues on two evenings and hits the board hard before he travels to big tournaments. His routine is to play 501, scoring in his head, until he hits 10
games of 18 darts or less. Then, he shoots for bulls for a half hour or so.
White has interests other than darts. He loves largemouth bass fishing.
Back home in Canada, it’s ‘smallies’ (smallmouth bass) and walleyes, or as the Canadians would say, pickerel. (But, a walleye is really not a pickerel in
the true sense of the word. It’s just common practice to call walleyes pickerel up in Canada. Even in print!) It seems he can’t get enough of fishing
at times as he reads Bass West, Bass Master and the Inside Line fishing magazines. Naturally, he’s a subscriber to Bull's-Eye News and several
children’s behavioral books and magazines.
White likes the movies, his favorite being The Color of Money, starring Paul
Newman and Tom Cruise. His favorite actor and actress are Al Pacino and Angelina Jolie. “She’s so hot!” White commented. White, and a million other
guys, have that one pegged!
White is a steak and potato kind of guy. He likes them medium rare and
could handle one every night of the week. Guess he’ll have to keep those championships coming.
White throws with Robert Heckman as a regular partner in West coast events
and with Brian Keenan on the East coast whenever Keenan can make it down from Canada. When his regular partners are not available, White isn’t
too picky and will team with anyone who can throw good darts. White thinks Scotty Burnett, Frank Hernandez, David Fatum, Robert Heckman and
Jennifer Daggy are pretty good shooters from the West who don’t always make the lime light as often as they should. Bill Davis and Dan Olson are
top shooters on White’s list of East coast players who are not recognized enough for their accomplishments.
In 2004, White had one of the three Wild Card positions for the Las Vegas
Desert Classic III in his back pocket, but nerves or just a complete mental lapse at the Indianapolis St. Pat’s Open and the North Texas Shootout ended
his chances. “Simply put,” said White, “I choked.” He doesn’t have any superstitions or idiosyncrasies, so he can’t blame it on what color socks he
was wearing, or the flights, or the air conditioning. He takes tournaments one event at a time, trying to leave his favorite double, 32, for his out shot.
White stays clear of the politics in darts, though he follows them pretty
closely. White feels it is virtually impossible for a North American player to break into the top 32 of the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) World
ranking without playing regularly in England. “I have the most respect for what John Part has accomplishment,” said White. It took White the 3 year
waiting period after moving from Toronto to California before he could earn ADO (American Darts Organization) National ranking points. He has played
on the National Team once for the NDFC (National Darts Federation of Canada) and once for the ADO. His goal is to make the World Cup Team.
He’ll have to travel more and win when he does to earn a spot on the ADO World Cup Team, but he feels he has the ability to do accomplish that goal.
The question is, will he? We’ll all be watching!
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