17 years, 5 months and 24 days: Dragutin Horvat's historic drought at Players Championship tournaments

There are players such as Luke Littler, Michael van Gerwen and Phil Taylor who have won almost everything in their careers. However, these are exceptional cases. Most of the pros in the PDC would be happy with just one title in their entire career. And some players struggle to win even a few matches. In this article, you will find the three players who have gone the longest without winning a Players Championship event in recent years.

At the top of the list is Dragutin Horvat. The German had to wait from 24 March 2007 to 17 September 2024 to finally win another match at a Players Championship tournament – a period of no less than 17 years, 5 months and 24 days. His name is thus in the books as the longest gap between two victories in this category.

In second place is Scott Marsh. The Englishman only broke his drought on 26 March 2022, after his previous victory on 29 March 2008. Between those two moments was a period of 13 years, 11 months and 26 days without victories.

The top three is completed by Canadian Jim Long, who went 13 years, 5 months and 20 days without a victory between August 2011 and February 2025. His comeback underlined that even far beyond the European darts scene, the road to success is rarely straightforward.

These exceptional dry spells show how unpredictable a darts player's path can be. Injuries, personal circumstances, shifts in the international circuit – these are all factors that contribute to such long periods without personal success. Yet it takes unprecedented mental strength to return after a decade and a half and triumph again.

Horvat's triumph after 17 years is a textbook example of resilience. The same was true for Marsh: his comeback exudes dedication, perhaps even stubbornness, but certainly also a love for the game. And Long's comeback shows that darts remains a sport in which surprises are always lurking.

We sometimes see similar figures in other sports, such as Formula 1, where Alex Wurz had to wait almost eight years for his next podium finish. But even that pales in comparison to the bizarre figures that PC history now boasts.

What these figures make clear above all is that careers in darts are never a straight line. And perhaps that is the most beautiful lesson from the comebacks of Horvat, Marsh and Long: in darts, there is no expiry date.