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Jenny Segers/PDC Europe

Players Championship Order of Merit Update: World's top three in trouble in Minehead pursuit

Originally posted on Dartsnews.com | By Samuel Gill | Last updated Sep 11, 2025 1:56 PM ET

The 27th Players Championship of the year was a triumph for Joe Cullen yesterday. 'The Rockstar' defeated Gerwyn Price 8-7 in the final in Hildesheim, Germany. Cullen not only did good business toward qualification for the World Grand Prix, he also climbs to eighth place on the Players Championship Order of Merit.

For Cullen, it was already his third final this year at the Players Championship. Earlier he lost in the final of the first tournament to Rob Cross. In the final of the fifth tournament he defeated Gian van Veen. Afterwards, Cullen experienced a lesser period, with regular early eliminations in several tournaments. So now the 36-year-old Englishman is tying for victory again and, as a result, he rises to eighth place on the Players Championship Order of Merit. With seven tournaments to go, Cullen is already certain of qualifying for the Players Championship Finals.

Leading the rankings is Gerwyn Price, who has done excellent business in recent days with a tournament win and a final place finish. The Iceman' is in pole position to start the Players Championship Finals as the top seed. Who can possibly still threaten him is Gian van Veen. The 23-year-old Dutchman follows in second place at 13500 pounds from Price. Completing the top three is Damon Heta, who already follows at 23500 pounds from Price.

Damon Heta rounds out the top three while Ross Smith is fourth ahead of Stephen Bunting. Jermaine Wattimena and Cameron Menzies after title success this year are in the top seven. While the top 10 is rounded out with Chris Dobey, Joe Cullen and Jonny Clayton.

World's top three in (big) trouble

One who is currently in the top 64, yet is by no means certain of placing, is - perhaps somewhat surprisingly - Luke Littler. 'The Nuke' has only played a few Players Championships this year and is currently ranked 58th. He is therefore expected to be back in action in the upcoming tournaments.

Just outside the top 64 - in place 66 - is another top name. After all, Luke Humphries - still ranked number one in the world - is currently outside the qualifying spots for the Players Championship Finals. 'Cool Hand Luke', like Littler, dropped out of several tournaments and thus also needs some good results to defend his title at the tournament he managed to win in both 2023 and 2024.

As if that were not enough, the world number three also has to pull out all the stops to qualify for the Players Championship Finals. Michael van Gerwen is currently only 103rd and has a lot of work ahead of him. Mighty Mike' seems to have to win a tournament to qualify for the one he has already won seven times (last time in 2022).

Other notable names currently outside the top 64 include Mensur Suljovic, Nathan Aspinall, Kim Huybrechts, Jose de Sousa and Dimitri Van den Bergh. The Players Championship is now at a standstill for a few weeks and gets underway again on Tuesday, Sept. 30, in Leicester. Exactly one month later, the 34th and final Players Championship of the year is scheduled in Wigan.

Rk	Name	Prize Money	R1	R2	R3	R4	QF	SF	F	W
1	Gerwyn Price	97.000	87	88	88.5	89.5	90.5	92	97
2	Gian van Veen	83.500	83.5
3	Damon Heta	73.500	73.5
4	Ross Smith	71.500	70	71	71.5
5	Stephen Bunting	68.500
6	Jermaine Wattimena	62.500	61	62	62.5
7	Cameron Menzies	62.000	60.5	61.5	62
8	Chris Dobey	59.000
9	Joe Cullen	56.500	41.5	42.5	43	44	45	46.5	51.5	56.5
10	Jonny Clayton	54.500
11	Josh Rock	54.500
12	Danny Noppert	53.000	48	49	49.5	50.5	51.5	53
13	Martin Schindler	53.000	50.5	51.5	52	53
14	Dirk van Duijvenbode	49.500	49.5
15	James Wade	49.500
16	Wessel Nijman	48.500	46	47	47.5	48.5
17	Gary Anderson	47.000	47
18	Scott Williams	45.500	40.5	41.5	42	43	44	45.5
19	Ryan Searle	45.500	43	44	44.5	45.5
20	Niels Zonneveld	44.500	43	44	44.5
21	William O'Connor	42.500	41	42	42.5
22	Dave Chisnall	42.500	41.5	42.5
23	Kevin Doets	41.500	41.5
24	Krzysztof Ratajski	40.000	37.5	38.5	39	40
25	Sebastian Bialecki	39.500	37	38	38.5	39.5
26	Bradley Brooks	39.500	38.5	39.5
27	Andrew Gilding	38.000	37	38
28	Brendan Dolan	38.000	38
29	Jeffrey de Graaf	36.000	34.5	35.5	36
30	Rob Cross	36.000
31	Luke Woodhouse	35.500	34	35	35.5
32	Mike De Decker	35.500
33	Karel Sedlacek	33.000	33
34	Dom Taylor	31.000	29.5	30.5	31
35	Martin Lukeman	31.000	29.5	30.5	31
36	Alan Soutar	30.000	30
37	Ian White	30.000	30
38	Raymond van Barneveld	29.500	28.5	29.5
39	Daryl Gurney	29.500	28.5	29.5
40	Callan Rydz	28.500	27.5	28.5
41	Michael Smith	27.500	26.5	27.5
42	James Hurrell	26.500	23	24	24.5	25.5	26.5
43	Dominik Gruellich	26.500	24	25	25.5	26.5
44	Ricardo Pietreczko	25.500	24.5	25.5
45	Cam Crabtree	25.500	25.5
46	Nick Kenny	25.000	24	25
47	Peter Wright	25.000
48	Gabriel Clemens	24.500	24.5
49	Adam Lipscombe	24.500	24.5
50	Ricky Evans	24.000	24
51	Justin Hood	23.500	23.5
52	Madars Razma	23.500	23.5
53	Mickey Mansell	22.000	22
54	Owen Bates	21.500	20.5	21.5
55	Ryan Joyce	21.500
56	Keane Barry	21.000	21
57	Ritchie Edhouse	21.000	21
58	Luke Littler	21.000
59	Matthew Dennant	20.500	19.5	20.5
60	Niko Springer	20.500	20.5
61	Darren Beveridge	20.500	20.5
62	Ryan Meikle	20.500	20.5
63	Stephen Burton	20.000	19	20
64	Max Hopp	20.000	19	20
65	Steve Lennon	20.000	19	20
66	Luke Humphries	20.000	20
67	Mario Vandenbogaerde	19.500	19.5
68	Mensur Suljovic	19.000	17.5	18.5	19
69	Wesley Plaisier	19.000	18	19
70	Darius Labanauskas	19.000	19
71	Lukas Wenig	18.500	17.5	18.5
72	Richard Veenstra	18.000	14.5	15.5	16	17	18
73	Nathan Aspinall	18.000	18
74	Dylan Slevin	17.500	16	17	17.5
75	Thibault Tricole	17.500	16.5	17.5
76	Jelle Klaasen	17.500	17.5
77	Andy Boulton	17.000	16	17
78	Kim Huybrechts	16.500	15	16	16.5
79	Adam Hunt	16.500	15.5	16.5
80	Robert Grundy	16.000	13.5	14.5	15	16
81	Maik Kuivenhoven	16.000	16
82	Martijn Dragt	15.500	15.5
83	Jamai van den Herik	15.500	15.5
84	Jitse Van der Wal	15.500	15.5
85	Patrick Geeraets	15.000	14	15
86	Andy Baetens	14.500	13.5	14.5
87	Connor Scutt	14.500	14.5
88	Florian Hempel	14.000	14
89	Chris Landman	13.500	12.5	13.5
90	Darryl Pilgrim	13.500	13.5
91	Marvin van Velzen	13.000	13
92	Tom Bissell	12.500	11.5	12.5
93	Haupai Puha	12.500	11.5	12.5
94	Adam Warner	12.500	12.5
95	Jose de Sousa	12.500
96	Rob Owen	12.500	12.5
97	Carl Sneyd	12.500
98	Cor Dekker	11.500	9	10	10.5	11.5
99	Berry van Peer	11.500	11.5
100	Leon Weber	11.000	9.5	10.5	11
101	Alexander Merkx	10.500	7	8	8.5	9.5	10.5
102	Thomas Lovely	10.500	10.5
103	Michael van Gerwen	10.500
104	Christian Kist	10.500	10.5
105	Nathan Rafferty	10.500
106	Stefan Bellmont	10.500	10.5
107	Jim Long	10.500	10.5
108	Mervyn King	10.000	10
109	Viktor Tingstrom	10.000	10
110	Brett Claydon	10.000	10
111	Jimmy van Schie	10.000
112	Dimitri Van den Bergh	9.500	9.5
113	Kevin Burness	9.500
114	Benjamin Reus	9.000	8	9
115	Rhys Griffin	9.000	9
116	Ted Evetts	9.000	9
117	Maximilian Czerwinski	9.000	9
118	Andreas Harrysson	8.500	7.5	8.5
119	Greg Ritchie	8.500
120	Tavis Dudeney	8.500	8.5
121	Danny van Trijp	8.000	7	8
122	Matt Campbell	8.000	8
123	Michele Turetta	8.000
124	George Killington	8.000
125	Stefaan Henderyck	7.500	7.5
126	Oskar Lukasiak	7.500	7.5
127	William Borland	7.500
128	Tytus Kanik	7.000	6	7
129	Joshua Richardson	7.000
130	Adam Paxton	6.500	6.5
131	Rusty-Jake Rodriguez	6.500
132	Radek Szaganski	6.000	5	6
133	Danny Lauby	6.000	6
134	Beau Greaves	5.500
135	Dennie Olde Kalter	5.000	5
136	Jim Williams	5.000	5
137	Kai Gotthardt	5.000	5
138	Jarno Bottenberg	5.000
139	Tommy Lishman	5.000
140	Michael Unterbuchner	4.500	1	2	2.5	3.5	4.5
141	Pero Ljubic	4.500	4.5
142	Graham Hall	4.500
143	Joe Hunt	4.000	2.5	3.5	4
144	Tom Sykes	4.000
145	Jack Tweddell	3.500	3.5
146	Michael Flynn	3.500
147	Henry Coates	3.500
148	Scott Campbell	3.000	3
149	Dragutin Horvat	2.500	1	2	2.5
150	Sam Spivey	2.500	2.5
151	David Davies	2.500
152	Arno Merk	2.500
153	Jeffrey Sparidaans	2.500	2.5
154	Martin Thomas	2.000	1	2
155	Aden Kirk	2.000
156	Charlie Manby	1.500	0	1	1.5
157	Sietse Lap	1.500
158	Jenson Walker	1.000	0	1
158	Lee Cocks	1.000	0	1
160	Ron Meulenkamp	1.000
161	Nathan Girvan	1.000
162	Graham Usher	1.000
163	Tim Wolters	1.000