The 2016

Coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

UK Open was a

darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard. Point ...

tournament staged by the

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...

. It was the fourteenth year of the tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competing in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tournament was held for the third time at the Butlin's Resort in

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and close to the Exmoor National Park. T ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, between 4–6 March 2016, and has the nickname, "the

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of darts" as a random draw will be staged after each round until the final. In a repeat of last year's final,

Michael van Gerwen Michael van Gerwen (; born 25 April 1989) is a Dutch professional darts player, who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world number three; he was ranked world number one from 20 ...

beat Peter Wright to retain his title. During the tournament, he also hit a nine-dart finish against the then-unknown Rob Cross in the fourth round. Either side of that leg, he hit a 170 checkout, which also included a run of 19 perfect darts (treble 19, 2x treble 20, treble 19, 170 checkout (2x treble 20, bull), 9-dart leg (7x treble 20, treble 19, double 12), 2x treble 20, treble 19).

Format and qualifiers

UK Open qualifiers

There were six qualifying events staged in February 2016 to determine the UK Open Order of Merit Table. The tournament winners were: The tournament featured 128 players. The results of the six qualifiers shown above were collated into the UK Open Order Of Merit. The top 32 players in the Order of Merit received a place at the final tournament. In addition, the next 64 players (without ties in this year's edition) in the Order of Merit list qualified for the tournament, but started in the earlier rounds played on the Friday. A further 32 players qualify via regional qualifying tournaments.

Top 32 in Order of Merit (receiving byes into third round)

Number 33–64 of the Order of Merit (receiving byes into second round)

Number 65–96 of the Order of Merit qualifiers (starting in first round)

Riley qualifiers (starting in first round)

32 amateur players qualified from Riley qualifiers held across the UK.

Prize money

The prize fund remained like last year's edition prize fund at £300,000.

Draw

Friday 4 March

First round (best of eleven legs)

Second round (best of eleven legs)

Third round (best of seventeen legs)

Saturday 5 March

Fourth round (best of seventeen legs)

Fifth round (best of seventeen legs)

Sunday 6 March

Quarter-finals (best of nineteen legs)

Semi-finals and Final

Media coverage

Like the 2015 tournament, the 2016 tournament was broadcast live in the UK on

ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which first aired on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV plc. The channel focuses primarily on general entertainment programming targeting a male audience, including action series and films, ...

and ITV4 HD.

References

{{2016 in PDC darts UK Open UK Open UK Open UK Open