Culleton secures PDC tour card after seven years of trying

Determination and perseverance are the only way to describe Niall Culleton as the Carlow man secured his PDC tour card after a successful week at Q-School after seven years of trying. The 38-year-old had to enter at the first stage of Q-School early in the week and had a good run, finishing in the top 16 in the Order of Merit and qualifying for the final stage from Thursday onwards.

“I am delighted. I’ve been training for the past seven years, heading over to Q-School. Going over this time my preparation was fairly good for it and got the business done,” Culleton told The Nationalist. 

“It was a big relief. I knew going into it I was playing well. I got to win a lot of tournaments, I knew what I was doing on the board. My practice was very good. And I was going in very confident. Every other year you're going over and you're there hoping you're going to get it or hoping something works out for you and something just felt a little different this year going over. I backed myself to do it,” Culleton added.

He said he put extra preparation in this year to ensure he was ready for Q-School this year.

“Generally when you don't get your tour card you do the Challenge Tour so years gone by I was doing Challenge Tour after Q-School and that gives you an opportunity to either get the tour card or if you do well you end up playing on the pro tour events as a kind of a top up player. This year what I did was I took a step back and I didn't travel over to England this year and I basically took a step back and rebuilt myself and worked on my game.” 

“The work I put in during the year then came together. I was feeling very confident going into Q-School this year and prepared and ready and I was very very relieved to finally get in and give the pro tour a good effort.” He says it still hasn’t sunk in that he’s going to be rubbing shoulders with a who’s who of the darts world.

“I think it's trying to sink in, but I don't think it's fully sunk in yet. I don't think it's going to sink in until I play that first event and I'm going to be in a room with the likes of Luke Littler, Michael Van Gerwen and Luke Humphries and the Irish lads there as well, Brendan Dolan, William O’Connor and all that. So I think until that moment happens, I think that's when it's going to sink in, really,” he explained.

It’s been a long journey to get here for Culleton, having been trying to get his tour card for eight years.

“I went over for the first time in 2018, just to see what it was like and I didn't do too bad but didn't get through. Then the following year then I was after making the Irish team so I was captain of the Irish team and I was in Romania for the World Cup so I played that so the following year I went back and that time I missed out by one game for getting the tour card back then so ever since that happened then I kept on trying going back every year then to try and play it after narrowly missing out,” he said.

Culleton had a tough start to the final stage, losing 6-2 to Jim Williams on Day One, and had a scare on Day Two, being 5-0 down to Sam Jackson before coming back to win 6-5. He went on to have a run through to the semi-finals and defeated Danny Goddard in the semi-final to claim his tour card.

“I just switched on from 5-0 down and just said look, just take it one leg at a time here and got back to 6-5 in that so after that game the mindset was for the rest of the day if you can get through that game you can get through any game here today. While that was happening, the thing is, the darts were there, but they weren't kicking at the time, but as I started getting the legs on the boards, the confidence started lifting, and I pushed on through and on to the next one then,” Culleton said.

There were a few other Irish who won their tour cards at Q-School such as Stephen Rosney and Shane McGuirk, meaning Culleton won’t be alone on tour. Culleton said he actually knows the pair and has a long history with them.

“With Stephen Rosney and Shane McGuirk qualifying, that's been brilliant. Myself and Shane McGuirk actually used to room together when we were in England, and I’ve played with the two of them through the years, so it’s really exciting,” he explained.