Forgotten darts player has qualified for the Grand Slam after completing astonishing feat

Ten more players have qualified for the Grand Slam of Darts via the PDC's Tour Card Holder qualifier - and Austria's Rusty-Jake Rodriguez has a more remarkable story, in the context of this year's results, than the others.

Every tour card holder who hadn't already qualified for the 48-strong event, which takes place in Leicester and has a total prize pot of £1 million, were given one final opportunity to get there on Friday afternoon.

Stephen Bunting, Joe Cullen and Ricky Evans all booked their Grand Slam spots, with Rodriguez beating Tom Bissell 5-2 to secure his spot as well.

READ NEXT: Darts star's addiction to Football Manager impacted his performances as wife made 'lazy' admission

Rusty-Jake Rodriguez has stunning day to secure Grand Slam qualification

Rodriguez, whose brothers Rowby-John and Roxy-James are also darts players, had to overcome three opponents in order to reach the Grand Slam having avoided being drawn in the top 160 bracket.

He was favourite to lose to fourth seed and top 32 player Damon Heta in his opening match, but produced a superb 97 average to defeat the Australian 5-3 in legs.

The Austrian was then drawn against Ritchie Edhouse, who won the 2024 European Championship for his first major PDC title but has endured a difficult 2026. Rodriguez came out as a 5-1 winner while averaging 92.

His final opponent Bissell, however, was arguably the toughest contender of the lot. The 39-year-old, who was effectively an unknown before he won his tour card via Q-School in 2025, had mixed results last season as he adapted to playing on the full-time PDC circuit. But he has had a much-improved 2026; Bissell comfortably qualified for the Players Championship Finals by finishing 25th on the PC Order of Merit, and will play at the World Championship later this year.

He is still fighting to secure his tour card for another year, however, and will likely need to win three matches at Alexandra Palace to finish the season in the top 64. The Grand Slam, therefore, could have provided another avenue to keep him on the PDC circuit.

But Rodriguez, who has about as remote a chance as possible of keeping his own tour card (he needs to win the Grand Slam), won the first three legs before taking a 5-2 victory with an average of 94.

His victories are put into context by the fact that Rodriguez, before Friday, had not won a game on the PDC ProTour since July 2, at Players Championship 19. He had lost 12 games on the bounce since then.

In fact, Rodriguez's total win tally for the year, up until Friday, was just two - meaning he won more games in a single day than in the rest of the year combined. He went 11 PC tournaments before picking up that elusive first win, against Ian White.

READ NEXT: Fallon Sherrock reveals what she'll spend £501,000 prize on after winning 'Beat Luke Littler'

Who has qualified for the Grand Slam of Darts?

Here is the full list of players who have qualified for the Grand Slam of Darts, based on their achievements in 2026:

PDC/other event winners or finalists

• Luke Littler
• Luke Humphries
• Gian van Veen
• Ross Smith
• Adam Sevada
• Paolo Nebrida
• Raymond Smith
• Gerwyn Price
• James Wade
• Michael van Gerwen
• Nathan Aspinall
• Beau Greaves
• Martin Schindler
• Cam Crabtree
• Jan Schmidt

ProTour/European Tour winners

• Josh Rock
• Wessel Nijman
• Ryan Searle
• Chris Dobey
• Luke Woodhouse
• Jermaine Wattimena
• Krzysztof Ratajski
• Kevin Doets
• Rob Cross
• Cameron Menzies
• Andrew Gilding
• Niels Zonneveld
• Jeffrey De Graaf
• Karel Sedlacek
• Gabriel Clemens
• Charlie Manby
• Tommy Morris
• Henry Coates

Order of Merit winners

• Sebastian Bialecki (Development Tour)
• Joe Hunt (Challenge Tour)
• Lisa Ashton (Women's Series runner-up - winner Greaves had already qualified)

Tour Card Holder qualifiers

• Stephen Bunting
• Joe Cullen
• Niko Springer
• Ricky Evans
• Bradley Brooks
• Alan Soutar
• Maik Kuivenhoven
• Tom Sykes
• Carl Sneyd
• Rusty-Jake Rodriguez

The final qualification spot will be awarded to the winner of the PDC's Nordic & Baltic Championship. The winner of that tournament will also qualify for the World Championship.