This article documents all the events in the sport of darts over the course of 2009.
News
January 2 – Raymond van Barneveld wins £20,000 for hitting the first PDC World Championship nine-darter, during his quarter-final against Jelle Klaasen. 3 – The 2009 BDO World Darts Championship gets underway at the Lakeside Country Club.
4 – Phil Taylor wins his fourteenth world title and twelfth in the PDC, after a 7–1 win over Raymond van Barneveld in the 2009 PDC World Championship final at London's Alexandra Palace. Taylor's average of 110.94 is a world record for a championship final. 9 – Francis Hoenselaar finally wins the Women's World Championship beating Trina Gulliver 2–1 in the final at the Lakeside. Also, Jelle Klaasen and Wayne Mardle are announced as the two wildcard selections for the Premier League Darts competition, that gets under way on February 5 in Liverpool. 10 – Terry Jenkins becomes the first player other than Phil Taylor to win the Bobby Bourn Memorial Players Championship, as the 2009 Pro Tour got underway at The Dome Leisure Centre in Doncaster. Jenkins beat Mark Dudbridge 6–3 in the final, as the Players Championship format reverts to the best of eleven legs. 11 – Ted Hankey wins the 2009 BDO World Championship final, winning an epic 7–6 encounter against Tony O'Shea. In the PDC, Colin Lloyd wins the first of the UK Open regional finals, beating Colin Osborne 6–1 in the final in Doncaster. 17 – Phil Taylor wins his second tournament of the month by capturing the Eddie Cox Memorial Players Championship in Gibraltar. He picked up the £6,000 first prize by coming from 2–1 down, winning the last five legs consecutively to beat Alan Tabern 6–2. Mark Walsh also picked up a £1,600 prize for a nine-darter against Jamie Caven, in a match he won 6–5. 18 – Phil Taylor completes the Gibraltar double, by beating Mark Dudbridge 6–1 in the final of the Stan James.com Players Championship. In the BDO, Richard Marcotte wins the category B Quebec Open beating Martin Tremblay to pick up the $2400 first prize. 24 – Garrett Gray of the Republic of Ireland wins the Gwynedd Open, defeating Derek Williams 5–3 in legs in the final. Also on the day, Jenni Tulley and Craig Baxter win the Scottish Mixed Pairs Championship in Bannockburn, beating Paul Hanvidge and Louise Hepburn 3–0 in the final. 25 – In the BDO, Kevin Münch wins the men's German Gold Cup defeating Jan Dekker 3 sets to 1 in the final. In the women's event, Irina Armstrong beats Karin Krappen 2–1 to retain the title. Elsewhere, Wes Newton claims the men's Las Vegas Open title defeating Brian Blake 4 legs to 0 in the final and in the women's event, Canada's Robin Curry wins 4–3 against American Cali West. 30 – The all-new Players Championship Finals tournament gets underway at the former home of the PDC World Darts Championship – the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, Essex.
31 – Scott Mitchell wins the Eastbourne Classic, beating Steve Douglas 3–0 in legs, in the final. In the women's event, Trina Gulliver beat Rhonda West 3–0 in legs.
February 1 – Phil Taylor wins his third consecutive tournament, with a 16–9 victory over first-time finalist Robert Thornton in the final of the Players Championship Finals. Taylor picked up £50,000 for victory. 5 – Mark Webster moves across from the BDO to the PDC, with his debut coming at the Players Championship double-header in Gladbeck at the end of February. Meanwhile, the fifth season of Premier League Darts gets underway at the Liverpool Echo Arena. The tournament will visit fourteen different venues over the course of the next fourteen weeks, before the final in late May at Wembley Arena. On the night, there were two draws (James Wade v John Part and Jelle Klaasen v Terry Jenkins) and wins for Phil Taylor and Mervyn King over Raymond van Barneveld (8–4) and Wayne Mardle (8–1) respectively.
8 – Darryl Fitton wins the Dutch Open, in Veldhoven beating Willy van de Wiel by 3–2 in sets. In the women's event, Trina Gulliver wins 5–3 in legs over Wales' Julie Gore. Meanwhile, in the pairs events, Holland's Gino Vos and Rico Dera beat Brian Woods and Robbie Green 2–1 in sets to win the men's and in the women's, Gulliver teamed up with her good friend Francis Hoenselaar to win 5–1 in legs over Gore and Welsh teammate Jan Robbins. 12 – Week two of the Premier League rolls into the Royal Highland Showground in Ingliston, Edinburgh. Just like week one, there were two draws (John Part v Raymond van Barneveld and Terry Jenkins v Wayne Mardle) and convincing wins for Phil Taylor, who won 8–2 against Jelle Klaasen and Mervyn King, who won 8–1 against James Wade. In other news, the number one ranked player in the World Darts Federation and two-time semi-finalist at the Grand Slam of Darts, Gary Anderson moves across from the BDO to the PDC, with his debut coming at the Players Championship and UK Open Scottish Regional events in Irvine in early March. 14 – Gino Vos wins the WDF-ranked Dortmund Open, beating Ronny Huybrechts three sets to one in the final. In the women's event, Michelle Sossong wins her first tournament, beating Carla Molema by two sets to nil. 16 – Roland Scholten has surgery on his injured shoulder which has seen his form dip and his ranking tumble outside the top 16. 19 – Mervyn King continued his impressive start to his maiden Premier League Darts campaign, with an 8–2 win over John Part as the Premier League circus moved to Coventry's Ricoh Arena for week three. He has now won his first three matches dropping just four legs in the process. In the other matches, Phil Taylor's 100% start was ended when he drew 7–7 with Terry Jenkins – having been as far back as 6–4. James Wade averaged nearly 108 in beating Raymond van Barneveld 8–4 in the second match on – a repeat of their semi-final meeting at the 2009 PDC World Darts Championship and Wayne Mardle won a hard-fought match with Jelle Klaasen 8–6, with Hawaii 5–0–1 picking up top checkout prize for the second week running. 21 – 2002 BDO World Champion Tony David was rushed to hospital for an emergency liver transplant. The operation was successful although he remains in an intensive care unit. 22 – Tony O'Shea wins the Scottish Open in Renfrew with a hard-fought 5–4 win over Martin Atkins. In the women's competition, Tricia Wright saw off Karen Lawman 4–0 in the final. The competition also ran pairs events, with Martin Phillips and Tony Martin, and Francis Hoenselaar and Irina Armstrong picking up the respective pairs trophies. 26 – James Wade inflicted the first defeat of the 2009 season on Phil Taylor with a fantastic 8–4 win over the fourteen-time world champion during week four's action at Belfast's Odyssey Arena in the Premier League. Wade's victory was made even sweeter by his 138 finish – the Deller checkout – to win the match. In the other matches, Mervyn King continued his 100% start with an 8–4 win over Jelle Klaasen, John Part thrashed Wayne Mardle 8–1 and Raymond van Barneveld won his first match of the tournament, seeing off Terry Jenkins 8–6 with an average of 106.51. 28 – Phil Taylor wins his third Players Championship event in succession, winning the German Darts Classic in Gladbeck. In the final, he saw off Adrian Lewis by 6 legs to nil. Over his seven matches on Saturday, just six legs were dropped by The Power, on his way to picking up the £6,000 first prize. In other matches, Mark Webster made his PDC debut but found life tough going, losing his very first match to Ronnie Baxter 6–1. Meanwhile, Stephen Bunting and Francis Lawson win the men's and women's Tyne and Wear Open. Bunting beat Glen Durrant to pick up the £1,100 first prize, while Lawson surprised Anastasia Dobromyslova to pick up the £200 first prize. In the youth competition, Leon Bailey saw off Lee Rump to claim victory.
March 1 – In a busy weekend of darts, it was four in a row for Phil Taylor as he sealed the Gladbeck Players Championship double. In a rematch of the previous day's final, Taylor beat Adrian Lewis by six legs to one, to pick up yet another £6,000 first prize. Elsewhere, the English team of Martin Atkins, Scott Waites, John Walton, Tony O'Shea and Martin Adams won the Nations Cup with a 13–8 victory over the Dutch side of Daniel Brouwer, Rick Hofstra, Kevin Vennik, Willy van de Wiel and Joey ten Berge. Waites' performance stood out as he won 5 of the English side's 13 legs. Meanwhile, Robert Wagner took advantage of the Nations Cup ruling out many top players, to win the Finnish Open beating Oskar Lukasiak 5–4 in a closely contested final. In the women's event, Tricia Wright won again, beating Kirsi Viinikainen 4–2 in the final. Wayne Brown also won the Essex Open, beating Jason Evans 4–1 in the final. 5 – Week five of the Premier League saw the competition move to the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle for the highly anticipated clash between Mervyn King and Phil Taylor. A 7–7 draw was the result, however there was some needle between the two players. During the seventh leg, Taylor after removing the darts from a 60 score, dropped one of them at the side of the oche. As Taylor retrieved it, King threw his first dart over Taylor, thus being deemed unsporting by the 14-time world champion. In slightly less bad-tempered matches, James Wade moved up to second in the table after an 8–6 win over Jelle Klaasen, who still languishes at the bottom of the table; Wayne Mardle and Raymond van Barneveld shared a 7–7 draw and John Part occupies the final play-off spot, after an 8–5 win over the winless Terry Jenkins. 7 – Robert Thornton wins his first major PDC title by clinching the Scottish Players Championship in Irvine, North Ayrshire. In a repeat of the quarter-final of the Players Championship Finals, the man from Stevenston saw off Dennis Priestley in a deciding leg. Also in the tournament, making his debut was Gary Anderson. Under his new sobriquet of The Flying Scotsman, Anderson made the fourth round before falling to Thornton 6–3. In other darts-related news, Tony David was released from his hospital after his liver transplant on February 21. He is said to be feeling "great but tired". 8 – Robert Thornton became only the third player – after Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis – to win both events of a PDC Pro Tour weekend after conquering Dennis Priestley again during the final of the UK Open Scottish Regional. With his win, Thornton has now won over £84,000 in less than a year's competition on the PDC circuit, and is within range of the world's top sixteen. In only his fourth tournament since defecting from the BDO, Mark Webster made his first Pro Tour semi-final, having survived a scare during his third round match. In a battle of the 2008 BDO World Darts Championship champions, Anastasia Dobromyslova wasted eight match darts at 5–4, before Webster came back and won 6–5. Webby would eventually fall to Thornton 6–3. Meanwhile, in a category four World Darts Federation event, Troy Hanlon won the Halifax Open in Canada. Hanlon beat Seymour Dixon in the final. In the women's event, Cindy Pardy beat Tammy Perry to pick up the trophy. 12 – Week six of the Premier League saw the tournament move to the Manchester Evening News Arena, and Mervyn King was defeated for the first time. Raymond van Barneveld put King to the sword, and defeated him by eight legs to three. In other matches, Jelle Klaasen earned only his second point after a 7–7 draw with John Part, and James Wade and Phil Taylor both recorded wins to hold onto second and third places in the table. Wade saw off Terry Jenkins 8–5, while Taylor beat Wayne Mardle 8–4.