By:
Paul Kelly
Six of Ireland’s best darts players are confirmed for the 2026 Winmau World Masters Preliminary Round.
The five Irish PDC Tour Card holders and Women’s Series player Robyn Byrne will all feature in the Masters prelims on Wednesday, January 28.
Six Irish Darts Players Confirmed For Winmau World Masters Prelims
After earning PDC Tour Cards at UK Q-School in Milton Keynes at the beginning of January, Stephen Rosney, Shane McGuirk and Niall Culleton have all qualified for the 2026 Winmau World Masters Preliminary Round.
The World Masters gets underway on Wednesday, January 28 for the prelims, with the tournament proper running from January 29 to February 1.
A total of 24 players have automatically qualified for the Winmau World Masters first round, with a further 168 players battling it out in the prelims for just eight more spots to complete the Round 1 line-up on January 29.
https://twitter.com/updates_irish/status/2010830928889708620
The likes of two-time back-to-back world champion Luke Littler, three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen and World Darts Championship finalist Gian van Veen all feature at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes at the end of the month, with six Irish players hopeful of joining them.
William O’Connor is one of the 32 seeded players in the Last 64 of the Preliminary Round, with Keane Barry seeded in the Preliminary Group Stage. McGuirk, Rosney and Culleton are all unseeded players in the Preliminary Group Stage, with Robyn Byrne also unseeded after qualifying through the Women’s Series.
This makes a total of six Irish darts players in the preliminary round at the 2026 Winmau World Masters. Of the six players who have made it to the World Masters prelims, O’Connor has the best chance of progressing into the Round 1.
O’Connor was the only Irish player not to fall down the PDC Order of Merit after the 2026 World Darts Championship, and he remains the standout Irish player for the first major of the year.
The Field for the 2026 Winmau World Masters pic.twitter.com/Ur1QfYk64q
— Dohmi aka Derbysieger (@RealPhillipDohm) January 11, 2026
Robyn Byrne First Irish Female Representative in PDC Event
One of the six Irish players competing in the 2026 Winmau World Masters Preliminary Round is Women’s Series star Robyn Byrne.
The female Irish darts player has reached the semi-final and quarter-final stage in two of the last three years at the Women’s World Matchplay, and has her sights set on climbing the women’s ladder and replicating what Fallon Sherrock and Beau Greaves have done in the sport.
Byrne actually won the Winmau Women’s Masters tournament for girls 12 years ago back in 2014, so has tasted success in a Masters event previously.
That being said, she will need to bring her A-game if she is to progress from the World Masters Preliminary Group Stage, never mind making it to the Last 64 prelims.
Robyn Byrne defeats Noa-Lynn van Leuven to win the WDF Europe cup women’s singles title. The WDF recently passed a vote to ban trans-women entering women’s events, so this could be one of the last times we see Noa Lynn at an event like this pic.twitter.com/bHWwluEsri
— DartsAnonymous (@anonymous_darts) September 28, 2024
The 28-year-old has shown on her day that she can compete with the world’s best players such as Greaves, Sherrock and Ashton.
The Dubliner has in fact tasted victory over the likes of Sherrock, Ashton, Noa-Lynn van Leuven, Laura Turner and Lorraine Winstanley on multiple occasions previously, but is yet to record a victory over Greaves.
If Byrne can make it through the group stage into the Last 64 of the prelims, she will pocket £750 for her troubles. Reaching the Last 32 of the prelims is worth £1,000, meanwhile making it to the Last 16 of the prelims is a guaranteed payday of £2,500.
If any of the six Irish players make it into the first round proper, they are guaranteed a minimum of £5,000.
Categories
- Athletics (5)
- Aussie Rules (1)
- Basketball (12)
- Camogie (3)
- College American football (1)
- Combat (185)
- Cricket (17)
- Cycling (4)
- Darts (36)
- Editors-picks (13)
- Football (1210)
- Formula-1 (14)
- GAA (308)
- Golf (162)
- Hockey (1)
- Horse Racing (172)
- interviews (3)
- LGFA (3)
- MLB Baseball (2)
- NFL (23)
- ROI Radar (1)
- Rowing (1)
- Rugby (188)
- Snooker (6)
- Swimming (3)
- Tennis (17)
- Uncategorized (17)
- WWE (1)
