Cor Dekker made history last week when he secured himself a Tour Card for the PDC Pro Tour. Now he hopes other fellow Norwegians will follow his example.
Alongside Viktor Tingström and Oskar Lukasiak, Cor Dekker also secured a Tour Card for the Nordic and Baltic region last week.
And even though the Norwegian had never tried going to Q-School before, he absolutely demolished the points table and secured himself a Tour Card with no less than 11 points, twice as much as needed with the final standings in mind.
“It feels weird that I now have a Tour Card. I did not expect to secure one, because it was my first time at Q-school. I know what I am capable of and that the possibility was there, but it was weird to play for a Tour Card instead of a trophy,” Cor Dekker tells pdc-nordic.tv.
Because of the good start at Q-School, Cor Dekker quickly felt that his chances of getting a Tour Card was quite good.
“After a good start I knew right away that the Tour Card was within reach. People were telling me that six points was enough and I had three days left to get those points.”
Even though Cor Dekker now have made history being the first ever Norwegian to get a Tour Card, it was not always on the cards that it would end up being like that. When Covid hit the entire world, Cor Dekker stopped playing darts for a while and stopped competing on the Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour, but back in 2023 he showed up once again and in 2024 he found the right motivation to go for the Tour Card.
“I was not thinking about a Tour Card at all when I took a break from darts! When I came back to the Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour I was just thinking it was fun to play these tournaments and the qualifiers for the Euro Tour. I just wanted to keep doing that.”
“Then a good friend of mine told me to go all in or just quit playing in other countries and spend more time with the family. I thought he was right and then after last year’s first event in Riga, where I had a good weekend, I got my motivation back to practice again and wanted to be a professional darts player again.”
With the spot at the World Cup last year and the addition of Norway to the Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour, Norwegian darts has had a good development in recent years. With Cor Dekker’s Tour Card as the newest development to Norwegian darts, the Norwegian hope it will have some effects for the further development for Norway.
“It feels good to be the first Norwegian with a Tour Card of course. I hope more players will follow now.”
Putting all the other stuff aside, Cor Dekker of course also has ambitions on his own for the years to come with a Tour Card in hand.
“I just want to play as much as possible and do well on both the Nordic and Baltic ranking and the PDC rankings. And of course I want to be playing at the big televised tournaments as well. But my new goal is trying to reach the top 64 in two years, so I do not lose my Tour Card.”