About Jon Douglas...

I would first like to introduce myself. My name is Jon Douglas, I am 39 yrs old, and live in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Probably like most others, I started playing darts by accident. I was asked to sub-in in a blind draw tournament and the rest is 4 years dart history. After playing in a few bar blind draws, I wanted more...so a good darter and friend Jeff Gilbert, from Southern Indiana suggested going to a steel tip tournament: Cincinnati's Spring Fling 2000. What a concept! Darts, good people and money for doing both! I had no clue what I was doing at the time but I had made it to the top 16 in the men's 501 singles.

What was that I asked? I was about to call last-call on my opponent when he arrived at the board. Best of 3 legs later, I was on D17 and my opponent was sitting on an out (Tom Chopper Williams). Well, to say the least I was happy I had done whatever I had done! Not till 6 month later did I realize that what we were doing was throwing 15 and 16 dart legs! This was my first experience playing experienced darters and still, to this day, I can call all of those I met at that first tournament my friends.

Since then I have played in numerous tournaments and have had some relative success. Being fortunate to partner in Men's Doubles events with players like Jeff Gilbert, Steve Brown and some of the Midwest's best darters. Playing a sport such as darts, offers an individual as myself an opportunity to play against the best in the world! Improve, learn, enjoy and maybe win some money! In 2003 I was fortunate to take my first out-of-country trip to a dart tournament! I traveled to Saskatoon, Saskatewan, Canada, to the Golden Harvest North American Cup! If I could impress upon a beginner or experienced dart player who is PASSIONATE about the sport of darts...visit tournaments. My experience in Canada is one I will always remember and it will be the one tournament I will always visit. Yes, I feel I had some success there also. I made it through two grueling days of round-robin style of play and made a little money along the way.

My last story is at this same tournament... There are two days of round-robin and where you finish in those two days determines your seeding in the big tournament. My first day was more of a learning experience than anything. Little did I know that I made the cut just from winning the games that I won. The scary part came on day two when my group to play against that day consisted of Steve Arnott, the number 1 seed, with John Lowe and Cliff Lazrenko as numbers 2 and 3 respectfully. My point being, where else can you play a sport against some of the biggest names in the sport, and learn, improve, have an enjoyable time doing it? From one passionate dart player to all the rest, be safe and keep throwing well.

~ Jon Douglas

Thanks Jon for your take on darts!