more Windy City Open... full story this time...

Well I must admit that it has been a bit of a challange to get this one right, but let's try this one more time... I left the link to the 2007 story, and added the full story for this year and it's source link...

Spectator's View of the Windy City Open Dart Tournament 2008
A Spectator's View of the Annual Windy City Open Dart Tournament
Ronnie Baxter Rockets to Win at Professional Dart Competition

t's only in the past year that I've become an amateur dart player in the Windy City Darters Open League. Our team meets on Tuesdays at a local bar, has a few drinks, and plays nine matches against another area dart team. We try to pick up new strategies, make new friends, and attempt to get out of last place. Like any other sport, darts requires psychological as well as physical skill. For us steel tip darters, it even requires the ability to do math--and stay out of the way when those darts fly. No soft points or automatic scoreboards here. It's darting old school style.

This past weekend we got to see darts taken to the next level at the Windy City Open Dart Tournament. It may seem unusual for a simple pub game to acquire such intense devotion, but if curling can be an Olympic sport, why can't darts be serious too? Like baseball or bowling, darts can be a fun pastime for some and a moneymaker for others. Professional darters compete and collect big prizes. In the UK, dart tournaments are even considered worthy of television coverage, and can be found on cable here in America as well.

Begun in 1976, the Windy City Open is North America's longest running dart tournament. The Open is also one of the few tournaments in the United States sanctioned by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), a major darters association that originated in the UK. The Windy City Open draws international dart competitors from England, Canada, the Netherlands, and Ireland to compete head-to-head with local and national players.

The intriguing thing about this dart competition is that whoever coughed up the $145 registration fee could play with the big dogs. Those with less coin could try the $40 qualifier round, which allowed entrants to compete for a spot in the game. The outcome of the Windy City Open Dart Tournament generally favors the professionals, particularly the Brits, but crazy things can happen. It's a motto on our team that any player can be beaten at any time. Darts is a game that allows for spectacular come-from-behind wins. It all depends on how many chances that other darter leaves you to get back into contention. (source link...)
(2007 article)