2009 Las Vegas Desert Classic

, where the tournament was held The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) began the Las Vegas Desert Classic in 2002 as its first live televised darts competition in the United States. Players considered the tournament difficult to play because matches were held early in the morning for a European broadcast. The 2009 tournament was held between July 1 to July 5, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and was the third of the five PDC-sanctioned premier events in the 2009 season. This was the final year PDC staged the competition because of a lack of public interest. It was the eighth edition of the tournament and featured a 32-player main draw held at the Mandalay Bay Resort for the fourth successive year. Two five-round qualifying tournaments held at the Mandalay Bay Resort from June 28 to 29 decided the remaining 12 places. The maximum number of legs played in a match increased from 11 in the first round to 15 in the second, 19 in the quarter-final, and 21 in the semi-finals leading up to the best-of-25 legs final. Taylor, who hurt his back as he rode a bicycle two weeks before the event, commented on his chances: "It's going to bring the best out of me. It's what I do for a living. It's my job. I'll play well the rest of the week, especially after getting beat [Tuesday] in a final." Prize fund The breakdown of the 2009 prize money is shown below: • Winner: £30,000 • Runner-up: £15,000 • Semi-finalists (×2): £10,000 • Quarter-finalists (×4): £7,250 • Last 16 (×8): £5,000 • Last 32 (×16): £3,000 • Fifth round qualifying losers (×6): £1,000 • Fourth round qualifying losers (×12): £250 • Nine-dart checkout: £10,000 • Total: £200,000 ==Tournament summary==

Qualification The two qualifying rounds were held on June 28 and 29. The qualifying draw was conducted at 11:00 local time on June 28. Peter Wright, who entered the top 100 in 2009, beat Andy Smith 5–3 to debut in the tournament. won his first three matches over Chris Edwards, Bernard Prenter and Gary Mawson without losing a leg before beating Mark Dudbridge and Barrie Bates to return to PDC competition. The first round of the event, in which the 12 PDC Order of Merit and four North America Order of America entrants played the 12 qualifiers, was held between July 1 and 2. Colin Lloyd, who had lost in the first round of the last three Las Vegas tournaments, beat Wright 6–3. Ronnie Baxter, a UK Open semi-finalist and Las Vegas Players' Championship winner, lost 6–2 to Klaasen. Terry Jenkins, the losing finalist at the 2007 event, defeated qualifier Whitlock 6–1, Andy Hamilton, a 2008 quarter-finalist, Round 2 (pictured in 2007) was knocked out of the competition in the second round by John Part The second round on July 3 consisted of eight 15-leg matches. Taylor whitewashed Priestley, who had two chances at a double ring, 8–0. Taylor said post-match he felt uncomfortable, and it was hard to whitewash another professional player. Lewis beat Manley 8–1 in their third meeting in Las Vegas. Manley took the first leg after Lewis twice missed the double 20 ring. Lewis achieved five maximum scores and used errors from Manley to seal the victory. Part played Jenkins in the first quarter-final. Part achieved checkouts of 112 and 78 to take a 3–0 lead. An 88 checkout gave Jenkins the fourth leg, and he hit the double 14 ring to go 3–2 behind. Part won four frames in a row before Jenkins claimed six of the next eight to be 9–8 behind. Part won the 18th leg on the double four ring to win the match 10–8. Van Barneveld won 10–1 to eliminate King from the quarter-finals for the second time in three years with three 13-dart finishes in succession. Van Barneveld, who averaged 104 points in the match, Van Barneveld faced Wade in the other semi-final. Wade took a 2–1 advantage, which Van Barneveld cancelled out with eight of the nine following legs. Wade hit the double ten and eight rings to lower his deficit to Van Barneveld before the latter hit the double 16 ring to be within one leg of reaching the final. A finish on the double six ring allowed Wade to reduce the deficit by one leg before Van Barneveld finished on the double 16 ring to win 10–6 and requite his loss to Wade in the semi-final of the Premier League Darts. The Sky Sports team called the match "a dream final"; the two finalists were ranked first and third in the PDC Order of Merit and noted they had not played each other in a long time since Van Barneveld played in the British Darts Organisation. Eric Bristow, a Sky Sports commentator, observed that Van Barneveld would have to "play at his very, very, very best" to defeat Taylor. Taylor led 3–0 after Van Barneveld could not strike the double 18 ring in the third leg. Van Barneveld entered the first interval 3–2 behind Taylor with consecutive finishes on the bullseye ring. He achieved two successive 11-dart finishes to lead Taylor 4–3 and won a fifth leg in a row on the double two ring. Taylor won the next four legs to reclaim the lead before Van Barneveld finished the double 18 ring in a 13-dart finish to tie the score. Taylor retook the lead with five legs in succession to hold a 11–7 advantage. Van Barneveld won the next three legs before Taylor made an 11-dart finish to be within a leg of victory. Van Barneveld finished on the double 16 ring to win an 11th leg and leg 24 saw Taylor obtain a checkout of 104 to win the match 13–11. and the third time he had beaten Van Barneveld in the final of a major competition. He earned £30,000 prize money for winning the tournament. Taylor commented on his success: "I'm delighted. It was a super final to be involved in and, in the end, I broke his spirit I think." He added, "Raymond raised his game and there were times during the early stages when I wasn't even getting a chance at a double." Van Barneveld said he was disappointed to have lost in the final. Van Barneveld left the arena upset and his friend apologised to the tournament director for his behaviour. ==Draw==

Numbers to the left of players' names show the seedings for the tournament's top eight players. The 12 non-automatic qualifiers are indicated by a (Q). The figures in brackets to the right of a competitor's name state their three-dart averages in a match. Names in bold denote match winners of the main draw. ==Notes==