Bizarre Q-School rule surrounding Final Stage unearthed which denies players entry to Challenge Tour or Tour Card if condition not met

PDC Q School kicks off today across the UK and Europe, with three days of action in Milton Keynes and Kalkar to decipher the final makeup of the scene. However, those who qualify for the final stage must complete the maximum number of days to be eligible to participate in the Challenge Tour.

The first tweet quoted Geert Nentjes, with the Dutchman playing this week to get onto the Challenge Tour in connection with sealing his Tour Card. However, if he manages to make it to the final stage, he will have to play all four days to be eligible.

In practice, this means that he will deliberately lose matches so as not to get to the final stage. Perhaps this will eliminate those who just want to take part in the Challenge Tour and perhaps advance to the final stage based on the Order of Merit.

But this also applies to those who win a Tour Card and reject it, they then cannot decide to play the Challenge Tour next year in the same way they played Q-School.

Perhaps this also applies to someone like Beau Greaves, who will play with Q-School in the Final Stage for the first time, but it is not certain whether he will accept the prize offered. Either way, she’ll have to play all four days to compete on the Challenge Tour next year.

The policy states: “Admission to Q-School constitutes acceptance of the Tour Card. If earned through the player’s performance. If a player earns a Tour Card through his or her performance at Q-School but declines the Tour Card or qualifies for the Final Stage by exemption or qualification and does not participate on all days unless he or she is a daily winner, he or she is not eligible to appear on Q-School Points List nor to play on the ProTour (including European Tour Qualifiers) or Secondary Tour Events in 2025.”