Jim Long’s sudden change of plan after Q-School success

Jim Long at age 56, he will make his PDC ProTour debut next month after earning his Tour Card in 2025. Q School. “The Gentleman” had already secured his Tour Card assignment, but he broke Kelvin O’Keefe’s heart and made Thomas Lovely’s day with victory.

But it’s a sudden realization of what he did for Long, who is now retired so he can focus on darts, but he was expecting to take on the Challenge Tour and go to those tournaments in Germany, but instead he has to plan the ProTour.

“It was a difficult final knowing I already had it and I lost a little bit of determination or just drive. But I’m glad I finally managed to play it,” Long said after the final.

“Honestly, I played the same the first two days, I just missed the doubles. I missed so many doubles in the first two days and I was devastated about it. I came here for the last two days and spent a full hour on double 20, double 10, double five. They came through me in the last two days.

“I already had plans for this weekend’s Challenge Tour. I’ve planned to go to Germany next year because I have some euros at home that I wanted to spend and I hope I can go on the Euro Tour.”

“I retired in 2020 when Covid started. From then on I wanted to do Q-School every year, and the guys playing Seniors and MODUS and the camaraderie I had and the great games, I would love to play them games in a slightly longer format, so I was happy with either the ProTour or the Challenge Tour, I was happy with both.”

Now he has to travel back and forth, but the most important thing he will get out of it is that he will be at the Darts World Cup with Matt Campbell representing Canada, which is undoubtedly a great source of pride.

“Every month from February to October. Matt is my doubles partner in Canada, so the biggest thing I take away from this is that he and I will play in the World Cup together. Me and Matt are involved in this, obviously I have a lot of plans to do for the coming year with CDC and getting to the World’s and ProTour I’m at the end of my career, I’ve been doing this a long time, I don’t know if there is anyone who will come to their first question – School I don’t know. I just wanted to play, I wanted to experience it and give it my all.