Murschell makes the big time

By Sean Rooney on February 6, 2018.

Ever since he first took aim at the bullseye, this was Dawson Murschell’s goal.

A tour card. A place alongside the world’s elite. A chance to become the absolute best.

The 23-year-old from Medicine Hat is apartment hunting this week in England, following a momentous win at the Professional Darts Corporation’s Q School last month.

“My life has flipped on its head, so to speak, so I’ve got to roll with the punches and keep in mind why I’m doing it,” said Murschell. “It makes it easier when I think of it like that.

“I’ve been planning for it and dreaming about it my whole life. I’ve been ready for it.”

This was Murschell’s second attempt at Q School, following a 2017 tournament that saw him lose a lot more matches than he won.

In a format of one tournament each day producing automatic qualifiers, then a handful of others chosen based on their combined results through four days, Murschell entered the last day needing a second- or third-round finish to secure his card.

Naturally, he aimed higher. He always has.

“It was a weird last day for me,” said the multiple-time junior Canadian champion. “Before it started the cameras were following me around a bit, saying ‘you’ll need to get two rounds here and you’ll get a tour card.’ I said no, I just want to win today. And I ended up going and doing it.”

He won seven matches in all, three of those requiring the maximum nine legs. A 5-4 final over Terry Temple gave him the last automatic spot.

He did it while nursing an injury, too.

“A couple rounds before the quarter-finals I popped my shoulder out, tweaked it. It didn’t interfere with my throw because you’re mostly extending your forearm, but I was in a lot of pain. I somehow managed to get it done.”

Murschell knows some will snicker at the thought of an injured darts player, but this is the guy who became a gym rat in part to change the stereotype of the rotund, beer-swilling pub players. He also found it paid dividends at the end of long days.

“The only thing I say to those people is that I’ve played rep hockey, I’ve played football, badminton, everything you can think of. Darts is probably the most challenging thing I’ve done mentally, and in some ways physically because it’s so long, grueling.”

The road ahead is no less difficult. He took a narrow loss in an event Sunday hard because, as he tells it, he now feels has to prove he deserves the card each time out. There are only 128 of them in the world, so while it has certainly opened up new doors it now becomes even tougher to best the other 127 who have them. Lose to someone who doesn’t? It’ll sting.

“What I noticed this weekend what I have to get used to is the pressure of having a tour card, the expectations of that. If you have a bad weekend, you shouldn’t be playing like that if you have a tour card.”

But it’s early. Murschell has more sponsors, and folks back home can support him through the Finlay Bridge Outfitters company he started last year. He says he’s only the fourth person from North America to ever earn a pro card, and the marketing potential if he can keep raising his game is massive on both sides of the pond.

The real goal, however, is to keep winning.

“I’m so used to watching these guys on TV, and I thought I would go into the room thinking ‘oh my God, there’s Michael van Gerwen, there’s Roman van Barneveld’ but I was thinking ‘I’m going to smash that guy today.’ It clicked for me. I’ve never really been afraid of the big names.

“I’m going to be playing them and beating them one day.”

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