Beau Greaves (Photo PDC)
Beau Greaves will begin her bid for UK Open glory against Darryl Pilgrim on Friday afternoon, with the draw and stage allocations confirmed for the opening session of this week’s event in Minehead.
Greaves will be amongst the headline acts in the annual festival of darts, which will take place at Butlin’s Minehead Resort from March 6-8.
The unique multi-board tournament will see 128 PDC Tour Card Holders competing across three days of action alongside PDC in the Community Qualifiers, Rileys Amateur Qualifiers and top-ranked players from the 2025 Challenge Tour and Development Tour rankings.
The 160-player field will see Tour Card Holders enter across the first four rounds, based on their PDC ranking position following last week’s Players Championship double-header in Leicester.
The opening three rounds will be held in an action-packed session from 1100 GMT on Friday March 6, before the world’s top 32 enter the fray in round four on Friday evening.
Round One will see Tour Card Holders ranked from 97-128 joined by the eight PDC in the Community Qualifiers, eight Amateur Qualifiers and 16 players from the 2025 Challenge Tour and Development Tour.
Rising star Charlie Manby will play Swiss number one Stefan Bellmont in an eye-catching opening round tie on the Main Stage, where 16-year-old Kyle Gilding also takes on Sam Spivey.
Amateur Qualifier Aden Kirk, who famously dumped out Phil Taylor, Peter Wright and Gerwyn Price on his UK Open debut in 2014, locks horns with veteran Mervyn King, who reached the semi-finals that same year, while Spain’s Cristo Reyes takes on Graham Usher in another eye-catching round one tie.
Tour Card Holders ranked 65-96 will enter in round two, as World Youth Championship runner-up Greaves opens her campaign against Pilgrim.
Greaves advanced to round four on her UK Open debut last year, and the Doncaster darter has made an impressive start to 2026, producing a spectacular nine-darter at Players Championship Six in Leicester last week.
Poland’s number two Sebastian Bialecki will face former Lakeside Champion Christian Kist for a place in round three, while Germany’s Max Hopp meets either Spivey or PDC in the Community Qualifier Gilding.
Dutch debutant Jimmy van Schie plays Tom Bissell in another Main Stage clash, as Cam Crabtree prepares to face Pascal Rupprecht or Jenson Walker.
Players ranked from 33-64 will then join the tournament in round three, with former UK Open champions Peter Wright and Raymond van Barneveld amongst the stars in action.
2017 winner Wright faces a potential showdown against Lithuania’s Darius Labanauskas, as Callum Francis and Maximilian Czerwinski also battle it out for the right to play the Scottish icon.
Van Barneveld, meanwhile, who claimed back-to-back UK Open titles in 2006 and 2007, faces a tough test against Czechia’s number one, Karel Sedlacek.
2024 semi-finalist Ricky Evans has been pitted against former World Grand Prix runner-up Brendan Dolan, while Dutchman Kevin Doets and Germany’s number two Ricardo Pietreczko go head-to-head in another stand-out tussle.
Elsewhere, two-time quarter-finalist Mensur Suljovic faces Lukas Wenig for a place in round four, as former Masters champion Joe Cullen awaits one of Crabtree, Rupprecht or Walker in his opener.
The top 32 players on the PDC Werner Rankings Ladder will begin their title challenges in round four on Friday evening, including reigning champion Luke Littler and world number two Luke Humphries.
Former champions Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson, Danny Noppert, James Wade, Nathan Aspinall, Dimitri Van den Bergh and Andrew Gilding will also enter the event in round four.
Following the conclusion of round three on Friday afternoon, an open draw will be made live on the Main Stage for round four, with further draws to be made following each subsequent round.
Main Stage matches across all three days will be broadcast live on ITV4 for UK viewers, through the PDC’s international broadcast partners, including DAZN and Viaplay, and on PDCTV for Rest of the World Subscribers.
Players will compete for the £120,000 top prize and the coveted title across the weekend in Minehead, with a total prize fund of £750,000 on offer being paid down to the last 128.
