Scott Williams has revealed the emotional toll dartitis has taken on him this year, admitting he has broken down in tears on the PDC Tour. The 36-year-old, who burst onto the scene with a stunning run to the semi-finals of the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship, has seen his form plummet and now sits 64th in the Tour Card race, in real danger of losing his place on the tour.
Speaking to Oche180, 'Shaggy' was candid about his struggles. "It's going all right. Things are certainly looking up, that's for sure," he said, before detailing the darker moments. "The UK Open was one of the toughest ones this year. I played Ben Robb in Nottingham, and I was 4-1 up, I think, and then all of a sudden I got so uncomfortable up there that I couldn't physically release the dart." He added: "I've cried on the Tour a couple of times this year. I've won the games as well. I've cried. I beat Tyler Thorpe 6-4. I hit five bullseye checkouts. Not one way you would think I'm going to bullseye, but I did because in my head that's how it worked, and I cried."
Williams also opened up about the pressures that contributed to his condition, including running a dart shop and coaching. "There was a lot going on in my personal life in there. I had a dart shop, and I started to coach as well, which was going great, but then what I did is I put all my effort and time into that, which then my game went downwards, and then I was financially looking after the shop with my own money, not an investor's money or someone else's. So I got under so much pressure, but it was hard and really tough."
Despite the struggles, Williams is seeing signs of recovery, citing recent nine-darters and a change of equipment. "But as you've seen recently, a couple of nine-darters in a couple of events, throws much better, change of equipment over the last six weeks, eight weeks. It's all coming back together, but potentially the first six months of the year is going to cost me massively." He remains determined: "We've still got eight events, a couple of European events, Grand Slam to qualify for. I've still got plenty of the year to go. I just need to find that game."
Williams also reflected on his memorable World Championship run, recalling how he spotted a weakness in Michael van Gerwen before their quarter-final. "I was sat there kind of watching the game previous to me, and I was thinking, you know what, I'm watching Michael in the corner of my eye going, 'Something's not right. He's dropping below the treble a lot.' And I'm like, if I could just keep him in that treble like I do, and hit my doubles at the right time, I could take this. And yeah, I did. And the rest is history." He also spoke about his health kick, having gone from XL to 2XL to 3XL shirts, and his determination to get back to the top.