# Richard Veenstra

Richard Veenstra (born 10 July 1981) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Veenstra previously played in British Darts Organisation (BDO) tournaments, where he won the 2019 Dutch Open, and was the runner-up at the 2019 BDO World Trophy and 2018 Finder Darts Masters.
Veenstra obtained a PDC Tour Card in 2023, and reached the last 32 in his PDC World Championship debut in 2024. He has reached four quarter-finals in the PDC's ranking Players Championship events.
He was also a two-time world championship semi-finalist at Lakeside, reaching the last four at the 2018 BDO World Championship and the 2022 WDF World Championship.

## Career
### BDO/WDF

In October 2014, Veenstra won the Luxembourg Open beating Mark Oosterhuis in the Final 6–4. He reached the semi-finals of the 2015 Denmark Masters and England Open. In October 2015, he won WDF World Cup Pairs with Wesley Harms to beat Scott Mitchell and Mark McGeeney 6–3. On his debut at the 2016 BDO World Darts Championship, Veenstra caused an upset beating compatriot and third seed Jeffrey de Graaf 3–2 in the first round, before beating English player Martin Atkins comfortably 4–0 in the second round. Veenstra then defeated defending champion Scott Mitchell 5–3 to reach the semi-finals, which he narrowly lost to Jeff Smith 6–5.
In September 2016, Veenstra won the WDF Europe Cup singles by beating Jim Williams in the final 7–5, averaging 93.18. In September 2018, he won both the BDO British Open and BDO British Classic in the same weekend.
At the 2022 WDF World Darts Championship, Veenstra recorded the highest three dart average in the venue's history with 104.91, to defeat Luke Littler 3–0 in the last 16. In the quarter-final he almost achieved a nine-dart finish en route to a 4–2 victory against Brian Raman, but missed double 12. Veenstra was defeated in his semi-final match against Neil Duff, losing 5–2.

### PDC

At 2023 European Q-School, Veenstra secured a PDC tour card for the 2023 and 2024 seasons by finishing second on the European Q-School Order of Merit.
Veenstra enjoyed a run to the third round at the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship in his tournament debut year. Having defeated Ben Robb and the seeded Kim Huybrechts, he fell to a 0–4 whitewash defeat to Dutch compatriot Michael van Gerwen.

## World Championship results
### BDO

* 2016: Semi-finals (lost to Jeff Smith 5–6)
* 2017: Second round (lost to Danny Noppert 0–4)
* 2018: Quarter-finals (lost to Michael Unterbuchner 4–5)
* 2019: Second round (lost to Scott Waites 1–4)
* 2020: Second round (lost to David Evans 2–4)

### WDF

* 2022: Semi-finals (lost to Neil Duff 2–5)

### PDC

* 2024: Third round (lost to Michael van Gerwen 0–4)
* 2025: First round (lost to Alexis Toylo 0–3)

## Career finals
### BDO major finals: 2 (2 runner-up)

* Legend
* Zuiderduin Masters (0–1)
* BDO World Trophy (0–1)
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score |
| Runner-up | 1. | 2018 | Zuiderduin Masters | Glen Durrant | 3–5 (s) |
| Runner-up | 2. | 2019 | BDO World Trophy | Jim Williams | 6–8 (l) |
* ↑ (l) = score in legs, (s) = score in sets.

## Performance timeline

BDO
| Tournament | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| BDO Ranked televised events ||||||||
| World Championship | DNQ | DNQ | SF | 2R | QF | 2R | 2R |
| World Trophy | DNQ | DNQ | 1R | 1R | DNP | F | NH |
| World Masters | L80 | L16 | L32 | L32 | L16 | L32 | NH |
| Zuiderduin Masters | RR | RR | RR | RR | F | NH | NH |
WDF
| Tournament | 2022 |
| WDF Ranked televised events ||
| World Championship | SF |
| World Masters | L32 |
PDC
| Tournament | 2019 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| PDC Ranked televised events |||||
| World Championship | BDO | DNQ | 3R | 1R |
| World Masters | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | Prel. |
| UK Open | DNQ | 3R | 4R | 3R |
| Grand Slam | RR | DNQ | DNQ | |
| Players Championship Finals | DNQ | 2R | 1R | |
| Career statistics |||||
| Season-end ranking (PDC) | NR | 71 | 47 | |
PDC European Tour
| Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 2021 | HDT 2R | GDT DNQ |
| 2023 | BSD 2R | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | BDO 1R | CDO 1R | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | HDT 1R | GDC DNQ |
| 2024 | BDO 2R | GDG 2R | IDO 3R | EDG DNQ | ADO 2R | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | FDT 1R | HDT DNQ | SDT 2R | CDO DNQ |
PDC Players Championships
| Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 |
| 2021 | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R |
| 2023 | BAR 3R | BAR QF | BAR 4R | BAR 2R | BAR 2R | BAR 4R | HIL 2R | HIL 2R | WIG 2R | WIG 2R | LEI 1R | LEI 3R | HIL 1R | HIL 4R | LEI 1R | LEI 1R | HIL 2R | HIL QF | BAR 2R | BAR 2R | BAR 3R | BAR 3R | BAR 3R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 3R | BAR 4R |
| 2024 | WIG 2R | WIG 1R | LEI 2R | LEI 3R | HIL 2R | HIL 3R | LEI 1R | LEI 1R | HIL 4R | HIL 3R | HIL 1R | HIL QF | MIL 1R | MIL 1R | MIL 1R | MIL 1R | MIL 2R | MIL 2R | MIL 1R | WIG 4R | WIG 1R | MIL 3R | MIL 2R | WIG 3R | WIG 1R | WIG 1R | WIG 2R | WIG 3R | LEI 3R | LEI 2R |
| 2025 | WIG QF | WIG 1R | ROS 2R | ROS 1R | LEI 1R | LEI 1R | HIL 3R | HIL | LEI | LEI | LEI | LEI | ROS | ROS | HIL | HIL | LEI | LEI | LEI | HIL | HIL | MIL | MIL | MIL | HIL | HIL | LEI | LEI | LEI | WIG | WIG | WIG | WIG | WIG |
* ↑ Not a Tour card holder
Performance Table Legend :
| W | Won the tournament | F | Finalist | SF | Semifinalist | QF | Quarterfinalist | #R RR Prel. | Lost in # round Round-robin Preliminary round | DQ | Disqualified |
| DNQ | Did not qualify | DNP | Did not participate | WD | Withdrew | NH | Tournament not held | #R RR Prel. | Lost in # round Round-robin Preliminary round | NYF | Not yet founded |