2017 World Grand Prix (darts)
The 2017 Unibet World Grand Prix was the 20th staging of the World Grand Prix. It was held from 1–7 October 2017 at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin, Ireland. Michael van Gerwen was the defending champion after defeating Gary Anderson 5–2 in the 2016 final, but lost to John Henderson 2–1 in the first round. This was the first time since December 2011 that van Gerwen lost in the first round of a major ranking tournament. Daryl Gurney won his first major televised title after beating Simon Whitlock 5–4 in the final. For the first  time in PDC history, no English player made the quarter-final stages of a televised tournament. Gurney's success also marked the first time that a televised darts tournament was won by a Northern Irish player. Prize money. The total prize money remained at £400,000. The following is the breakdown of the fund: Qualification. The field of 32 players was made up from the top 16 on the PDC Order of Merit on September 11 and the top 16 non-qualified players from the ProTour Order of Merit. In a change to qualification from recent years, the top two  non-qualified residents of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland now no longer get an automatic qualification spot. The top eight players were seeded in the tournament. Phil Taylor (who would have been the #4 seed) opted not to enter the tournament, moving the rest of the top 16 up a place, thus meaning 17th placed Robert Thornton (the 2015 champion who would not have qualified otherwise) took his place. Number two seed Gary Anderson withdrew shortly before the tournament began due to the impending birth of his child, with Mark Webster, the highest-ranked player from the PDC  Order of Merit not to have qualified, replacing him in the draw, with the seedings not being adjusted. Four players, Rob Cross, Ronny Huybrechts, Christian Kist and Richard North made their World Grand Prix debuts. The following players qualified for the tournament: PDC Order of Merit (1–16) "(Top 8 seeded)" Pro Tour