Haupai Puha (born 12 February 1985) is a New Zealand professional darts player who currently plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won a PDC tour card on 14 January 2024, making him the first ever New Zealand player to gain a card.[3] He is also a professional golfer.
Darts career
Puha qualified for two 2018 World Series of Darts events in Australia and New Zealand as the number two ranked player in the DPNZ rankings. He would lose in the first round of both events to Kyle Anderson in Auckland and to Rob Cross in Melbourne. He made his first PDC major appearance at the 2019 World Cup of Darts in Hamburg together with Cody Harris. They beat Lithuania and South Africa to reach the quarter-finals, eventually losing to Japan.
Puha also qualified for all three World Series events in Australia and New Zealand in 2019. He lost to Raymond van Barneveld in the first round of both the 2019 Brisbane Darts Masters and the 2019 Melbourne Darts Masters, and to Gary Anderson in the first round of the 2019 New Zealand Darts Masters.
Puha has played once in the WDF World Championship and twice in the PDC World Championship, losing in the first round on all three occasions.
Having won his PDC tour card in January 2024 Puha competed at the 2024 UK Open, beating Jelle Klaasen in the first round before losing to Wesley Plaisier in the second round.[4] On the 8th May 2024 Puha qualified for a European Tour event for the first time, [5] going on to lose to Niels Zonneveld in the opening round of the 2024 Dutch Darts Championship.[6]
Puha credits his experience with golf in making the transition to darts.[7]
World Championship results
PDC
- 2021: First round (lost to Mickey Mansell 0–3) (sets)
- 2024: First round (lost to Martin Lukeman 1–3)
WDF
- 2022: First round (lost to Ben Hazel 1–2)
Performance timeline
| Tournament | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDC Ranked televised events | ||||||||||||
| PDC World Championship | DNQ | 1R | DNQ | 1R | DNQ | |||||||
| PDC World Masters | DNQ | Prel. | ||||||||||
| UK Open | DNQ | 2R | ||||||||||
| PDC Non-ranked televised events | ||||||||||||
| World Series of Darts Finals | DNQ | 1R | 2R | 1R | ||||||||
| World Cup of Darts | 1R | 1R | DNQ | RR | ||||||||
| WDF Ranked televised events | ||||||||||||
| WDF World Championship | DNQ | NH | 1R | PDC | ||||||||
| Australian Open | DNP | NH | RU | QF | NH | |||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||
| Season-end ranking (PDC) | - | 125 | - | - | 149 | 133 | ||||||
| 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 | NYF | Not yet founded | ||
References
- ^ "Haupai Puha". Mastercaller.com. 12 February 1985. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
- ^ "PDC Order of Merit". PDPA. 18 February 2025. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
- ^ "Haupai Puha becomes first ever New Zealander to win PDC Tour Card at Q-School". 14 January 2024.
- ^ "Darts results: Dimitri van den Bergh survives last-leg decider to beat Luke Humphries in the UK Open final".
- ^ "De Graaf, Taylor & Bates complete ET7-8 qualification double". 8 May 2024.
- ^ "Magnificent Menzies breezes past Barney in Rosmalen". 24 May 2024.
- ^ "Darts: Fearless Haupai Puha ready to face world's best at Auckland Masters". Newshub. Archived from the original on 9 June 2019.
External links
- Player profile for Haupai Puha from Dartsdatabase
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