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. He is also a professional golfer.
| Haupai Puha | |||||||||||||||||
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | "Hopes" | ||||||||||||||||
| Born | 12 February 1985[1] Gisborne, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||
| Home town | Wellington, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||
| Darts information | |||||||||||||||||
| Playing darts since | 2017 | ||||||||||||||||
| Darts | 26g Shot Darts | ||||||||||||||||
| Laterality | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||
| Walk-on music | "35" by Ka Hao ft. Rob Ruha | ||||||||||||||||
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |||||||||||||||||
| PDC | 2017– | ||||||||||||||||
| WDF | 2021–2023 | ||||||||||||||||
| Current world ranking | 131  1 (21 April 2024)[2] | ||||||||||||||||
| WDF major events – best performances | |||||||||||||||||
| World Ch'ship | Last 48: 2022 | ||||||||||||||||
| PDC premier events – best performances | |||||||||||||||||
| World Ch'ship | Last 96: 2021, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||
| UK Open | Last 128: 2024 | ||||||||||||||||
| World Series Finals | Last 16: 2023 | ||||||||||||||||
| Other tournament wins | |||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Darts career edit
Puha qualified for 2 2018 World Series of Darts events in Australia and New Zealand as the number 2 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 qualified for both the PDC & WDF World Championships in recent years, Losing in his 1st match in both.
Puha credits his experience with golf in making the transition to darts.[3]
World Championship results edit
PDC edit
- 2021: First round (lost to Mickey Mansell 0–3) (sets)
- 2024: First round (lost to Martin Lukeman 1–3)
WDF edit
- 2022: First round (lost to Ben Hazel 1–2)
Performance timeline edit
| Tournament | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDC Ranked televised events | ||||||
| World Championship | DNQ | 1R | DNQ | 1R | ||
| UK Open | DNQ | |||||
| WDF Ranked televised events | ||||||
| World Championship | DNQ | 1R | DNQ | |||
| Australian Open | DNQ | RU | QF | DNQ | ||
| PDC Non-ranked televised events | ||||||
| World Series of Darts | DNQ | 1R | 2R | |||
| World Cup of Darts | 1R | 1R | DNQ | |||
References edit
- ^ "Haupai Puha". Mastercaller.com. 12 February 1985. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
- ^ "PDC Order of Merit". PDPA. 21 April 2024. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
- ^ "Darts: Fearless Haupai Puha ready to face world's best at Auckland Masters". Newshub.
External links edit
- Player profile on Haupai Puha from Dartsdatabase
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