501 is the traditional starting score for a leg of darts. Some experts suggest that competitiveness is the reason for the peculiar starting number. A nine darter would be easily achievable after throwing a few accurate darts at select areas, and so to ensure players travel around the board, an odd number to finish is necessary. 

“Trebles for Show, Doubles for Dough” – Playing a Leg of Darts.

Finishing a leg of darts is often seen as the hardest and most important part of the game. a traditional leg of darts starts with each player on 501 points, with the objective being to reach zero by hitting a double with the final dart. 

The 501 starting score is used to ensure that players cannot finish an entire leg using only variations of the 20 target. If say 500 was the object score, a player could hit repetitive scores to finish the leg. Starting at 500 would essentially render the rest of the board useless for a professional, certain areas of the board would rarely be used and the game would eventually become rather boring. 

By using 501 (an odd number), there is far more variation between legs of darts, and it increases the difficulty for players of all abilities. Players must have good math skills, and begin thinking of their checkout strategy early on.

Professional players would usually use double 20, 18, 16, 8 or 10 to checkout and close a leg. Due to their position on the dart board, these are seen as good double options. 

A Perfect Leg – The Holy Grail

Tennis has an ace, golf has the hole in one but darts has the nine-dart leg. The holy grail of darts and the perfect way to play a leg. A nine-darter is achieved when a player finishes a leg of 501 in just nine darts – the minimum number of darts required. 

It’s an unbelievable finish and usually sees players taking the route of 180 (3x treble 20’s), 180 (3x treble 20’s) and 141 (treble 20, treble 19 and double 12). Players from the great John Lowe to Michael Smith have all achieved this incredible feat, but who can forget that famous night at the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship Final! 

There are 3944 different routes to a perfect 9-dart finish!