Grand Slam of Darts 2015: Final Scores, Results and Prize Money
Michael van Gerwen completed his collection of major championship titles on Sunday after defeating six-time Grand Slam of Darts winner Phil Taylor 16-13 in a classic encounter between two titans of the sport.
Sunday's final was Taylor's seventh appearance in the competition showpiece, and the first time he's failed to win the fixture.
For Van Gerwen, this was just his second shot at the Grand Slam crown, having lost to Dutch compatriot Raymond van Barneveld in the 2012 final.
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Read on for a full recap of the action from Wolverhampton's Civic Hall, where Van Gerwen waltzed away with a £100,000 grand prize, while runner-up Taylor won half that sum.
| Winner | Score | Loser |
| Michael van Gerwen | 16-13 | Phil Taylor |
| Winner | Score | Loser |
| Michael van Gerwen | 16-6 | Michael Smith |
| Phil Taylor | 16-12 | Raymond van Barneveld |
Final Recap
It was a final of two halves at the Civic Hall as Taylor showed his Grand Slam pedigree with a rampaging start, detailed by Bet365:
He quickly followed up that 11-dart opener with two similarly impressive legs as Mighty Mike fell to a 3-0 deficit and looked to be losing the final before he'd barely had a chance to step to the oche.
The Dutchman did eventually succeed in defending his own throw as the scoreboard ticked over, but the 10th leg produced a piece of Van Gerwen profligacy for Taylor to profit from with another ton-plus finish, per PDC Darts:
At 7-3 down against a six-time winner like Taylor, Van Gerwen might have been forgiven a dip in morale, but he responded with a six-leg winning streak to turn the fixture.
If there were any doubts regarding Mighty Mike's status as a great of the sport, this bounce-back summed up his fighting spirit as he climbed into a 9-7 lead—his first of the match—including several maximums and a 105 checkout.
Taylor's turn had come to endure a sticky patch. His ability to hit the doubles seemed to dissipate until he managed to pull the score back to 9-8, per Target Darts:
However, Van Gerwen fired back with two legs of his own to go in at the break 11-9 ahead, and radio host Russell Aitken highlighted Taylor's inability to hit doubles as the reason for his alarming demise:
Each player resumed in shaky fashion, but it was Taylor who conceded his throw first to surrender a 12-9 lead before once again claiming two legs in a row to make it a one-leg match at 12-11.
Van Gerwen had the chance to pull three ahead but missed tops as Taylor hoovered up his chance to trail 14-13. But that proved to be The Power's last significant contribution.
Having lost the first three legs in Sunday's final, Mighty Mike finished by claiming the final two, closing out 36 in the final leg with his second attempt to dust off his first Grand Slam triumph.
Semi-Finals Recap
Van Gerwen's 16-6 defeat of Michael Smith in the last four had laid down a marker for what was to come later in the evening.
The Dutchman hit his opponent hard from the beginning, scoring an 11-dart finish to go 4-1 ahead before piecing together a four-leg winning streak to lead 8-2 and place one foot in the final.
It was at that point Van Gerwen lost his throw for the second time in the meeting and saw his cushion reduced to five legs, but that proved to be the final foot he placed wrong as he held for the remainder of the match.
In total, the victor produced four checkouts of a ton or higher, perhaps the most emphatic of which came about with his final dart, sealing his win by 10 legs, per Live Darts:
Van Gerwen trumped Smith in maximums, scoring eight to his foe's six, and came out of the result with an average of 102.19, per the official PDC website, his lowest of the competition thus far.
Taylor prevented Raymond van Barneveld from producing the tournament's second all-Dutch finale following a 16-12 triumph in the second semi-final, in which a well-timed mid-match surge saw Taylor pull away to terrific effect.
It was Barney who started the brighter of the two, hitting maximums in each of the first two legs to push ahead 2-0, claiming an 80 checkout in the latter to establish some early promise.
But Taylor was unperturbed and staged a swift surge to trail by just one leg at 4-3. It was here the Briton mounted his first significant charge, claiming five successive legs and cementing an 8-4 lead, booking the last of those legs with a 12-darter.
Barney responded with a 111 checkout and proceeded to win two more legs, reducing the deficit to 8-7, but Taylor once again produced a five-leg streak, per Sky Sports Darts, as his superior average began to tell:
A late show of nerves from the Power put the tie in doubt after Barney hit back to trail 14-12 at one point, but derailing Taylor at that point was a hope too far, and his eventual win by four legs was sealed. Bet365 detailed his awesome record at the Grand Slam of Darts:
Van Gerwen might well look have seen weaknesses in Taylor's performance ahead of the final. Certainly the veteran looked shaky against Van Barneveld when he held a lead, and his inability to press home his advantage proved his undoing in the final.
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