Simon Whitlock quarter-finals. He then beat Brian Woods to reach the final, where he lost to the number one seed Mark Webster 7–5. He was the first Australian to reach the final since Tony David won the tournament in 2002. Whitlock entered the 2009 BDO World Darts Championship as the number 12 seed and reached the second round by beating Mark Barilli, but lost to Darryl Fitton. After many weeks of speculation, Whitlock returned to the PDC on 19 March 2009. He began playing in the AGP circuit where he won eight tournaments. He qualified for the Las Vegas Desert Classic but
Steve West (darts player) O'Connor, Jeffrey de Zwaan, Simon Whitlock, Cristo Reyes and Ricky Evans at the 16th Players Championship event saw him play in his first PDC final. West was 4–2 down to Michael van Gerwen, but took out a 116 finish to lead 5–4. He threw for the title in a deciding leg and was unable to take out 110 as Van Gerwen won it 6–5. A semi-final followed in the 18th event after beating Adrian Lewis 6–3 and he lost 6–1 to Whitlock. The result qualified him for the World Grand Prix and he pulled off what he called the biggest