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
Simon Whitlock White in the quarter-finals to triumph 6–5, saw off Peter Wright 6–4 in the semis, before powering past world number two Michael van Gerwen 6–1 in the final. Van Gerwen exacted revenge in the final of the European Darts Open in Düsseldorf, Germany, by beating Whitlock 6–2 in the final. Whitlock had earlier defeated Tomas Seyler, Arron Monk, James Wade, Justin Pipe and Jamie Caven in the event. Whitlock lost 4–9 to Wes Newton in the third round of the UK Open. In the defence of his European Championship title, Whitlock pulled off the comeback of his career in the