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 the highest checkout (joint with Phil Taylor) would allow him to move over to the UK from Australia and compete on the PDC Pro Tour. His defeat also made him the first, and so far only player to have never won a World Championship after reaching both the BDO and PDC World Championship Final. He reached the last 16 of the 2003 PDC World Darts Championship and also the semi-finals of the 2005 BDO World Darts Championship but lost heavily 0–5 to Martin Adams. In other events, he has also reached the semi-finals of the International Darts League in 2005