Luke Littler is Tiger Woods of darts: Singapore legend Paul Lim
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Singapore darts veteran Paul Lim celebrating during the 2024 WDF World Darts Championship, where he became the oldest player to reach the final, losing 6-3 to Shane McGuirk of the Republic of Ireland at the Lakeside Country Club in Surrey on Dec 8, 2024.
PHOTO: WDFDARTS/INSTAGRAM
- Paul Lim likens Luke Littler to "the Tiger Woods of darts" after two defeats, acknowledging Littler's natural talent and consistency.
- Despite Littler's success, Lim questions if he can break Phil Taylor's record due to rising standards and increased competition.
- Lim plans to develop Singapore darts, targeting youth and seniors, aiming to build a national team and advocate for SEA Games inclusion.
AI generated
SINGAPORE – It was not just the gulf in age that Singapore darts veteran Paul Lim felt when he played England’s 19-year-old two-time world champion Luke Littler
After suffering 6-1 defeats in the first round of the Bahrain Darts Masters on Jan 15 and Saudi Arabia Darts Masters on Jan 19, he also experienced the disparity in standards, observed the 72-year-old of a player young enough to be his great-grandson.
He said: “Luke Littler is the Tiger Woods of darts. He is dominating darts the same way Tiger came up as a youngster to dominate golf.
“He is one of those special players who has natural talent and technique. He just looks at the target, cocks back, swings and rarely misses. He comes into the venue, plays a bit of video games on his phone, doesn’t really need much time for warmup, but he’s just so consistent.
“I have to play my best darts and he has to be at his worst, for me to have a chance.”
While Lim is clearly fond of the teenager – both players celebrated Littler’s 170 “big fish” finish to make it 2-1 in Bahrain by mimicking a rod-reeling motion – he is not sure if Phil Taylor’s record of 16 world titles can be broken.
Noting that Littler may be a victim of his own success, he added: “The overall standard now is a lot higher than in Phil’s era. Darts is really starting to spread now, also because of the success of Luke, a young guy who is now winning millions in prize money and sponsorships
“Just like Tiger Woods, he is an inspiration. Youngsters want to be like him, and with other young talents like 23-year-old Dutchman and world championship finalist Gian van Veen emerging, it is only going to raise the standard even more for a sport that has a low barrier of entry to start playing.”
Lim may have a point, for the professional circuit is a highly competitive one.
At the Bahrain Darts Masters, the player nicknamed Luke the Nuke was in devastating form against Lim as he averaged 106.50, hit three 180s, and took just eight attempts to hit the six doubles required to win.
Littler, who clinched the 2024 edition at 16 to become the youngest player to win a Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) major tournament, was then bundled out by Welshman Gerwyn Price in the quarter-finals on Jan 16.
However, the Englishman bounced back to become the first winner of the £30,000 (S$52,000) Saudi event after beating Lim again, this time without being at his best as he failed to register a single maximum or a 100+ checkout.
Littler, who had previously claimed he had hoped to avoid playing Lim because of how the veteran is such a crowd favourite, only had nice things to say about the veteran. The Singaporean’s first-round victory over Sweden’s Jeffrey de Graaf in December 2025 made him the oldest player ever to win a match at the PDC World Championship
When asked if he would play into his 70s like The Singapore Slinger, Littler retorted in a post-match interview: “Not a chance!”
He added: “He’s just class and I wonder when is he going to retire? Paul’s been performing well for many, many years... He still goes very strong in the practice room as well.”
And Lim will continue to fire even after he turned 72 on Jan 25, sharing his packed schedule playing steel-tip darts on the PDC Asia Tour. He also hopes to qualify for the World Cup of Darts and World Darts Championship again, while juggling his electronic dart commitments on the Dartslive circuit.
The Dartslive consultant also revealed that he will relocate from Japan to Singapore in a bid to further develop the local darts scene.
He said: “I always believe that the youth programme is important for any sport and we can also go into the community centres and work with the seniors. I have done it in Hong Kong for the old folks who find it hard to do other sports, but can enjoy some exercise through darts to help with their movement and hand-eye coordination.
“Of course, eventually it will be great if we can develop a national team to represent Singapore at international competitions and get darts into the SEA Games in time for the 2029 edition in Singapore.”
