Local darts player Jason Brandon reached new heights in his playing career recently when he competed in the Professional Darts Corporation’s US Darts Masters in New York City.

Brandon, a Cowan resident who got his start in darts in 1996, advanced to the prestigious event after winning a qualifier tournament in Brownsburg, Indiana, in May with his three victories in the eight-man bracket including a 5-4 win over 2019 North American darts champion Danny Baggish in the semifinals and a 5-1 rout of fellow Masters qualifier Jake Macmillan in the championship match.

Brandon was one of just four Americans to qualify for the 16-man bracket with the competitors from around the world gathering at Madison Square Garden in New York on June 2-3 for the televised event.

Brandon described the atmosphere of the tournament as “unreal” and unlike anything he had ever encountered in his two decades of competition.

“It’s hard to explain because nothing I’ve played in my life could have prepared me for that. The crowd was amazing, 4,000-plus people,” he said. “It was so wild I couldn’t even hear the music when I was walking out until I got up on the stage. I did not know what to expect, plus I was the first one out so that really made it even worse.”

His stay in the tournament would be short as Brandon lost to England’s Rob Cross, an eventual semifinalist, by a score of 6-2 to open the single-elimination bracket on June 2. Brandon returned to MSG the next day to compete in the eight-man North American Championship and fell to runner-up Matt Campbell from Canada in the quarterfinals by a score of 6-4.

After getting a taste of what the US Darts Masters has to offer, Brandon said he is committed to returning to the event down the road.

“I’m planning on trying to make it back next year because they’ve already announced that they’re doing it again in New York at MSG. I’m going to try to make it through a different avenue this time,” he said, referring to his hopes to compete in more Championship Darts Corporation events in the hopes of earning a qualifying berth for 2024. The CDC is a North American affiliate for the PDC.

Brandon got his start in the sport at the age of 21 after being approached by some friends to join a local league and has been playing regularly for a majority of the past 27 years.

“Where I used to work, some buddies of mine used to play the dart league in the Tullahoma Dart Association which is no longer in existence. They asked me if I wanted to play with them, join the team, and I did. I liked it,” he said.

Brandon points to a victory in the 1998 Choo Choo Classic in Chattanooga as the moment where he realized that he could play the game at a professional level.

“I can tell you just about everything that went on, everybody that I beat that day. I won the finals against probably the No. 1 guy in the country at that time,” he said, referring to Alabama player Roger Carter.

Brandon said that he has noticed an increase in darts’ popularity in the last decade, driven primarily by the Europe-based PDC’s influence and attempts to grow the sport.

“They’re trying to grow it pretty well, trying to get it more recognized as a professional sport like it is in Europe. In Europe, it’s the No. 2 sport on TV behind soccer which is crazy,” he said. “The majority of people in North America, they’ve never even heard of darts being on TV or anything like that. It’s just considered a pub game or a bar game.”

Brandon added that organizations like the PDC and CDC are trying to increase the public perception of darts and steer it away from the stigma of being perceived as a drinker’s game.

With the US Dart Masters in the rearview mirror for now, Brandon has already filled his schedule with upcoming events in cities like Nashville and Chicago, Illinois, as well as a tournament that occurred this past weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“The next three to four weekends, I’m going to go back-to-back-to-back,” he said on July 5. “If I wanted to play it, I could play darts every weekend.”

Brandon also mentioned that he had recently been invited to the Modus Super Series, a round-robin invitational tournament in Portsmouth, England, with plans to travel overseas for that later this year.